(AfDB) - Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment makes absolute economic sense – Malado Kaba

Five new public development banks have signed onto the Paris Development Banks Statement on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Paris Development Banks Statement on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. .

The new signatories are CAF- Development Bank of Latin America; Development Bank of Rwanda; Cassa Depositi e Prestiti – Italian Investment Bank; Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA); and the Dutch development agency, FMO.

Malado Kaba, African Development Bank Director for Gender, Women, and Civil Society, announced the signatories during a networking event for women executives organized by the Finance in Common Summit Coalition on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development Banks.

The breakfast took place on the sidelines of the third Finance in Common Summit, which concluded in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire today.

The declaration, introduced at the first global summit of public development banks in November 2020, calls for accelerated action toward the realization of gender equality and empowering all women and girls through the international financial system.

Kaba said promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment made “absolute economic sense.”

“What of course is important is that this coalition fully aligns with what we do at the African Development Bank,” she said, adding that the bank had achieved 100% mainstreaming of gender in all its public operations. “Africa needs scale in action. There needs to be coordination, leveraging on our comparative advantages.” Kaba said.

Kaba outlined a few of the achievements of the gender coalition. Public development bank signatories to the gender declaration now stand at 42, up from 25; the Finance in Common Summit gender statement was amended to take new global realities into account. The coalition is also concluding a new milestone report entitled "Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Public Development Banks and Development Finance Institutes:  synthesis of promising practices of public development banks and development finance institutions."

The report’s research has been conducted under four areas: gender-responsive green and quality infrastructure; gender-responsive climate change; UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 and a human-rights approach, and digital financial inclusion. 

The African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank co-hosted the 2022 Finance in Common Summit, alongside the Finance in Common Summit secretariat. The theme of this year’s summit was “Green and just transition for a sustainable recovery.”

The Women CEOs breakfast was organized to take stock of achievements made by the Finance in Summit Coalition on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development Banks and to discuss progress made. It was also a dedicated networking opportunity for professionals such as women CEOs and executives of commercial banks, public development banks, private companies, members of the Finance in Common Summit Gender Coalition and others involved in promoting gender equality.

Maria Shaw-Barragan, European Investment Bank Director for Global Partners Department, moderated the session. Rémy Rioux, Chairman of Finance in Common and CEO of Agence Française de Développement was one of its participants.

Pierrette Kouakou, CEO of Fin’Elle Côte d’Ivoire shared her professional journey to provide financing for Ivorian women entrepreneurs. She deplored the obstacles standing in the way of 70% of women entrepreneurs in the informal market who she said were “not bankable, not visible, and not trackable.”  She told her audience though, that with support from the African Development Bank Group’s Affirmative Action for Women (AFAWA) initiative, her company had financed 300 women-led small and medium-sized enterprises this year.

“Our vision is to create a pan-African model for financial inclusion… We have to change the way to do it for women,” Kouakou said.

Elvira Eurlings, Chief Investment Officer of ILX Management, said she had been motivated by the strides her institution has made to support women entrepreneurs. ILX Management connects institutional pension funds in the Netherlands, (so far mobilizing over 1 billion euros), with “Sustainable Development Goals investments” and investments in emerging markets.

“Investing in pension funds is a good credit decision,” Eurlings said.

Addressing the gathering by video conference, Anita Bhatia, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, urged the coalition to go even further in its support for women.