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Women’s Empowerment

Women's empowerment is in FINCA's DNA, because it creates opportunities and economic growth for society as a whole. In the poorest households, women are often the family's primary source of income. Among FINCA clients, about two-thirds of women are the main breadwinners for their families. Yet, women consistently lag behind men in access to financial services. In the countries where FINCA operates, women are twice as likely than men to be financially excluded.

There are many measures of women's empowerment. We focus on the ones that are most closely related to the impact of our loans, such as business ownership and job-creation. Economic empowerment of women, however, is more than a means to earning income—it is a driver of social status. When a woman can take her rightful place in the economic sphere, she gains greater authority in her family and greater autonomy as an individual.

Women’s Empowerment Data

Global
Global Africa Eurasia Latin America MESA
Africa
All Africa DRC Malawi Nigeria Tanzania Uganda Zambia
Eurasia
All Eurasia Armenia Azerbaijan Kosovo Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Latin America
All Latin America Guatemala Haiti Honduras
MESA
All MESA Jordan Pakistan
71,455 40% Female borrowers The majority of female borrowers are the primary income-earners in their families. % #
22,706 13% Clients with female-headed household % #
58,676 34% Households with female as main earner . % #
88,907 56.8% Businesses run by women Most of the businesses funded by FINCA in Africa are run by women, ranging from 54% in Tanzania to 61% in Zambia. % #
160,447 41% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
205,056 50% Jobs created by women Among FINCA clients, women entrepreneurs in Africa create jobs at a slightly higher rate than men. % #
7,730 36% Female borrowers % #
2,998 14% Clients with female-headed household % #
5,196 24% Households with female as main earner % #
5,735 27.0% Businesses run by women % #
16,355 44% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
6,995 19% Jobs created by women % #
5,340 21% Female borrowers % #
1,946 8% Clients with female-headed household % #
3,361 13% Households with female as main earner % #
8,012 31.4% Businesses run by women % #
14,800 32% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
14,756 32% Jobs created by women % #
23,439 40% Female borrowers % #
6,387 11% Clients with female-headed household % #
19,692 34% Households with female as main earner % #
33,164 56.6% Businesses run by women % #
56,250 43% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
50,135 38% Jobs created by women % #
73,397 41% Female borrowers Kyrgyzstan has the highest female outreach in the region. % #
24,590 14% Clients with female-headed household % #
52,943 30% Households with female as main earner % #
50,271 39.3% Businesses run by women % #
127,741 41% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
130,953 41% Jobs created by women % #
243,437 40% Female borrowers Outreach to women is highest in Latin America and Africa. The results in Afghanistan are also striking, where over half of our borrowers are female. % #
80,006 13% Clients with female-headed household % #
163,622 27% Households with female as main earner % #
215,565 42.2% Businesses run by women % #
434,967 36% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
504,347 41% Jobs created by women This is the total number of employees hired by FINCA's female borrowers. % #
11,738 56% Female borrowers Second-highest in the world, right after FINCA Haiti. % #
1,964 9% Clients with female-headed household % #
4,910 24% Households with female as main earner Guatemala is exceptional in that most of our female clients are secondary earners. % #
33,791 89% Female borrowers % #
9,282 24% Clients with female-headed household % #
20,538 54% Households with female as main earner % #
31,365 82.3% Businesses run by women % #
44,209 43% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
90,289 88% Jobs created by women % #
11,121 59% Female borrowers % #
4,441 24% Clients with female-headed household % #
8,712 46% Households with female as main earner % #
13,436 71.4% Businesses run by women Note that this is higher than the number of female borrowers, because the data are from an Enterprise survey, which is done separately from the household survey. % #
28,980 76% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
25,268 66% Jobs created by women % #
24,651 87% Female borrowers % #
1,762 6% Clients with female-headed household % #
4,716 17% Households with female as main earner % #
24,358 86.2% Businesses run by women % #
32,497 81% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
34,661 86% Jobs created by women % #
6,578 26% Female borrowers % #
2,307 9% Clients with female-headed household % #
4,230 17% Households with female as main earner % #
43,288 53% Female borrowers Female outreach in Kyrgyzstan is significantly higher than the region overall (40%). % #
10,083 12% Clients with female-headed household % #
31,690 39% Households with female as main earner % #
36,524 45.0% Businesses run by women % #
96,586 43% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
109,201 49% Jobs created by women % #
56,650 73% Female borrowers % #
15,687 20% Clients with female-headed household % #
34,160 44% Households with female as main earner % #
44,801 78.7% Businesses run by women % #
73,188 54% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
115,557 81% Jobs created by women % #
33,980 41% Female borrowers % #
11,208 14% Clients with female-headed household % #
28,019 34% Households with female as main earner % #
47,199 57.0% Businesses run by women % #
88,601 37% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
138,065 58% Jobs created by women 58% of total jobs created by FINCA Malawi borrowers were created by women. % #
41,935 25% Female borrowers Women in the MESA region face significant cultural barriers to economic participation and financial inclusion. % #
17,022 10% Clients with female-headed household % #
17,844 10% Households with female as main earner % #
31,585 18.6% Businesses run by women % #
73,591 23% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
52,781 18% Jobs created by women % #

No data has been collected yet for this indicator in Nigeria.

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1,103 33% Female borrowers % #
17,284 12% Female borrowers % #
15,260 11% Clients with female-headed household % #
13,127 9% Households with female as main earner % #
7,227 5.1% Businesses run by women % #
41,094 11% Women employed by enterprises The finding that many more men than women are employed by these enterprises reflects local norms which discourage women's work outside the home. Avg. #
18,120 5% Jobs created by women Women create a proportional share of jobs, indicating that they are not skewed towards any particular sector of activity. % #
10,461 40% Female borrowers % #
7,256 28% Clients with female-headed household % #
8,465 33% Households with female as main earner % #
2,135 24% Female borrowers % #
734 8% Clients with female-headed household % #
1,672 19% Households with female as main earner Women are often the main breadwinner -- even if they are not the head-of-household. % #
4,743 54.0% Businesses run by women Tanzania is one of the few countries where women's business ownership is equal to their share of the overall client base. This means that they are using FINCA loans to run their own independent businesses. % #
9,925 47% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
12,256 58% Jobs created by women Altogether, women are employing almost 79,235 workers in their FINCA-funded enterprises. % #
7,101 38% Female borrowers % #
3,052 16% Clients with female-headed household % #
6,410 34% Households with female as main earner % #
3,697 59% Female borrowers % #
1,326 21% Clients with female-headed household % #
2,883 46% Households with female as main earner % #
3,801 61.0% Businesses run by women Almost two-thirds of the enterprises funded by FINCA in Zambia are headed by women (61%). % #
5,670 58% Women employed by enterprises Avg. #
4,601 47% Jobs created by women % #

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© 2023 FINCA International

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