Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative | Partnership Report 2023

The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), launched in 2017, is designed to support women entrepreneurs to access financing, skills, and opportunities in developing countries. With funding from 14 governments, We-Fi works with six multilateral development banks as implementing partners: ADB, the African Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.

We-Fi has been an essential catalytic source of innovative financing, enabling ADB to push for more ambitious programming for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. ADB has been successful in three rounds of funding, with grants dedicated to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, and the Pacific. ADB has already overachieved its targets for Sri Lanka, with over 600 women entrepreneurs accessing finance by mid-2022. In Viet Nam, new blended finance transactions have supported women entrepreneurs during the pandemic. The Women Finance Exchange, a new innovative ADB platform aiming to provide digital solutions to financial institutions and women clients, was launched with the support of We-Fi in 2021.

Highlights

Sovereign Cofinancing. In 2023, We-Fi committed almost $340,000 to support the implementation of a proposed ensuing project in Sri Lanka that will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The proposed ensuing project aims to enhance SMEs’ access to finance and strengthen their capacity to adapt their business models to external changes, including those caused by climate change.

Also, in 2023, ADB was successful in its proposal to pilot the WE Finance Code project in Fiji, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. We-Fi will fund the pilot project with $3 million to support ADB’s ongoing efforts for women entrepreneurs.