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Why Gender Diversity Matters
Gender diversity matters in microfinance. WWB champions gender diversity because we believe that diverse perspectives lead to stronger decisions and healthier, more vibrant organizations. Incorporating women’s voices when designing and delivering microfinance products is particularly important when a majority of clients are women. Equally as important, microfinance clients often speak of the inspiration they derive from seeing powerful women leaders in the organizations that serve them. How best to achieve diversity? The answer lies in leadership and technical skill development of individual, high-potential leaders as well as in organizational transformations to ensure that all women and men work in environments where they can perform, excel and lead.
Featured Publication
“Transforming the Landscape of Leadership in Microfinance: Maintaining the Focus on Women” introduces WWB’s new methodology for helping MFIs support gender diversity at all levels of their institution. WWB has expanded its Women’s Leadership Development Program, which works with individuals, to include a tool that focuses on the challenges and opportunities microfinance institutions face in the attraction, retention, and promotion of qualified women staff members - the Organizational Gender Assessment. Now available in English and Spanish.
Leadership Voices
Voices of Leadership: Interview with Jennifer Riria, CEO, Kenya Women Finance Trust
Thinking about your role as a leader, what do you see as the next challenges for your organization?
One of the major challenges is keeping focused on the mission and vision. We will keep focusing on poor women but at the same time realize that a mixed portfolio is a key to the success of the organization. We must be able to cut a niche for women who are not so poor and the poor and think about how each can belong to this organization. How do we do this? Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) has to be the place for women to be, a place where women feel ownership. The challenge is to remain with the women we have been serving but include the other women, who are also left out in terms of financial access, without moving away from the poor women. That is a big challenge.
Leadership Voices: Interview with Teresa Prada, Executive President, Fundacion Mundial de la Mujer Bucaramanga
Thinking about your role as a leader, what do you see as the next challenges for your organization?
Some of the future challenges I see for Fundación Mundial de la Mujer Bucaramanga (FMMB) are to:
Leadership Voices: Interview with Roshaneh Zafar, Founder and President, Kashf Foundation
Thinking about your role as a leader, what do you see as the next challenges for your organization?
I think leaders have to grow and develop over time. Self-awareness is very important. It’s critical that when you first start managing you know who you are and what makes you tick. It is very important for leaders to have empathy for those they lead; you must know how to put yourself in someone else’s shoes when necessary. It’s also very important to be able to drive performance, which means that you have to have passion and conviction to really motivate great performances from your staff. You must also have compassion for those you work with and you need to be able to communicate that compassion. Effective communication is very important to leadership.