Women’s World Banking (WWB) is proud to announce that KPMG Europe LLP (KPMG), a global network of professional firms providing audit, advisory and tax services, has agreed to host and collaborate on WWB’s Women in Leadership Program. The first step in this collaboration will be to host the Women in Leadership Workshop taking place in fall 2011 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The goal of the engagement is to develop and encourage senior women leaders in the microfinance industry and leverage KPMG’s own senior women as long-term peer mentors to the workshop participants from microfinance institutions across the globe.

WWB’s Women in Leadership Program provides an opportunity for women leaders to analyze their leadership impact and plan their own development towards their leadership vision and goal. “As the only microfinance network with an explicit focus on women, we feel it is our role to ensure that microfinance keeps women at its center: not just as clients, but as leaders and innovators,” said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking. Participants are women currently occupying senior leadership positions or preparing to take more senior positions. As part of the course they develop their own road map to leadership and leave with an individualized action plan, as well as peer support, to help them achieve their goals. In this partnership the program has been enhanced to incorporate mentoring by matching participants with KPMG female partners who will provide mentoring for a year following the program. Participants will spend the last day of the five-day session working with their mentors to develop their leadership vision and implementation plan.

“We are excited about partnering with KPMG to provide mentoring resources to the women professionals in microfinance who come to our course,” said Elizabeth Lynch, Manager of WWB’s Center for Microfinance Leadership. “Many successful women and men attribute part of their advancement to influential mentors who helped guide them through critical career choices. We want the women professionals in microfinance worldwide to have the same level of access to these essential resources.”

Through the one-year mentoring relationship with their KPMG counterparts, the microfinance women leaders will have access to ongoing support as they experiment with new leadership skills and actualize their leadership vision. This program also affords high performing KPMG women access to a formal mentoring training program, conducted by KPMG’s Learning and Development Team. It allows KPMG’s senior women an opportunity to employ these skills, build a network of peers and connect to a larger mission of empowering women.

“Our commitment to female leadership is incorporated in our core values and a corner stone of the culture of our member firms,” said Michael Hastings, Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity at KPMG ELLP. “We strongly believe that more diverse teams will improve the quality of our work and increase our innovative capacity. Both are important aspects of our business that will determine our success on the long run. KPMG has launched women’s networks and female leadership programs quite some time ago. We now have programs for empowerment of women in a majority of our member firms, amongst others networking events and mentoring programs. “

The program, held in Amsterdam, will include participants from microfinance institutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. These regions were hit particularly hard by the financial crisis during which the microfinance industry contracted but refocused on consumer protection, and consumer education. Despite some of the positive outcomes of the crisis, there is room for improvement in terms of the focus on women both as clients and staff. Gender-oriented goals are not explicit among many Eastern European and Central Asian MFIs, with only half reporting “gender equality” as part of their mission and women representing a relatively small proportion of clients (42 percent) compared to other regions. This tendency to not prioritize gender development goals is reflected in the human resource structure of MFIs. Although the vast majority of human resource policies promote equal opportunity, women appear under-represented in senior management positions. It is within this context that WWB’s programs aim to equip high potential women MFI managers with the leadership skills necessary to successfully navigate the challenges that lie ahead. The 25 participants in the fall 2011 course will join 121 alumnae from 44 MFIs in 26 countries.

For microfinance leaders globally the complexity of the microfinance industry coupled with the changing global economic landscape necessitates a leadership program that is unique and transformational. Leaders in the industry need to understand how to think strategically in complex and changing environments, to have financial and social acumen and to be able to manage relationships with their clients, staff, and external actors (regulators, bankers, donors and other stakeholders). Leaders will need to communicate with passion about their mission and social and financial impact and build a dynamic and talented team in their organizations. The Women in Leadership Program helps participants hone all of these skills while also building mentorship skills to accelerate their own careers and support the professional development of other women.

The Women’s World Banking network includes some of the most celebrated leaders in the industry, representing a global commitment to sustainable microfinance for women. Strong, visionary leadership is critical as institutions face the challenges and opportunities of rapid growth—particularly the capacity to pursue strong financial performance while delivering on a commitment to serving the financial needs of low-income women. The Center for Microfinance Leadership brings the best of leadership development and organizational diversity initiatives to the microfinance sector through workshops, coaching and support for organizational diversity.