Member Navigation
CML Newsletter
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.
WWB provides leadership training for IDB’s Microenterprise Award winners including network member Banco ADOPEM
The Inter-American Development Bank has announced the winners of its 2010 Inter-American Awards for Microenterprise Development. The prizes are awarded to microfinance institutions (MFIs) that constantly improve their financial products and delivery mechanisms to reach significant numbers of microentrepreneurs and other low‐income clients. The awards for Excellence in Microfinance include Best Microfinance Institution and Best Practices in Social Performance. Through the awards, IDB acknowledges institutions that apply adequate transparency and client protection practices while maintaining efficient operations. WWB network member Banco ADOPEM won Best Microfinance Institution. "For ADOPEM it is a great privilege to receive this recognition, especially because it emphasizes work done with great commitment to our mission," says ADOPEM Executive Vice President Mercedes Canalda de Beras-Goico.
For the first time, winners will receive specialized training, including two scholarships to WWB’s Advanced Leadership Workshop presented by the Center for Microfinance Leadership. The scholarships, sponsored by the Citi Foundation, will allow two members of ADOPEM’s senior leadership team to participate in a course that addresses the needs of CEOs and their direct reports in the dynamic and rapidly evolving microfinance sector. Throughout the week peer learning groups work together to develop innovative solutions to organizational challenges and world-class faculty encourage leaders to discuss and reflect on topics including strategic thinking in competitive and evolving environments, leading institutional change and managing talent and developing a succession plan. The workshop, co-hosted by the Center for Microfinance Leadership and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education will take place from January 17-21, 2011 in Philadelphia, USA.
To achieve sustained impact and contribute to institutional change, the Center encourages participating institutions to send multiple members of their executive leadership teams to participate in a broad spectrum of Center programming. Mercedes Canalda de Beras Goico, Executive Vice President of ADOPEM, attended the inaugural Advanced Leadership Workshop and Coaching Programs in 2010. “Participation in the leadership program has been an important element in achieving our objectives. We appreciate all the components of the program; it did an excellent job of guarantying that all participants had exposure to sector-wide challenges and tools to address them” says Canalda de Beras-Goico. “Through the leadership program, WWB has helped create special inspiration in developing human talent at ADOPEM and strengthened the organization’s commitment to quality service and outreach.”
Banco FIE S.A. of Bolivia won the award for Best Practices in Social Performance and was also awarded two scholarships to the Advanced Leadership Workshop. The social performance award recognizes institutions that achieve their mission while maintaining efficient operations. The award evaluates the effectiveness of the institution´s internal systems and activities in meeting these objectives and related client outputs and outcomes.