The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is a groundbreaking partnership that aims to unlock financing for women-led/owned businesses (WSMEs) in developing countries. We-Fi’s partners include 14 donor governments, six multilateral development banks as implementing partners, and numerous other stakeholders in the public and private sector around the world.
We-Fi’s number of active projects are rapidly growing and to date, our portfolio has encompassed 82 countries and 486 partnerships with public and private sector institutions around the world. We-Fi programs have benefitted almost 399,000 WSMEs with financial and non-financial support, and financial service providers supported by We-Fi have facilitated over $5.3 billion in financing to WSMEs.
Over half of We-Fi funds go to low income (IDA-Eligible) countries, including many facing fragile, conflict and violence situations. We-Fi takes an ecosystem approach to removing barriers to women’s economic empowerment, addressing constraints and opportunities related to finance, market access, capacity and the enabling environment.
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WE-FI CORE DEVELOPMENT PILLARS
Access to Finance
Providing financial institutions with finance and capacity to expand women entrepreneurs’ access to debt, equity, venture capital, and insurance.
Access to Training, Mentoring, and Networks
Building the capacity of women entrepreneurs, and connecting them to mentors and networks, so that they can take their businesses to the next level.
Access to Markets
Creating better linkages to domestic and global supply chains for women entrepreneurs, in partnership with the private sector and financial institutions.
Improving the Enabling Environment
Working with public sector actors to improve the legal and regulatory constraints that women entrepreneurs face in running their businesses.
