Discussing Gender in Dakar
A few days ago I had the pleasure of working with a Baobab team in Dakar to reflect on gender issues within the framework of the African Women Rising Initiative with the support of the European Development Bank. We covered different themes: basic concepts on gender, women's economic sovereignty and support for women entrepreneurs with a dedicated course. Twenty-four participants from Baobab’s network joined this workshop, representing not only the regional branches but also a diversity of management positions at headquarters, allowing them to continue developing more inclusive policies and practices. From these multiple conversations, exercises and reactions from my colleagues, I would like to share a few key points here.
1. The notion of gender is still confusing, and sometimes even taboo
Issues of diversity, inclusion and gender are very present in the press, and social media, however deep misunderstandings persist. Tackling gender issues means positively discriminating against women for some, or creating a new imbalance by favoring them, for others. By examining objective data to help us better understand the place of women in the portfolio of microfinance institutions, but also the multiple obstacles they face, we can change our point of view.
For example, data from the government of Senegal on the place of women in microfinance institutions is indicative of an opportunity. Indeed, in the 3rd quarter of 2022, women represented only 27% of the deposit portfolio and 21% of the credit portfolio. [1] Both in number and in volume, women are not progressing, and unable to go beyond these thresholds, which have been stable for several quarters. The participants were surprised by such a disparity, especially when we realize that men have access to a much higher volume of credit, while women rare better at repaying their loans.
2. Time: A precious resource for women
Very often in the relationship with a customer, a female client must go to a branch more than once to open an account, fill out a credit application, or carry out transactions. Through an exercise retracing the different steps (customer journey) that a woman must go through from her doorstep to entering the bank, the participants became “aware of the efforts that our customers make to come and buy our products”. Whether a client sells fish at the market or has an commercial rice business, the barriers are similar. In this simulation, Aida, who runs a large rice marketing business in St. Louis, found the agency's doors closed, arriving too late because she had no one to delegate the management of her business to for a few hours. Fatou, who sells fish in Pikine, was able to arrive in time, but she was afraid that the security guard wouldn't let her in. Many other barriers were identified by the members of the six groups who drew these examples from their own experience with female clients : language barrier, not knowing their mobile phone number, having lost their fingerprints due to housework , insufficient guarantees, lack of documentation… the list is very long
Aminata and her team share their experience working with women enrolled in credit groups.
3. Women have enormous potential
At the end of the day, a consensus was reached on the considerable opportunity represented by the segments of women in VSEs and SMEs. This awareness that by adapting our behavior to better serve these entrepreneurs is emerging: taking more time to better explain what a loan is, why it is necessary to save. By not imposing our behaviors and beliefs, but supporting women by asking them questions and giving them tools to better manage their activities. One participant summarized well the path traveled and the one that remains ahead of us: "The usefulness of this training is to have another vantage point on gender and the obstacles that are linked to it" - by changing our point of view, we acquire a different vision. Finally, the participants have a better understanding of the potential: women who are more cautious in terms of risk deserve to be supported not only with appropriate financial products, but also with non-financial services that contribute to solidifying their self-confidence and allows them to acquire the management techniques they could not study.
Adapting services and behaviors, in the end, “it's not favoritism, but it is important to recognize the economic impact of women. »
[1] Government of Senegal – Ministry of Finance, Directorate of Regulation and Supervision of Decentralized Financial Systems – Note in the 3rd Quarter of 2022 .