ISLAMABAD: World Bank Pakistan Operations Manager Melinda Good in a conference on Tuesday said, “Empowered Pakistani women can transform the country’s socio-economic reality.” Currently, she said that women’s labour force participation was 25 percent. Only one in 100 women was an entrepreneur and only about one in 10 women were financially included. There was an untapped potential here. The World Bank Group was working closely with the government of Pakistan and other stakeholders to increase women’s participation in the economy and their access to relevant financial services such as payments, savings, insurance and credit. Karandaaz Pakistan arranged the conference in partnership with the World Bank to share data insights on the state of financial inclusion of women in Pakistan and present Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Strategy on Gender & Financial Inclusion. Representatives from the World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading banks and telcos, and the FinTech industry attended the event. The conference highlighted the most significant challenges and barriers faced by low-income women to accessing formal financial services. Karandaaz Pakistan had taken many initiatives in the recent past to improve the state of women’s financial inclusion. One such initiative was to research, design and develop an agent banking model that will serve low-income women in partnership with Unilever, Jazz Cash and Women’s World Banking. Karandaaz in partnership with Information Technology University of Punjab had initiated three research projects through the Fintech Centre to improve the existing knowledge on women’s use of digital financial services. Karandaaz was also working on a study to improve the payment processes for Benazir Income Support Programme beneficiaries. It also showcased its Women Entrepreneurship Challenge 2017 at the conference. The 2017 round of this challenge helped over 35 women-led businesses by providing them customised business training, mentorship and access to finance. The purpose of these initiatives to demonstrate successful models for increasing women’s financial inclusion in Pakistan and their ability to play an active role in overall economic growth of the country. Evidence from nearly 100 emerging economies shows that increasing women’s participation in the economy leads to other gains at home, at work and in society at large. Women have limited agency in financial matters with the men in the family holding this responsibility. Results from a study of an ongoing research programme called Financial Inclusion Insights, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation found that only 16 percent of Pakistani women who derive their income from the formal economy have sole control over their incomes. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gender Equality Director Sarah Hendriks stressed on the need for greater financial inclusion of women, “Millions of women around the world face barriers to earning a living and controlling their assets. This is especially true of the world’s poorest women. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest $170 million designed to help drive women’s financial inclusion, enhance women’s participation in agricultural markets and support a new wave of self-help groups that can empower the next generation of women and girls,” she said. Karandaaz Chief Operating Officer Ali Sarfraz stressed on the importance of greater financial inclusion for women. “Fostering financial inclusion for women is a core and cross-cutting theme for Karandaaz Pakistan. If we have to make any tangible progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Pakistan needs to act immediately to ensure women’s participation in the process of development. We are focusing on women’s economic empowerment as a key way to drive progress in the deep, complicated intersection of poverty and inequality,” he said. Karandaaz is promoting financial inclusion for individuals by employing technology enabled digital solutions and access to finance for micro, small and medium businesses through a commercially directed investment platform. The company has financial and institutional support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. Published in Daily Times, April 18th 2018.