On 7th March 2024, the Union for the Mediterranean and the Union of Arab Banks marked International Women’s Day by co-hosting a conference on Closing gender gaps in the MENA financial sector: towards women-led business development. The event brought together 100 public and private sector participants, highlighting initiatives and best practices that encourage female entrepreneurship and therefore promote more equitable regional growth.

Senior bankers, entrepreneurs, and other attendees took part in six panel discussions and roundtable talks on gender disparities in access to finance for business creation and development, the role of financial institutions and banks in promoting gender equality, the MENA female angel investment scene as well as on the role of fintech in bridging the gender gap, innovative practices to boost women’s financial inclusion, and accelerating the role of women in international trade.

Two new EU-funded regional projects aiming at promoting women entrepreneurs’ access to finance in the Southern Neighbourhood were presented during the conference. Implemented by the OECD, the project “Enhancing Women Entrepreneurs’ Financial Inclusion and Access to Finance in the Digital Age” will engage policy makers, financial institutions and women entrepreneurs’ networks in order to promote policy and regulatory reforms on key aspects of women entrepreneurs’ financial inclusion. “InclusiveNISSA”, implemented by a regional consortium led by COSPE, will design and develop concrete gender-sensitive financial and non-financial tools to enable women entrepreneurs to boost their economic activities and will strengthen their capacities to access and use financial tools. The project will establish a regional digital hub providing information on existing financial tools.