Technical Workshop on Women’s Financial Inclusion and Gender-Responsive Budgeting | Events | United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Background and Justification

Women's financial inclusion is a critical enabler of inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and sustainable development, and is directly linked to SDG 5 on gender equality and women's economic empowerment, SDG 1 on no poverty, and SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth. In West Africa, women continue to face structural barriers to accessing and using formal financial services, including restrictive social norms, weak ownership of collateralizable assets, low financial and digital literacy, identification gaps, and limited availability of affordable, gender-responsive financial products and policy instruments.

Sierra Leone has established a relatively comprehensive policy and legal framework for promoting women's financial inclusion and gender equality. Key frameworks include the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI2, 2022–2026), the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE) Act 2022, the Directives on Provision of Financial Services on a Non-Discriminatory Basis (2021) and the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP, 2024–2030). NSFI2 explicitly identifies women, youth, rural populations and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) as priority segments. The GEWE Act mandates equal access to economic opportunities and financial services for women and prohibits gender-based discrimination by public institutions and supervised financial service providers. The Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) serves as NSFI2 custodian, supported by an Executive Committee and technical working groups.

Despite these advances, women in Sierra Leone remain significantly underserved by the formal financial system. Only approximately 25 per cent of women are formally financially included — far below the global average — with most relying on informal mechanisms such as rotating savings groups, family loans and moneylenders. An estimated 1.5 million Sierra Leonean women operate in the micro- or small-business sector, concentrated in petty trading, small-scale agriculture, food processing and personal services. Women entrepreneurs face intersecting demand-side constraints (income insecurity, limited collateral ownership, low financial and digital literacy, care responsibilities and social norms), supply-side constraints (conservative collateral requirements, standardised products, limited sex-disaggregated data use by providers) and enabling environment bottlenecks (infrastructure gaps, weak data systems, fragmented coordination, limited supervisory operationalization of non-discrimination provisions).

Against this backdrop, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), through its Women and Youth Economic Empowerment Section (WYEES) of Socioeconomic Development Division, is implementing the project 'Strengthening Institutional Capacities for Women's Financial Inclusion and Gender-Responsive Policy and Budgeting in Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Ghana' The project builds on analytical and preparatory work undertaken in 2025 and the 2026 scoping missions, operationalising recommendations by moving from diagnostics to targeted institutional strengthening, practical tools and capacity development.

Under Outcome 1 of the project, a Draft Technical Guideline on Women's Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone has been prepared. The Guideline sets out practical steps for public institutions, including the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs (MGCA), sector ministries, local governments and other stakeholders, to translate high-

level commitments into concrete, operational actions. It addresses four main levers: (i) integrating women's financial inclusion into national and sector planning; (ii) applying gender-responsive public finance and budgeting practices; (iii) strengthening regulatory and supervisory frameworks; and (iv) improving data, monitoring, evaluation, capacity development and coordination. The Guideline includes practical annexes: a planner's checklist, a gender-responsive budget tagging system, scheme design templates, a core indicator menu, mapping tools, and dedicated BSL implementation matrices — including worked examples for Sierra Leone flagship programmes such as the MUNAFA Fund, the Women Smallholder Agriculture Finance and Resilience Facility and the Women SME Growth and Competitiveness Facility.

The August 2026 mission to Sierra Leone will introduce the Draft Guidelines to a broad range of national stakeholders through a four-day Technical Working Group and Consultative Workshop, collect structured views and feedback on the Guideline and complementary tools, and assess demand and existing coordination mechanisms. A fifth day will be reserved for a targeted, high-level ECA consultation with senior government officials to translate workshop findings into concrete proposals for establishing or strengthening national coordination mechanisms that link women's financial inclusion with gender-responsive budgeting and public finance processes.

Objectives

To introduce the Draft Technical Guideline on Women's Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship to national stakeholders and collect structured views to inform its adaptation and validation;
To assess the need for the Guideline and complementary tools (screening checklists, training materials and GRB guidance note) among national institutions;
To review and assess existing national coordination mechanisms for women's financial inclusion, identifying opportunities for strengthening or establishing platforms, frameworks or planning circulars;
To consult with senior government officials on the design or update of national coordination mechanisms that integrate women's financial inclusion objectives, measures and indicators with explicit links to gender-responsive budgeting and public finance processes;
To gather evidence to support the integration of women's financial inclusion objectives, measures and indicators into national policy and planning frameworks.

Documents

Presentations