The European Investment Bank Group (EIB) is an employer that actively supports women's advancement and hosted the European Microfinance Award 2022 at its Luxembourg headquarters.
EIB President Werner Hoyer addressed the ceremony, that saw in attendance Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy & Minister Franz Frayot, microfinance partners, and H.R.H. the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg who presented the European Microfinance Award 2022 on Financial Inclusion that Works for Women to the winners Banca FIE from Bolivia.
Empowering women is smart economics
"Empowering women is smart economics. European Microfinance Award 2022brings together many microfinance partners worldwide to increase our collective impact for underserved and vulnerable communities," shared Werner Hoyer.
"Microfinance is an important instrument in the EIB’s toolbox. I am proud to say that, to date, we have provided more than €1.8 billion through EIB Global to strengthen microfinance around the world, including €800 million to Africa alone. At EIB we are increasing our support to women’s entrepreneurship. The SheInvest initiative mobilised €1bn in Africa and will be further strengthened with additional €2bn to include also Latin America & Asia," he said. "Congratulations to Bancamía (Colombia), Banco FIE (Bolivia) and Kashf Foundation (Pakistan) for being selected as finalists of the #EMW2022 and showing how we can accelerate progress towards the SDGs."
Bolivian bank, Banco FIE S.A., wins the award
After a selection process that reviewed applications from 88 organisations, Banco FIE S.A. was chosen by the Luxembourg Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs to receive the €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2022.
The Bolivian bank captured the High Jury’s attention by incorporating a gender-related dimension into its products and services, in an effort to make them more accessible to women. To do this, it conducted a large number of customer surveys.
Promoting inclusive leadership and women's empowerment
Banco FIE provides a wide range of products, including micro-insurance (family life insurance and cancer policies), digital financial literacy and technical support to enhance agricultural productivity among women. Within its own organization, Banco FIE has introduced an innovative business management model called Marca Magenta to promote inclusive leadership, the empowerment of women, the prevention of violence and equal opportunities.
In a society in which social and cultural factors continue to have a considerable impact on women’s empowerment, it was decided that the 2022 European Microfinance Award would go to an organization from a developing country that is taking concrete and innovative strategic action to address the specific challenges and aspirations of women, in order to support them in their emancipation, both in their personal lives and in the workplace.
Rewarding innovative inclusive finance initiatives
Launched and organized in Luxembourg since 2005, the European Microfinance Award rewards innovative inclusive finance initiatives, and has two goals: to reward excellence and to catalogue and disseminate the most suitable practices so that they can be applied by others.
The Award is a joint initiative organized by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe.lu).
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.