How to Implement
Guidance
Aim for gender balance in Scheme leadership and staff.
The Scheme aims for not just token participation, but gender-balanced representation at all levels of the organization, including leadership (executive, board, and advisory levels) and staff. A gender-balanced Scheme will reflect the gender demographics of its market.
Insist on women’s voice in decision making.
In leadership positions, the Scheme insists that women leaders have actual authority, not symbolic roles. This means voting power on boards, leadership over key portfolios, influence over strategic direction not just corporate social responsibility (CSR) and gender equity programs.
Codify inclusive institutional culture.
The Scheme codifies policies and practices that ensure leadership pathways are accessible to women.
Provide structural mechanisms for women’s inclusion.
The Scheme may set targets to increase inclusion of women in boards, senior management, and teams throughout the organization.
Why It Matters
Representative leadership results in improved system and ecosystem outcomes. improved commercial and social returns, greater innovation, improved risk management, governance, and crisis resilience.
Seeing More Clearly
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Women’s Inclusion
Women’s meaningful participation in Scheme and DFSP leadership roles has demonstrated returns that benefit the ecosystem. These include greater Scheme and DFSP scale and sustainability, increased product and service innovation, higher institutional resilience, ecosystem financial stability, and higher financial and social returns on investment.
Tools
Design Guides
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Approaches to Ensuring Representative and Diverse Leadership in the Inclusive IPS Ecosystem
Overview of strategies Inclusive IPSs can deploy to increase the share of women in leadership.
Review Approaches to Ensuring Representative and Diverse Leadership in the Inclusive IPS EcosystemMarket Illustrations
Learn from design choices in action.
Bank of Etihad’s Holistic Approach to Increase Women’s Representation in Jordan
Country
Jordan
Challenge
Jordan had a low female labor force participation rate of just 14%, which affected both staffing at financial institutions and depressed demand for financial services themselves.
Outcome
The bank’s initiatives yielded significant outcomes since its launch in 2014, with positive impacts across its board, workforce, and client base.
Bank of Tanzania Circular Promotes Women’s Participation on Boards
Country
Tanzania
Challenge
Despite progress in expanding financial inclusion in Tanzania, gender disparities remained pronounced in the leadership structures of banks and financial institutions. This imbalance posed both an ethical and economic challenge.
Outcome
This directive positions Tanzania as a regional leader in embedding gender equity into financial sector governance through concrete targets, timelines, and regulatory oversight. Initial results suggest promising trends in adoption.
Nigeria Promotes Women’s Leadership in the Banking Sector
Country
Nigeria
Challenge
In 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recognized a persistent gender imbalance in the leadership of the banking sector.
Outcome
As a direct result of a 2012 circular promoting a culture to support women’s leaders and concrete targets for women’s leadership in the financial sector, the Nigeria banking ecosystem successfully implemented all but one of the direct and environmental methods to increase the overall pipeline and percentage of women in Board and Leadership positions of Banks.
From the Community
Helpful resources from other organizations on implementing this practice.
Explore more practices
Review other L1P practices and learn more about how to apply them to your IPS.
