Senegal Gender Lens Investing (GIL) for Credit Unions Activity

WOCCU’s Gender Investing Framework and Toolkit (GIFT) is a practical conceptual framework and guide for use by credit unions wishing to actively address gender disparities within their portfolio and improve the representation of women. It is intended to empower women credit union members to better position their businesses for success. Applying GIFT increases the economic potential of women and women entrepreneurs by improving their access to credit and other tailored financial services. To demonstrate that a new approach to expanding gender-forward financial products in Senegal can work, WOCCU and partner UM-PAMECAS in Senegal developed a test case of GIFT before gender-forward products could be adopted at scale. WOCCU’s Senegal GLI4CUs Activity, a 12-month pilot (October 2020 – September 2021), aimed to implement GIFT at four pilot credit unions within the UM-PAMECAS network and build their capacity to mobilize their liquidity to increase financing and improve financial products and services for women-led enterprises.