Dear colleagues,
I am very happy to read this interview, and the insightful points, including: 1) men and women had to be part of the effort in the quest for gender equity. This is an important caution against some efforts which only target women. Such approaches could be less effective (or even may end up counterproductive) without engaging men, and working on gender-transformative'' interventions; as some would like to emphasize, BOTH men and women are victims of the prevailing patriarchal culture …. 2) financial sector is still very product orientated. In many contexts, especially in rural Africa, where service providers face little competition, they still enjoy huge demand for whatever product they offer. While central banks are actively monitoring the financial performance of institutions (esp. MFIs, banks), they have little role on products’ impact on clients. Given that in many contexts in Africa service providers are free to set interest rate on credit (unlike in other contexts, like India), could we advocate for policy measures requiring service providers to set aside some portion of the ‘’profit’’ that they are enjoying on research on refining products, to meet the needs and interest of clients?
My earlier interview at FinEquity could be of interest for some of you: https://www.findevgateway.org/finequity/interview/2023/05/member-spotli…
Regards, Getaneh
Dear colleagues,
I am very happy to read this interview, and the insightful points, including: 1) men and women had to be part of the effort in the quest for gender equity. This is an important caution against some efforts which only target women. Such approaches could be less effective (or even may end up counterproductive) without engaging men, and working on gender-transformative'' interventions; as some would like to emphasize, BOTH men and women are victims of the prevailing patriarchal culture …. 2) financial sector is still very product orientated. In many contexts, especially in rural Africa, where service providers face little competition, they still enjoy huge demand for whatever product they offer. While central banks are actively monitoring the financial performance of institutions (esp. MFIs, banks), they have little role on products’ impact on clients. Given that in many contexts in Africa service providers are free to set interest rate on credit (unlike in other contexts, like India), could we advocate for policy measures requiring service providers to set aside some portion of the ‘’profit’’ that they are enjoying on research on refining products, to meet the needs and interest of clients?
My earlier interview at FinEquity could be of interest for some of you:
https://www.findevgateway.org/finequity/interview/2023/05/member-spotli…
Regards, Getaneh