IFC is helping women and other underserved groups access essential services.
Dominic Chavez, IFC
IFC helps underserved groups access a host of essential services, from healthcare, to education, to financial services. We work with lenders, industry associations, and governments to extend financing to those who are normally overlooked by the banking system, including women and small business owners. We support countries as they dismantle the legislative barriers to the equal participation of women in the workforce. In addition, we help private companies to meet the soaring demand for affordable healthcare, education, diversity, and housing, including in rural areas.
Key Projects:
- In the Kyrgyz Republic, we supported a public-private partnership to improve kidney dialysis treatment and offer at-home dialysis, a service never before available.
- In Türkiye, we put together an innovative facility for lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in communities affected by the influx of Syrian refugees. In a separate project we invested $75 million in a bond issue by Türkiye's Garanti Bank—the first private sector bond in emerging markets dedicated to financing enterprises owned or managed by women.
- In Tajikistan, working with the International Development Association Private Sector Window, we provided loans to two financial institutions, Humo and Arvand, to finance housing projects.
- In Uzbekistan, we are supporting a public-private partnership to construct up to 15 modern, energy-efficient schools. We are also helping the government improve dialysis services, expand cancer treatment facilities and upgrade hospitals by structuring additional public-private partnerships.
- In Pakistan, we partnered with the Pakistan Business Council to lead a peer-learning collaboration with 13 Pakistani companies and Pakistan-based multinationals. The participating firms committed to supporting parents in finding a better work-life balance and to implementing supportive policies, such as paid paternity leave, breastfeeding support, and childcare.
- In Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, we launched the WBG Mashreq Gender Facility, a five-year initiative that works directly with governments and the private sector to increase female labor force participation rates. Through this facility, in Lebanon, we also helped women-led small and medium enterprises become more crisis-resilient.
- In Iraq and Lebanon, we increased the capacity of incubators and accelerators under the Ventures Spark4Her Initiative to better reach and provide support to women-led start-ups.
