Financial inclusion for women in the 'missing middle'

After over a decade at the World Bank, Sevi Simavi was appointed in December as new CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, set up five years ago by the Queen’s Counsel, barrister and wife of the former prime minister of the United Kingdom to help empower women in developing nations. With longstanding experience in international development and a passion for women’s economic empowerment, what will this trained lawyer bring to the organization? In an exclusive interview with Devex, Simavi explained how under her new leadership the foundation plans to have a renewed focus on facilitating access to a range of financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises managed by women in the developing world — and not just microfinance. “I think it’s about bridging the gap between women and financial institutions so that they can talk to each other and so financial institutions can respond with products and services that meet the needs of these women,” she said. “But it’s also about women understanding how they need to pitch their businesses and how they can become ‘investor ready,’ so that they know how to talk to banks and have an opportunity to gain access to their services.” What else is in store for the foundation in 2014? Read more from the interview below for other insights from the organization’s new CEO: First of all, congratulations on your appointment at the Cherie Blair Foundation. What was it that drew you to this new challenge and what key lesson have you learned from your first 50 days in the job? In terms of my background, I was at the World Bank for 11 years and this is really where I spent most of my career in international development. In that capacity my real focus was private sector development, business-enabling environments and particularly gender issues in that context. Most recently at the bank I looked at capacity development for economic development — how to actually build the capacity of local players to drive change from within. My background is really in line with the focus of the foundation, in terms of women entrepreneurs, building their capacities, confidence and capabilities and to take their businesses to the next level. And so when this opportunity came up, I think it was the perfect next move for me — taking the foundation to the next level by focusing on these areas and bringing my skills in international development to lead such an inspirational organization. And was it a straightforward transition — not only in terms of the content but also in terms of the style of working from your time at the World Bank Group and in the private sector? Is there a different way of doing things at the foundation? Obviously coming from a very large organization to a smaller one has its own opportunities and challenges. I received an extremely good welcome from staff members, who are very committed and dedicated to their work. In terms of content, it’s really my background so I feel very comfortable in the programmatic areas. Coming from a U.S.-centric context to the U.K. environment and to understand our different players and partners on the ground, as well as our donors, is a little bit new to me — but I’ve also come into contact with those kinds of partners in my previous job as well. So of course, there is a learning curve, but it’s a good one and a great challenge in that sense. So you’ve been conducting a landscape review of who you’re dealing with and what priorities they have and to see how you’re fitting in with their thematic priorities — or is it more of an advocacy exercise? No, I think in my first couple of weeks my focus is to understand how the organization works, what it’s been able to achieve in the past five years, what are our strengths, what are the areas that we perhaps need to further improve on, and really take a good look at our strategy for the next five years. So I’m coming in with a very open mind on what the mission is that we’re fulfilling and how we can get even better at what we do. What measures does this five-year plan include and what are your more immediate priorities and targets? I think I’ve joined at a very fortunate time because this year marks five years of our programmatic work. And in these five years we’ve been able to reach 100,000 women in 55 countries — so I think that’s an extraordinary accomplishment for an organization of this size. My focus is now to really understand — looking back at the five previous years, we have ongoing evaluations of each of our programs — and really capture what works, how we take it even further to scale and identify the new areas that we want to innovate in. As an organization I think we’ve been really innovative in the space of mobile technology — that’s why we’ve been able to reach such great numbers of women. We want to continue to be innovative and cutting edge, but we also want to take a look at our own key strengths and focus on those so that we can bring things that work up to scale, while having a portfolio for innovation and continuing our growth. So my focus for the next five years is really going to be around that. One key area is going to be around access to finance — access to financial services for women — which is part of our “three Cs” [capability, confidence, capital], but I think there’s a lot more scope to improve on that. So can we expect to see the theme of access to financial services explored in more detail at a policy level across the board, or will it rather be rolled out in particular pilots or particular countries? Indeed, but it’s not as though we’re starting from scratch — we’ve already done a lot of work on access to financial services in our enterprise development program, we’ve done some pilots and last year we hired a new staff member to focus exclusively on this issue. So I think the ambition is to really grow that space and to tackle the challenge. When we look back in the next five years we want to be able to say that we’ve connected a significant number of women to formal capital — and as a result they’ve been able to grow their businesses. This is a space everyone is very keen on and everyone is talking about, but I don’t think there is really a solution yet from any players in this field. We really want to get our heads around it and solve this issue of financial inclusion for women, both through pilots and through partnerships. And in this area of activity do you expect that you’ll do anything differently from your predecessor, or do you think that you’ll continue along the same lines? As I said, I think we’re really looking at what has worked and what has not. We of course have a very good understanding ourselves but we want to also have an independent evaluation — and we’re working with academic partners to mirror the spotlight on us in terms of what really merits more focus and what are the things we can scale back on. So I wouldn’t really say that I’m going to change the direction, but I’m very much focused on results — so I’m keen to continue doing what we do well yet at the same remaining cutting edge and getting into new areas where we can keep on innovating and experimenting. So in addition to the issue of access, what sort of areas of you hoping to explore — education and outreach for both banks and women too, perhaps? I think we really want to get this access to financial services right. Access to capital is one thing, but we know that microfinance works really well for women and we also know that even if you’re a big business — even in a developing country — you can also attract venture capital. But this whole question of the “missing middle” — small and medium-sized enterprises getting a loan in the range of $50,000 or so is where there’s a huge problem in the developing world for women. So I expect that this will really be our focus — looking at all the women we’ve supported and really understanding their businesses and challenges. I think it’s about bridging the gap between women and financial institutions so that they can talk to each other and so financial institutions can respond with products and services that meet the needs of these women. But it’s also about women understanding how they need to pitch their businesses and how they can become “investor ready,” so that they know how to talk to banks and have an opportunity to gain access to their services. So I wouldn’t only say it’s around credit, but rather the broad spectrum of issues around financial services, because, in many of the countries that we work in, banking relationships vary — there are no credit ratings agencies in many countries, for example. Getting that initial relationship between the bank and the woman is also very important. This can be simply by opening a deposit account, or a savings account, or buying insurance so that they know how to become bankable, so that they can establish that relationship and hopefully that will feed them into future relationships with credit and other types of products as well. So yes, I think it’s about understanding both sides and bridging this gap where there’s currently a lack of flow of either information or understanding. And in talking to both financial institutions and women on the ground, what qualities do you have to demonstrate yourself — as CEO — to take your interlocutors along with you? Well, when looking at what our added value is as a foundation, one thing we’re always mindful of is that we don’t want reinvent the wheel and we don’t want to move into spaces where other people are already doing that work. Our strength has always been to work in partnership with others — we never do anything alone and always work with corporate partners or other international partners on the supply side. And we also have very good partnerships on the ground on the demand side as well. So I think that’s really one area that we can bring to the table. But there’s a great amount of learning still to do about the needs and the challenges that women are facing. We’re also in constant dialogue with our partners in the financial sector — partners like Bank of America or J.P. Morgan — so we understand their business, where they’re coming from, what they want to move into. So I think in that sense, we can really play that bridging role and combine our strengths to offer a solution in partnership with others. And on the issue of partnerships, you’ve clearly established a number of successful partnerships over the past five years from a range of sectors. But are you honing in on new types of partnerships — whether new innovators in the field, companies that have large numbers of women in their supply chains, or even previously untapped government-level partners or individual actors? I think we have a balanced approach, so we get partners that are either corporates or other foundations, but we also work with international donor agencies and also individuals. In building the partnerships, we want to have a balanced portfolio of funders to come in and support our work. So that’s going to continue. In terms of working with governments and [international financial institutions], yes, I think that’s also going to be one of my focuses because I come from that kind of background. It’s an area that I’d like to strengthen a little bit more — working with bilateral agencies to get their push and power to help us grow our agenda. But dealing with such a diverse range of businesses, nongovernmental actors, IFIs and governments, how difficult is it to strike a balance and ensure that all of these different players are bringing value to the table? I think it’s a good point. Each of these players has a different strength to bring to the table. Our partnerships with the private sector have worked very well, because we also provide solutions that are in line with their business models and so in the end it’s not just a charitable activity, and they can also take on those innovations and make it part of their business operations. So I think that’s a big strength. The other strength in working with governments and IFIs is that they can bring different stakeholders together and they carry a certain weight in the countries in which we operate, in terms of local relationships and partnerships. We’re a very open organization in terms of partnerships and we’re very happy to work with anyone who can add value both to us and to the women we support on the ground. And in terms of this multi-stakeholder approach, do you think there’s a need in today’s economic climate to further diversify funding streams? Are the foundation’s finances in good shape and are you looking to pursue different areas of funding in the five-year plan that you mentioned earlier? I’d say that yes, the foundation is in good shape in terms of funding. In the past five years we’ve grown significantly — and of course the focus is always going to continue to be on growing and adding value. I don’t have any immediate ideas or plans of what should be the focus or not — this is something that we’re looking into right now as we plan our new five-year strategy. But broadening the issue out, do you see any funding trends emerging that will either affect the way you go about securing funds, or affect the work of other development implementers in other types of organizations? Well, one thing that I’m optimistic about — and heartened by — is the private sector’s involvement in tackling development challenges. This is not something I’d seen previously — at least when I started my work in international development 10 years ago. In fact, at a recent event that Devex put together with [the U.K. Department for International Development] a couple of weeks ago, I was extremely encouraged to see private sector players thinking about how to solve development problems and social challenges. So I think that’s something that I’m very pleased to see and very optimistic about going forward. And so do you think that the private sector holds the key to filling the void caused by declining levels of official development assistance and other traditional forms of financing? I would hope so, yes. I really do think the world would be a better place if they were looking at their business models and at the same time tackling these types of development challenges. Finally, I just wanted to ask how people you talk to view a foundation such as yours and whether having a high-profile figure such as Cherie Blair at the helm is always an asset? Well, I think we’re really fortunate to have such a wonderful founder who has dedicated her life to the empowerment of women and human rights. So of course, having her on board and give a substantial time and resources is very fortunate. I think of course that’s very helpful and brings us a lot of credibility. But that said, we are also very aware of our responsibility to the women we support and our focus is always on the quality of the program. So while it’s great to have a big name behind your cause, we’re more focused on the delivery of our programs and the quality on the ground. And we’ll continue delivering services in this way. Join the Devex community and gain access to more in-depth analysis, breaking news and business advice — and a host of other services — on international development, humanitarian aid and global health.