Women Entrepreneurs as a Force Multiplier for Jobs and Growth
Around the world, governments face two common imperatives — to increase jobs and inclusive economic growth for their people – and women entrepreneurs are a force multiplier for both. 400 million women around the world are entrepreneurs and an estimated 300 million women aspire to be entrepreneurs but face barriers. These women offer countries a path to increased growth, economic self-reliance, local jobs, and delivering on priority development objectives. Women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises (WSMEs) have immense and untapped potential to improve productivity, expand sales, innovate, and create jobs. They are more likely to hire and promote other women into leadership roles and deliver solutions that ease burdens on women and families. Yet because they face capital constraints and other barriers, most female entrepreneurs do not reach their potential. Activating these existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs can add trillions to the global economy.
How the WE Finance Code Drives Systemic Change
The WE Finance Code is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative coordinated by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) in partnership with seven Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). Its goal is to shrink the $1.9 trillion financing gap for WSMEs by aligning financial institutions, regulators, policymakers, and ecosystem partners around a shared aspiration and a commitment framework focused on Leadership, Data, and Action. In its 2-year pilot phase, the Code has been rolled out in over 30 countries with Central Banks, Industry Associations, and over 300 financial service providers (FSPs) and global institutions participating. The Code incentivizes dozens of FSPs in each country to set goals and take action to close financing gaps for WSMEs. MDBs and other funders are mobilizing hundreds of millions in funding to support these ambitions. The Code is also creating a new global dataset to monitor progress and inform actions. And a global community of champions is sharing experiences and tools to accelerate financing for women entrepreneurs.
Vision and Goals for Scaling Up the Code
Building on the momentum of the pilot phase, the Code’s scale-up phase would triple the number of countries joining the Code and multiply the signatories eight-fold. It would provide targeted, performance-based incentives to ensure more Code signatories can deliver on their commitments, particularly direct financing for WSMEs. Progress will be reinforced and made permanent by bolstering support for thousands of Code champions, mostly women leaders in finance, improving the integrity and insights from the new global dataset, and improving global coordination and governance functions.
It is estimated that a scaled up WE Finance Code could result in over 24 billion dollars in financing to more than 8 million women-led enterprises. This could support over 28 million jobs, including 18 million women in the workforce, either as entrepreneurs or employees. The scale-up would help MDBs and Governments achieve their goals for promoting women’s economic empowerment, including the World Bank Group’s ambitious goal to increase access to capital for 80 million women and women-led enterprises.
Download the full strategy document (updated April 2026)
