Women’s Access to Finance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

This issues paper was presented to participants of the Fall 2010 OECD-MENA Women’s Business Forum Conference on “Enhancing the Business Enabling Environment for Women in Arab Countries” to trigger discussions on good practices – for governments, financial institutions and other stakeholders – to improve financial support for women entrepreneurs. The WBF’s three areas of focus are: i) improving financial support for women entrepreneurs; ii) improving women’s access to enterprise support; and iii) producing an inventory of policies, institutions and programmes supporting women’s enterprise in the Middle East and North Africa.