by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
We have long thought it was true, but last month it was finally confirmed. Ajay Banga, the World Bank President, not only reads our articles but also uses them as a blueprint for the World Bank (‘WB’), and most importantly, we have proof just in time for bonus season at Lionesses of Africa [Dream on - on all counts! — Ed.]. In our report on the WB’s Spring Meeting earlier this year (here) we wrote: “Could there be a realisation that to assist Africa, to properly assist Africa, this has to come from the bottom up, to build SME businesses, to build employment, to build communities, to ensure a future at home, all of which we have been pushing and saying since the day Melanie founded the Lionesses of Africa ten years ago.”
Since he took control of the World Bank 18 months ago Mr. Ajay Banga has stripped back the veneer, pulled back the hood and had a really good look at the engine room of the WB and what he found did not impress, least of all the fact that it takes on average a massive 19 months for projects to make their way through the bureaucracy. 19 months? Most would die of old age before their projects see the light of day!
As we wrote: “The World Bank Group is amongst other things a huge investor and lender into the world’s development drive and so what they say, what rules they put in place, what suggestions they make, and how they lead by example makes a huge difference. It all filters down…until at long last meets our membership on the ground. That is why what The World Bank does and says is so important for us.”, and so Banga’s drive to reduce that 19 months is absolutely essential. As he recognised, how any organisation can take that long is unbelievable, not least it’s such an inefficient use of taxpayers’ money.
Now that he has banged a few heads together and started to get results, he has now moved onto the next stage, as Devex wrote here: “No one is claiming the work of building a bigger, better bank is finished, but for Banga, it is time to change focus from the long “evolution” to-do list and back onto the world. And under his leadership, that is going to mean one big thing: Jobs.”
As Banga said: “The World Bank Group is poised to embark on the next phase of our mission: Ensuring job creation and employment are not the byproduct of our projects but an explicit aim of them.”
If Banga has been reading his own organisation’s reports, that means one thing above all else - driving investment into women-owned and led businesses, also backed up by others such as the researchers at WeFi (here):“The economic benefits of entrepreneurship for women and economies are substantial, especially in low-income and fragile and conflict-affected geographies…Women are more likely to invest their earnings in their children’s health and education, improving their own children’s prospects while expanding the human capital in a country...helping women entrepreneurs also helps create jobs for a broader swath of women. Finally, innovations pioneered by women entrepreneurs tend to disproportionately target and benefit other women, who are often poorly served by solutions designed by and for men.”
In the WB’s Gender Strategy 2024-30 here they write: “…women around the world have only two-thirds of the legal rights of men…[and m]ore than 1 billion women do not have access to finance…”, as we have previously written, both of these are a real showstopper for creating and successfully running any women owned business. So if the Banga is turning his attention to solving these two then this is a huge result.
With the WB’s push in the background there is then hope that banks will start to recognise that companies with gender balanced teams (and by extension, women founded and owned businesses) do indeed generate higher returns whilst at the same time have lower non-performing loan ratios, as the IFC have shown here. Most importantly for the world, increases jobs for other women, strengthens communities and given the nervous nature of the globe currently with floods, famine, war and pestilence, increases the ability to handle natural disasters (here). Indeed this is most important because “…men account for 70 percent of flood-related deaths in Europe and the United States [dues to] an overrepresentation of men in rescue professions. In less developed countries, more women tend to die from disasters. Although men are also overrepresented in risky and rescue professions in these countries.”
As Banga said (here): “A job is not just an income, it's dignity. A job is not just dignity, it fights poverty,…The best way to put a nail in the coffin of poverty is a job.” Sounds to us like someone is impatient to make a difference. He knows that over the next ten years over a billion young people in low and middle income countries will start looking for a job, yet by current estimations, only 420 million will be available. He has no choice, that impatience must turn into results.
Let us see how Ajay Banga drives this forward, but given our deep and well researched knowledge of his Sunday morning reading [!], we are hopeful that over his cornflakes this weekend he will stop, reach for the telephone and utter those wonderful words to Melanie: “How can I be of help?”.
Stay safe.