The Making Finance Work for Women Podcast

Episodes

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  Ep. 39: The Missing Economic Dimension of Peace 15.10.2026 45m

  Women, peace, and security cannot be achieved without women’s meaningful economic participation.   In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we sit down with the Georgetown Institute of Women, Peace and Security to explore how women’s economic participation enables women to shape recovery and build lasting peace in post-conflict settings. We will also examine why ecosystem actors must treat the recovery and the economic angle as a core pillar of the WPS agenda. Celebrating the launch of the white paper with GIWPS, the conversation highlights how investing in women’s economic participation can strengthen both peace and security.  
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  Ep. 38: The Business of Better Health 24.09.2026 46m

  Women's health is essential for both individual wellbeing and economic progress. Poor health can limit women’s ability to work, save, run businesses, and absorb financial shocks. But the relationship also runs the other way: women entrepreneurs and innovators are often closest to the barriers women face in accessing health information, trusted products, quality medicines, and affordable care.    In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, host Sonja Kelly explores women’s health through the lens of a woman entrepreneur, speaking with Abimbola Adebakin, Founder of Advantage Health Africa, about building myMedicines, a technology-enabled platform expanding access to quality medicines across Nigeria, and with Cristiane Lourenço from the Bayer Foundation about the support women health entrepreneurs need to grow solutions that strengthen households, communities, and economies. 
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  Ep. 37: Welcome to Indonesia: What Women Are Teaching Us About Climate Adaptation 27.08.2026 34m

  As global leaders debate the future of climate adaptation, an important question remains: what does resilience look like for the women experiencing climate shocks in their daily lives?   In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, Dr. Sonja Kelly speakers with Roikhanatun Nafi'ah, founder and CEO of Crustea Indonesia, a climate start-up in Indonesia that uses solar-powered aeration and smart monitoring technology to help small-scale fish and shrimp farmers improve productivity, lower operating costs, and reduce climate emissions. Through her story, we examine how climate disruptions shape livelihoods of women entrepreneurs, influence financial decisions, and affect long-term security, while uncovering what her experience can teach us about the support and systems communities need most. To understand climate resilience, we must listen to the people living in it every day—not just the institutions shaping the conversation.   
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  Ep. 36: From Nano Business to Unicorn: What Women Entrepreneurs Need to Scale 13.08.2026 35m

  Women entrepreneurs are not short on ambition, ingenuity, or discipline. What too many lack is access to the capital, networks, visibility, and trust needed to start, sustain, and scale businesses on their own terms. In this special crossover episode of Making Finance Work for Women and Radically Yours, Dr. Sonja Kelly and Radhika Bajoria explore the continuum of women’s entrepreneurship, from nano businesses and informal enterprises to venture-backed founders and companies with the potential to become unicorns.  The conversation examines what changes as women-owned businesses grow, and what stubbornly stays the same: underinvestment, biased assumptions about risk and leadership, inadequate networks, and financial systems that too often fail to see women-led businesses as growth businesses. Together, Sonja and Radhika look at the global $1.9 trillion finance gap facing women-owned SMEs, the persistent challenge of women founders raising capital, threat multipliers for women-led firms, and India’s fast-growing entrepreneurship ecosystem. The core message: the gap is not only talent. The gap is access to capital, networks, visibility, and trust. 
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  Ep. 35: From Invisible to Investable: How Fintech Can Unlock Growth for Women Entrepreneurs 23.07.2026 43m

  Women entrepreneurs are engines of economic growth, yet millions remain excluded from formal financial systems because their businesses operate informally, their financial histories are invisible, and traditional financial products fail to reflect how they earn, save, and manage risk. In this episode, Dr. Sonja Kelly sits down with Sarah Corley, CEO of the Alliance of Digital Finance and Fintech Associations, to explore how fintech innovations including alternative data, digital identities, embedded finance, and AI are helping women-led businesses move from invisible to investable. Drawing on insights from digital finance ecosystems across Africa and Asia, Sarah shares what it will take to redesign financial systems around the realities of women's lives and businesses, expanding their ability to earn more, influence financial decisions, and protect their livelihoods in the face of climate and health risks.
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  Ep. 34: Finance on the Frontlines: Serving Women Amid Crisis in Northern Nigeria 07.05.2026 1h 6m

  As insecurity and displacement continue to reshape northern Nigeria, how can financial systems adapt to serve those who need them most—especially women entrepreneurs and households navigating daily uncertainty? In this episode, our host Sonja Kelly has two conversations with a policymaker, Dr. Aisha A. Isa-Olatinwo, Director of the Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and a financial services provider, Ikemefula Nwachukwu, Head Financial Inclusion Services, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, to explore what it takes to deliver meaningful financial support in fragile contexts. From rethinking risk and liquidity to deploying flexible credit, digital payments, and safety nets, the conversation examines how institutions can move beyond access to real resilience—ensuring women can sustain and grow their livelihoods even in crisis. 
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  Ep. 33: AI Is Evolving Finance. Are Protections Keeping Pace? 07.04.2026 35m

  In this episode, AI and Deepfake Cartographer Henry Ajder joins us to unpack what rapid advances in AI mean for trust, safety, and financial inclusion. As tools like deepfakes and voice cloning become more sophisticated, synthetic identity fraud and impersonation scams are becoming easier to scale and harder to detect. These risks are especially significant for people entering the financial system for the first time. When trust breaks early, adoption slows, and progress toward financial inclusion can reverse. We also explore how technology-enabled gender-based harm, including harassment and impersonation, is shaping how women participate online, and why the pace of innovation is outstripping the pace of consumer protection. At the same time, we discuss how AI presents real opportunity. Used responsibly, it can help financial institutions better understand customers and design services that reflect women’s financial lives. The question now is whether safeguards, accountability, and transparency will evolve quickly enough to ensure AI strengthens trust and helps finance work better for women.
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  Ep. 32: Instant Money, Real Barriers: Can Tokenized Payments Deliver for Low-Income Women? 12.03.2026 43m

  Tokenized payments promise instant settlement, near-zero transaction costs, and fewer intermediaries—but can they actually work for low-income women and women-led MSMEs operating on thin margins and informal cash flows?  In this episode, we’re joined by Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer at Circle, to unpack the real potential—and real constraints—of stablecoins and tokenized cash.  We explore whether faster, cheaper money movement can meaningfully improve liquidity, reduce remittance and transfer fees, and increase economic certainty for women entrepreneurs—or whether structural, regulatory, and access barriers still stand in the way.  This conversation cuts through the hype to ask a sharper question: What would it take for tokenized money to expand women’s economic opportunity at scale? 
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  Ep. 31: Something to Buzz About: When Inclusion Becomes Economic Opportunity 15.01.2026 33m

  In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we speak with Monika Shukla, Co-Founder & CEO of Humble Bee, on how inclusive business models can unlock economic opportunity for women at the margins.  Monika unpacks how she is transforming India’s beekeeping sector by integrating women—particularly landless and forest-fringe dwellers—pairing financial access with skills, market linkages, and ownership. With a bold goal of building one million sustainable livelihoods by 2028, this conversation offers practical insights on how to design, fund, and scale models that move beyond reach to real economic opportunity—where women are not just customers, but producers, earners, and drivers of growth.
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  Ep. 30: A Year-End Special: Our Biggest Reveal, Boldest Lessons, and a 2026 Sneak Peek 18.12.2025 33m

  Episode 30 is a celebration. Women’s World Banking just crossed our most audacious milestone yet! Take a step back with us to reflect on the stories, ideas, and breakthroughs that shaped our past episodes. Through curated moments from leaders across the globe, we revisit the lessons that have pushed the sector forward—from reshaping consumer protection to unlocking capital for women’s businesses to building climate resilience.  We then look ahead to 2026 and what topics are on the horizon for The Making Finance Work for Women Podcast and what real-world solutions are top-of-mind for us to continue building an inclusive financial system for women and men everywhere. 
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  Ep. 29: The Hidden Cost of Violence: How Finance Can Protect Women 25.11.2025 44m

  The price of violence is economic. The solution can be, too. Behind many closed doors, violence is an everyday reality—especially for women in low-income countries. For millions, safety, autonomy, and economic participation are undermined long before they ever reach a bank branch or mobile wallet screen.  In this Vault Release, we revisit a powerful conversation with Dr. Anita Kemi DaSilva-Ibru, Founder of the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), whose work in Nigeria sits at the forefront of addressing gender-based violence with a survivor-centered lens.  One in three women globally experience physical or sexual violence, most often from an intimate partner. In low-income countries, that number surges to nearly 50%.  This episode explores a side of financial inclusion that is often invisible:  the financial scars of abuse  the role of economic violence—present in 99% of intimate partner violence cases  and how access to financial tools can be a lifeline to safety  As the financial inclusion community works to build systems that genuinely serve women, the realities of violence cannot be ignored. This conversation reminds us that finance is not only a tool for prosperity—it can be a catalyst for safety, dignity, and long-term resilience.  A vital listen for anyone shaping financial systems, gender policy, or women’s economic empowerment. 
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  Ep. 28: As Aid Fades, Can Private Capital Carry the Climate Fight? 31.10.2025 49m

  As aid retreats and climate impacts increase, can investors step in where governments can’t? The battleground for influence just may be shifting from parliaments to portfolios. In this conversation with the Manager Partner of Women’s World Banking Asset Management Emerging Market Funds, we explore how gender-lens investing is being defined as both a moral and market imperative — and what it really takes to turn capital into climate resilience.
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  Ep. 27: Money in Motion: The Future of Financial Systems 30.09.2025 40m

  What does the rise of instant payments, CBDCs, and buy-now-pay-later innovations mean for global financial systems—and for the women too often left at the edges of them? In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we speak with David Marsh, Chairman and Co-Founder of OMFIF, whose upcoming book Can Europe Survive? examines the economic crossroads facing a fragmented continent and world. We explore how monetary innovation is reshaping policy, power, and participation, and ask what it will take to ensure the new financial infrastructure works for everyone—not just the privileged few. From central banks to street vendors, the ripple effects of change are real—and they’re just getting started.
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  Ep. 26: Tokens, Tech & Trust: What Crypto Means for Inclusive Finance 21.08.2025 47m

  Crypto is redefining value. But what does this mean for people too often left behind by traditional finance—especially women? In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we sit down with Rebecca Carvatt, Partner at EY Financial Services Consulting. With nearly two decades of experience scaling digital banks and launching financial products globally, Rebecca offers an unflinching look at how crypto innovation can drive—or derail—inclusive growth.    We dive into the opportunities and risks of emerging crypto tech by asking the hard questions: Who stands to gain? Who’s being overlooked? And how can we ensure crypto becomes a tool for empowerment, not exclusion?    Whether you're a policymaker, fintech builder, or advocate for inclusive finance, this conversation at the intersection of technology and trust is not to be missed. 
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  Ep. 25: Inside the Numbers: What the Global Findex Means for Women 28.07.2025 36m

  The Global Findex 2025 is here—and it’s making headlines. In this special episode, Women’s World Banking President & CEO Mary Ellen Iskenderian joins Leora Klapper, Lead Economist at the World Bank and architect of the Findex, for an exclusive first look at what the data reveals about women’s financial inclusion worldwide. From headline-making gains to hidden inequalities, this conversation breaks down the most important findings and why they matter for the future of women’s economic empowerment. Don’t miss this urgent, insightful dialogue on what’s really changing and where there is still work to do.
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  Ep. 24: Not Just a Loan: How Credit Can Power—or Fail—Women’s Economic Potential 27.06.2025 39m

  Traditional credit products often ignore the lived realities of women entrepreneurs—requiring collateral they don’t own, loan terms they can’t meet, and scoring models that fail to see their value. In this episode, we unpack groundbreaking findings from Innovations for Poverty Action’s latest evidence review on what it truly takes to make credit work for women’s economic activity.  From psychometric credit scoring in Ethiopia to mobile disbursements in Uganda, we explore how innovation, bias-busting, and smart design can unlock business growth, resilience, and independence. Whether it’s asset-backed loans, flexible repayment, or gender-informed targeting, these solutions are reshaping what’s possible when women are trusted with the right financial tools.  If you care about making finance truly inclusive, this episode is packed with insights that challenge the status quo and point the way forward. 
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  Ep. 23: Mary Had a Little Loan: A Mother’s Day Reflection 09.05.2025 27m

  In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re taking a closer ​look at the​​ ​​role of credit access in unlocking economic mobility for women. ​Women contribute an estimated​​ $8 trillion USD of global GDP through unpaid labor—nearly three times more than men—yet they still face a staggering $1.7 trillion gap in access to credit.   In this episode, we speak with Lucia Villar, SVP of Product Management at PayJoy, about this gap. PayJoy is turning mobile phones into credit lifelines, using them as collateral to expand credit access. We’ll explore how PayJoy designs its pricing strategies to balance social good with sustainable business operations, why transparent pricing and a no-interest penalty model is good for business; and the ripple effects of digital credit on labor force participation and household resilience.  As we celebrate mothers around the world, this conversation challenges us to rethink who gets access to financial tools—and why it matters. 
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  Ep. 22: Can a Credit Score Be Compassionate? 29.04.2025 44m

  Can a credit score be compassionate? What if lenders could see a climate shock coming—and adjust your repayment plan before it hits? In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we sit down with Puneet Gupta, CEO of Kaleidofin, to talk about a breakthrough in credit scoring that blends cutting-edge machine learning with human-centered design. Through a recent collaboration with Women’s World Banking, Kaleidofin tested an innovative model that uses climate disaster data to predict repayment risk—leveraging AI to anticipate financial stress before it becomes unmanageable. The goal? Not just to protect lenders, but to shield women borrowers from over-indebtedness before it starts. We explore how this new approach could allow financial service providers to pause or adjust repayment plans in anticipation of shocks, rather than reacting after the damage is done. If the future of finance is digital, this episode proves it can also be deeply empathetic. 
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  Ep. 21: Beyond the Bank: Why Financial Inclusion is a Public Health Issue 20.03.2025 46m

  What if your ability to open a bank account determined whether you could survive childbirth? Or if a lack of credit meant you couldn’t access life-saving healthcare? Financial systems and public health might seem like separate worlds, but they’re deeply intertwined—especially for women. In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we sit down with Dr.  Mary-Ann Etiebet, President & CEO of Vital Strategies, to explore a game-changing idea: financial inclusion isn’t just about money—it’s a public health issue. From maternal healthcare to chronic care, to crisis resilience, she breaks down how access to financial services can mean the difference between thriving and barely surviving. Tune in to hear why fixing finance could be the key to a healthier world for women everywhere. 
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  Ep. 20: From Fintech Innovator to Policy Accelerator: A Regulator’s Journey 27.02.2025 38m

  In our 20th episode of The Making Finance Work for Women Podcast and as we approach Women’s History Month, we sit down with Inés, a powerhouse in digital finance, fintech regulation, and financial inclusion, to explore why women’s leadership is essential in shaping the future of financial systems. As the head of Innovation and Financial Inclusion at the Superintendency of Banks in the Dominican Republic, Inés brings cutting-edge insights into how digital transformation, open finance, and behavioral economics can drive inclusive financial ecosystems. We’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities in regulatory innovation, the role of women in decision-making for the fintech revolution, and how financial services can be designed to serve women better—not as an afterthought, but as a strategic imperative.   Join us as we unpack the intersection of leadership, technology, and financial empowerment, and why diverse leadership is the key to building a more inclusive financial future.