November 18, 2015
WIL welcomed member Betsy Teutsch, who spoke about 100 Under $100: One Hundred Tools for Empowering Global Women. Betsy’s book describes the many ways we can empower women using these relatively inexpensive tools. The tools include Health, Energy, WASH (Water Sanitation Hygiene), and more.
Answering the question “How do financial tools enable the uptake of these life-enhancing tools?,” Betsy focused on the six tools in the book’s Financial Inclusion section, emphasizing the trend away from straight microloans to microfinancial services:
Microlending – in various forms, not just for business inventory but now for beneficial consumer loans like bikes, latrines, and solar panels.
Savings
Micro-insurance📷
Microfranchises – bringing the model of franchise’s “business in a box” to the last mile female microentrepreneur
Mobile Money – providing banking transactions via cellphone for those who never had access to sending and receiving money
Fair Trade certification – a brief pitch for buying Fair Trade products and their significance
Betsy demonstrated some of the actual tools featured in the book.
