Is Access to Information One Solution to Growing Women’s Economic Opportunity in Asia?
This article is the first in a three-part blog series exploring the barriers to women’s advancement in Asia and how The Asia Foundation is working to address them.
By Jill Kosch O’Donnell
After months of advocating for access to credit from their local bank, the members of the District Women’s Business Forum (DWBF) in Sylhet, Bangladesh, have something to celebrate: 12 of them recently received bank loans to grow their businesses. One has already opened a new outlet for her business and hired 10 women to work there. Another has recruited five women for the planned expansion of her handicraft and garment enterprise. All of them are already in a position to repay the bank. Fifteen more loan applications are in the pipeline.

In many Asian countries, including Bangladesh, cultural tradition dictates that property and assets are almost always registered in the name of a male member of the household, denying Bangladeshi women the chance to gain collateral, needed to get bank loans to start businesses. Photo by Jon Jamieson.
These may be small numbers, but they represent a breakthrough that could add up for Bangladesh in the long run. Currently, women have extremely limited access to the capital that exists in their own country, which is a major impediment to expanding their businesses and creating jobs.
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