USAID seeks to take stock of women-owned SME inclusion and performance as part of its donor transparency efforts, and also to inform future DCA programming decisions.
This report reviews 19,599 loans to SMEs — defined as firms with loans of US$2,000 or greater – in 53 countries within the DCA portfolio to determine access for women-owned SMEs to DCA-backed loans from 2008 to 2012. It also compares their loan performance and specific business characteristics across regions and business sectors to those of men-owned SMEs.