Member Spotlight: Farid Tadros (2024)

FinEquity: Tell us a little bit about yourself. A fun fact? Something that might surprise most people? Your superpower?

Farid Tadros: Something that might surprise people about me is that I lived through two revolutions, the first one in the early 1980s in Sudan as a child, and more recently in Egypt in 2011. These experiences instilled in me a deep interest in exploring how to create resilient, inclusive economic frameworks that support growth amidst crises and uncertainty – what we still face today in many countries in the world.

I joined the World Bank Group in 2006, in Cairo, where I worked on private sector development in both regional and global team roles.My work has focused on women’s entrepreneurship, climate entrepreneurship, investment climate, and market creation, with the aim of unlocking the potential of the private sector to catalyze growth and create jobs. In 2019, l joined the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Secretariat housed in the World Bank, where I currently lead in developing We-Fi’s Thematic Calls including the upcoming Climate and Care calls. Besides developing We-Fi’s knowledge and research agenda, I also support the WE Finance Code, multi-stakeholder systems change initiative, which is aimed at closing financing gaps for women entrepreneurs.

FinEquity: What originally drew you to the women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment sector? What has kept you here?

Farid Tadros:It was probably in 2013/2014 when I discovered from a World Bank report titled;Gender at Work: Companion to the World Development Report on Jobs, that raising female employment levels in relation to male counterparts could have a direct net impact of 34% on GDP in Egypt. To bring this into perspective, since the time I started working on private sector development, annual GDP growth in Egypt had ranged from 1% to 7% at its peak. From that moment, my perspective on women’s economic empowerment shifted from that of “the right thing to do”, to a fundamental pillar and driver of a country’s economic development.

FinEquity: Any current projects you’re working on/or recently worked on that you find particularly exciting/engaging?

Farid Tadros: There are quite a few things I’m excited to be working on, from expanding We-Fi’s knowledge agenda, the launch of the WE Finance Code, to We-Fi’s work on climate which I will talk about later. The WE Finance Code (Code) was developed in collaboration with We-Fi and finance leaders from more than 30 private and public sector organizations to build upon the success of the UK Investing in Women Code. The Code is a commitment by financial service providers, regulators, development banks, and other financial ecosystem players to work together and help increase funding for women entrepreneurs around the world, so that they can grow and add value to the economy and their communities. The Code was officially launched in October 2023 on the sidelines of the World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meetings, with 24 countries selected to pilot the Code with We-Fi support. To learn more about the Code, you can read about our participation at the 68th Commission on the Status of Women(CSW) in New York last month.

FinEquity: What have been some of the most impactful findings you’ve come across in your career? What about in the last few years?

Farid Tadros:When looking at data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Reports over the years, we can see that approximately half of women in developing countries view entrepreneurship as a path to economic empowerment; twice the rate of developed countries. This really demonstrates the important pathway for women in developing countries and emphasizes the important work that needs to be done to address social norms, legal barriers, access to finance, skills, and other gaps which are preventing women entrepreneurs from achieving their potential. Unfortunately, in the last few years many of those gaps have persisted or even widened further. That is why now more than ever, we need to apply rigorous and operationally relevant evidence to drive successful development outcomes. If we want to achieve this, we need to work better together to enable research-practitioner collaboration and create links between research and operations. To this point, last October we launched a call for papers and held a conference in collaboration with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) on Financing Women-Led SMEs where we brought together researchers and practitioners. You can read more about the insights from the event and access the research in this post-conference note.

FinEquity:What are your top priorities for the remainder of 2024 (and beyond) for your work?

Farid Tadros:The US Government recently announced new funding support to We-Fi at COP28 to assist women entrepreneurs tackling climate challenges. One of my top priorities is to support We-Fi’s Governing Committee in launching a Call for Proposals to provide funding to women entrepreneurs who are helping to address climate change. This call seeks to empower women entrepreneurs in fostering climate-smart solutions, spurring green innovations, facilitating job creation, and supporting the just transition. To give a sense of the importance of this opportunity, take a look at a blog I co-authored with my colleague Felicia titled; It’s Time to Unlock the Power of Women Entrepreneurs to Achieve Climate Goals. Also check out a recent We-Fi Knowledge Webinar: Women Entrepreneurs to Catalyze Climate Action and stay tuned for future webinars that we have lined up!

FinEquity:What can our members connect with you about/what can they ask you about?

Farid Tadros:I would be happy to engage with other members on any topic!

FinEquity: Whatrole does FinEquity play in your work? Where do you see value in this community? How has being a member shaped your work?

Farid Tadros: FinEquity is an important source of knowledge and research for our work, and even more so an important community for us to be engaged with. The community of researchers and practitioners that FinEquity brings together, aligns very well with We-Fi’s goal of fostering research and practitioner collaboration, and ensuring that project implementation is rooted in rigorous evidence to improve outcomes. FinEquity has been a great partner. We have collaborated on many things, including a webinar on Driving Systemic Change to Close the Financing Gap for Women Entrepreneurs, getting useful peer review feedback on our Evidence Paper on what works to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries, and of course getting a sense of what is happening in the community through Dgroups. This community is of great value, and one that we look forward to continue engaging with going forward.