17.12.2018

Winners of the Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators Scholarship

The Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the InsuResilience Global Partnership are jointly sponsoring the participation of two senior insurance supervisors and high potential women from regulatory authorities of V20 countries in the Leadership and Diversity Program for Regulators, taught by Women’s World Banking and faculty from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. The nine-month experience includes ongoing virtual learning and a week-long intensive training at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School’s campus. The scholarship will cover the program fee for the nine month Leadership Program, including tuition and course materials. Women’s World Banking will cover housing, curricular materials and most meals during the week in Oxford.

Description of the training

This nine-month global program brings together up to 20 senior officials from central banks and other regulatory agencies in developing economies, with 20 high-potential women from their respective institutions. Each senior official will identify a policy initiative to sponsor at his or her institution related to serving the women’s market, and will work with the high-potential woman leader to implement it, while simultaneously supporting her professional development during and after the program. The curriculum will focus on policy development and leadership competencies to support the advancement of the policy initiative. The program will start in January 2019 with virtual learning sessions and conclude in September 2019.

Objectives of the training

  • Strengthen the role that regulators and policymakers can play in creating an environment that promotes the financial inclusion of women
  • Build the pipeline of women leaders in regulatory bodies through sponsorship of high potential women leaders
  • Development of specific policies to support national financial inclusion strategies that are women-focused
  • Build leadership capacity of senior officials and high-potential women leaders

More information about the program can be found here: https://www.womensworldbanking.org/leadership/leadership-and-diversity-for-regulators-program/

Scholarship Winners

A2ii and the InsuResilience Secretariat received applications from insurance supervisors of seven different nations and jointly selected two candidates:

Ms. Peace Masozera Uwase, one of the two winners of the scholarship, is the Executive Director of the Financial Stability Directorate in the National Bank of Rwanda.  She states that the Rwandan demand side survey on financial inclusion revealed that there is a substantial gender gap in the uptake of insurance originating from three main barriers: affordability, lack of awareness and knowledge as well as lack of access. Ms. Uwase is especially interested in designing policy actions that cope with women’s lack of information and low awareness of insurance products. She regards the program as an excellent opportunity to exchange best-practice approaches and lessons learned across different countries.

Ms. Hery Rakotoarimanana, the second winner, holds the position of Head of Financial Institutions Department in the Ministry of Finance of Madagascar. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the implementation of the National Strategy on Financial Inclusion, which aims to increase the number of adults who have access to formal financial inclusion to 45% by 2022. Ms.Rakotoarimanana’s interest is to develop a legal framework for inclusive insurance that expands the access to financial products of women heads of households. Her expectation for the program are to exchange knowledge and experiences across country authorities and to improve her own leadership skills.

We wish you both unlimited success in the future.