In public institutions, such as Banco do Brasil (BB), financing funds like  Mulheres no Topo  (Women at the Top) stand out. Launched in 2023, this platform integrates credit and training for female entrepreneurs. Since then, BB has come to serve more than 1.3 million women-owned companies, releasing over R$ 102 billion in resources through various lines of credit.

Air-Conditioned Store

  Aimed at individuals registered in the Unified Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico) of the Federal Government , the  Acredita no Primeiro Passo  (Believe in the First Step) Program guaranteed access to low-interest credit for 176,160 female entrepreneurs—women represent 70% of the audience served by the initiative.

The social impact is visible. In Parnamirim, a city in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, self-employed worker Zenilda Aleixo owns a store selling clothes and cosmetics. With resources from the program, she set up her store in a property right next to her house.

"I managed to invest and expand the shop, and install air conditioning to make it more comfortable for customers because the climate here is very hot," Zenilda explains. 

"Financial autonomy allows us to dream and plan. I want to keep growing," she says. In total, R$ 2.27 billion was distributed by the beginning of 2026.

Rural Financing

In the Northeast, where the rates of women living below the poverty line are around 24%—above the national average— Agroamigo , a microcredit program by Banco do Nordeste aimed at farmers, reached 403,000 contracts signed by female entrepreneurs in 2025. This figure allowed them to surpass men in access to this type of financing.

For Luiz Sérgio Farias Machado, Superintendent of Agribusiness and Rural Microfinance at Banco do Nordeste, the numbers reflect a shift in gender patterns within the rural economy.

"The expansion of credit for women is directly related to the strengthening of non-agricultural initiatives, such as handicrafts, rural tourism , and small enterprises run by women, which diversify income and boost female entrepreneurship in the countryside," he said.

The diagnosis and results of the program are faithful indicators of the country's reality. According to data from the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), women represent more than 67% of credit borrowers from the National Program for Directed Productive Microcredit (PNMPO)—more than three million Brazilian women have been served by the initiative.

Higher Interest Rates

Despite the prospect of change, women still suffer from higher interest rates than men on financing aimed at small businesses. In 2024, the study  "The Financing of Female Entrepreneurship in Brazil: A Credit Market Overview,"  conducted by Sebrae using Central Bank data, revealed that loans for male small business owners were taxed at an average of 36.8% per year, while the female audience faced rates of 40.6%.

With more than 83.5 million people in default on debt in Brazil as of May 2026, according to the credit evaluation firm Serasa Experian, these higher charges obstruct the path for women—who account for 50.5% of debt holders in the country. However, they do not seem to slow down a movement of independent economic development sustained by entrepreneurship.

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Despite repeated commitments, Gumbonzvanda stressed that women and girls remain disproportionately affected by poverty, unpaid care work, gender-based violence, and exclusion from decision-making. “These disparities are not accidents , they reflect fiscal and financial systems that systematically ignore or reinforce patterns of discrimination, especially for women in marginalized communities, including women with disabilities,” she said.

Gumbonzvanda emphasised that investing in gender equality is not just a moral imperative but an economic one. “The economic case of action is overwhelming. Closing gender gaps in employment could add trillions of dollars to global GDP,” she noted.

Yet current investments fall far short. “We continue to underinvest in half of the world ’s population, a devastating waste of human potential and economic opportunity,” she warned. “The urgency has never been greater. Intersecting crises, debt burdens, climate impacts and economic instability are deepening gender inequalities at alarming rates.”

With just five years left to achieve the SDGs, UN Women is calling on governments, development banks, and the private sector to step up their commitments. “The private sector must scale up gender lens investing, supporting women-led enterprises and inclusive supply chains,” Gumbonzvanda urged. “Without transformative financing for gender equality, we will fail not only SDG5 but the entire 2030 Agenda.”

The bill, introduced by Congresswoman Luz Mary Alpízar Loaiza of the Social Democratic Progress Party, argues that unequal paternity leave violates the principle of equal rights.

“Parenthood should not depend on the type of employment,” she stated. “All children deserve the same support and presence from their fathers in the earliest days of life.”

Why it matters

This move comes amid growing concerns over demographic and social pressures in the country. According to the United Nations Population Fund’s 2025 State of World Population Report , 11% of respondents in Costa Rica cited unequal caregiving responsibilities as a reason for postponing or avoiding parenthood.

The report also noted a growing gap between desired and actual family size, influenced by economic and cultural constraints.

If passed, the law would impose penalties on employers who deny the leave, including an indemnity of six months’ salary in addition to standard labour rights. Supporters see the bill as a major step toward gender equality and shared parenting responsibilities, while critics argue it could burden small businesses.

Compared to regional neighbours like Chile and Uruguay, where paternity leave is more generous, and countries like Sweden that offer extended shared parental leave, Costa Rica’s private sector has lagged.

This proposed reform could bring the country closer to international standards for family support and gender equity.

The vulnerability of critical information infrastructure poses threats not only to national security but also to economic prosperity, the report notes.

A 2023 study by Positive Technologies identified that the most targeted organisations were in the financial sector (18% of attacks), followed by telecommunications companies (13%), government agencies (12%), and organisations in the trade (12%) and industrial (10%) sectors.

Scholars, including Assane Gueye, co-director of CyLab-Africa, “point out five specific cybersecurity challenges facing Africa: digital illiteracy, especially prevalent in rural areas; a severe shortage of cybersecurity professionals due to limited training; lack of tested security measures; hidden costs of ageing infrastructure; and the pronounced digital literacy gap among African women, who generally have less access to internet-based technologies compared to men,” the report stated.

Despite these challenges, there are significant economic opportunities on the continent. By 2030, the report projects that AI applications in sub-Saharan Africa, including in countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, are to generate an economic value of USD 136 billion, surpassing Kenya's current GDP. 

The report highlights a concerning trend: perceptions of respect and dignity for women have significantly declined in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In 2021, only about a quarter of men and women in South Africa believed women were treated with respect and dignity. In Kenya, 50% of women felt respected, while in Uganda, the figure was 52%. In Zimbabwe, only 60% of women felt they were treated with respect, a drop from 71% in 2013.

As regards the issue of safety, in South Africa, just 27% of women felt safe walking alone at night in their local areas. In Zimbabwe, only 35% of women reported feeling safe, followed by 40% in Kenya and 45% in Uganda. Tanzania was the exception, with 61% of women feeling safe at night, nearing the global average of 64%.

The report reveals a sharp decline in the perception that women are treated with respect and dignity across the continent over the last decade. While Tanzania showed an increase in respect for women from 54% in 2013 to 70% in 2021, this trend was not observed in other countries. 

The steepest decline was noted in South Africa, a country grappling with a high rate of femicide. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa described gender-based violence as a "second pandemic" in 2020 and recently signed a bill to establish a council dedicated to combating the issue.

The report expands its analysis to include two critical indicators - safety from violence and access to childcare services - which can significantly impact women's options in the workforce. When these measures are considered, women, on average, have just 64% of the legal protections available to men, a significant drop from the previous estimate of 77%, the World Bank reports.

Further assessment of the gap between legal reforms and actual outcomes for women in 190 economies exposes an implementation gap, indicating that although laws suggest women have about two-thirds of the rights of men, countries have established less than 40% of the necessary systems for full implementation.

Among the key findings, only 35 out of 98 economies with legislation mandating equal pay for women have adopted measures or enforcement mechanisms addressing the gender pay gap. This discrepancy underscores the need for a supporting framework, including robust enforcement mechanisms, tracking systems for gender-related pay disparities, and access to healthcare services for women who survive violence.

Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, Indermit Gill said, "Women have the power to turbocharge the sputtering global economy. Closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20% - essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade - but reforms have slowed to a crawl."

According to the report, even countries like Togo which stands out in sub-Saharan economies for enacting laws giving women approximately 77% of men's rights, face an implementation gap, establishing only 27% of the necessary systems for full implementation.

The report calls for governments to take action to accelerate progress toward gender equality in business and the law.