Women's World Banking Records, 1964-2017 (mostly 1980-1996)

Contents and Arrangement

Series 1: Administrative, 1975-1995

28 boxes

1 folder

1990, 1990

1 folder

1991, 1991

1 folder

Series 2: Affiliates, 1964-1991

34 boxes

Description:

The Affiliates series contains records related to affiliates and prospective affiliates. The records include letters from organizations expressing interest in joining WWB as an affiliate, general information sent by WWB to organizations about their programs, and information about the affiliates such as loan reports, budgets, correspondence, fundraising and marketing materials, documents from workshops, and information about the country or institution. The amount and type of material for each organization varies considerably. The series also contains general documents pertaining to WWB affiliates, such as model affiliate agreements and loan contracts, fundraising guides, and documents related to an affiliate development seminar.

16 boxes

26 boxes

Description:

The Organizations series is composed of documents pertaining to the wide range of organizations with which WWB collaborated, including banks, corporations, government departments, grant and aid agencies, philanthropic foundations, universities, women's associations, the United Nations, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The level of collaboration varies and includes WWB expressing interest in working with the organization, information exchanges and discussions of programs, representatives of WWB attending meetings and offering input on reports, and working together to develop programs. The documents include correspondence, proposals and reports, brochures, questionnaires, conference materials, publications, and contracts.

7 boxes

Description:

The Topical Files series contains articles about WWB personnel and programs, and reports and publications about women's participation in the economy and receiving credit. The series also includes country files with publications on conducting business in those countries and general information about the economic, social, and political conditions.

35 boxes

64 boxes

Description:

The July 2009 Accession contains historical documents originating in the offices of the Linkages and Learning Team (Nicola Armacost, Director) and Presidents Mary Ellen Iskenderian, Nancy Barry, and Michaela Walsh. They pertain to workshops, programs, training, media coverage, and meetings. Materials include compact disks, correspondence, newletters, and reports.

5 boxes

Description:

This accession includes records of the organization's global leadership program in Tanzania, correspondence, meeting records, program records, VHS tapes of television appearances, and a box marked "misc. records." They were transfered to the Mudd Manuscript Library by Michaela Walsh in April 2011.

13 boxes

Description:

The late 2011 and early 2012 accessions from Women's World Banking include records from regional visits, correspondence, financial information, and audiovisual materials.

These records were used as research sources for the book Founding a Movement, Women's World Banking, 1975–1990.

Records in this series include materials related to International Women's day 2008, Board of Directors records, information about Union Theological Seminary, photographs of Women's World Banking in China in 1987-1988 and 59th annual United Nations Department of Public Information Non-Governmental Organizations Conference.

These records came to Princeton as part of a regular cleaning-out of the Women's World Banking offices.

These interviews were conducted by or on behalf of Michaela Walsh. They support other research for her book Founding a Movement: Women's World Banking, 1975-1990.

Videocassettes in this series include press conferences, television appearances, recordings of meetings and promotional materials.

The order in which these materials came to Princeton has been maintained.

Series 15: April 2014 Accession of Audio and Videotapes, 1977-1994

6 boxes

Description:

This series contains audio and videotapes of Women's World Banking meetings and programs, especially its global meetings. The accession also includes Michaela Walsch's audio tapes.

This series contains videotapes of Women's World Banking meetings and programs, most from Nancy Barry's tenure as president of the organization (1990-2006). There are also tapes of programs produced by other organizations on the topics of microcredit and female entrepreneurship.

1 box

Description:

This box contains files on individuals involved with Women's World Banking in various capacities. The files contain correspondence with the individuals, writings they authored, and personnel records.

2 boxes

Description:

This box contains publications from Women's World Banking including annual reports, workshop materials, and informational packets. There are also documents pertianing to Michaela Walsh's "Founding a Movement: Women's World Banking 1975-1990" book and other personal documents.

The order in which these materials came to Princeton has been maintained.

Scope and Contents

WWB's records document the administration of the organization, mainly during the tenure of its first president, Michaela Walsh, and include founding documents, financial records, correspondence, records related to affiliates and other organizations, audiovisual materials, and the files of Michaela Walsh. The records especially document the relationship between the New York City office and the affiliates.

Please see the series descriptions in the contents list for additional information about individual series.

Collection Creator Biography:

Women's World Banking

Women's World Banking (WWB), one of the world's leaders in microenterprise financing, is a not-for-profit international financial institution founded by a global group of independent women working together with the support of the United Nations in 1979 to facilitate the participation of poor women entrepreneurs in the modern economy at the local level, especially those who are generally without access to established financial institutions. The organization consists of an international network of affiliates (independent local institutions that provide a variety of financial and training services to meet the needs of local women) with a central coordinating office in New York City. Through their work, WWB envisioned becoming a force for the economic advancement of women throughout the world, promoting economic development, fighting poverty, and, through facilitating women in taking leadership positions in their communities, changing the world.

The initial impetus for creating WWB came during the United Nations' International Women's Year conference in 1975, held in Mexico City. Attendees engaged in significant discussions about the economic problems faced by women. A small group of women resolved to create a practical way to improve entrepreneurial women's access to credit and financial services in their local economies, as well as support and training in management and business skills, to succeed in the formal economy. Over the next two years, this group of women grew and formally became the Committee to Organize Women's World Banking in 1977, a committee to establish the basic policies, procedures, and design of the organization. They studied a wide variety of traditional and alternative banking and credit programs before settling on the structure for WWB.

In 1979, they incorporated Stichting Women's World Banking as a not-for-profit corporation in the Netherlands. The founders were a diverse group of women from a range of backgrounds and countries. They received funding from the United Nations' Development Program to hold meetings throughout the world to explain their organization. In addition to support from the United Nations, WWB received initial funding from several governments. WWB is structured as an intermediary financial institution, cooperating with local banks and other financial institutions to provide credit and services to WWB clients. WWB operates as a business, not as a charity, finding financially sustainable ways to provide services to poor women.

WWB is governed by a Board of Trustees, a group of committed men and women from around the world who have achieved international recognition for their work in the fields of banking and finance, business, law, or community organizing. The Board manages the finances of WWB and approves its policies, strategies, and budget. An Executive Board, composed of members of the Board of Trustees, meets more frequently to review all aspects of WWB and to make policy and strategy decisions on behalf of the Board.

WWB maintains a central office in New York City with a staff of experts who serve as advisors, provide financial and business services, and coordinate the development of policies and best practices for the network. The office assists affiliates and potential affiliates in starting and developing their organizations and in program development. They provide prototype programs that affiliates can adapt to their needs, technical assistance through training, workshops and publications, and identify potential collaborators and resources available to the affiliate. As the communication center, the office mobilizes the knowledge of the network, sharing the knowledge, expertise, and experiences of individual affiliates and other WWB members across the network. The office is also the focal point for fundraising for the capital fund. WWB's capital fund serves as an endowment fund, its income funding the administration of WWB and providing a base for the loan guarantee program. The fund was created through the donations of several governments, foundations, corporations, and individuals.

The New York office is also the base of operations for WWB's president. The role of the president is to promote the vision of WWB throughout and beyond the network, and to ensure that the work of WWB is supporting WWB's mission. The first president of WWB was Michaela Walsh, a founder of WWB and one of the driving forces behind its creation. She came to the presidency with financial experience in both the private and public sector, including as a former partner of a Wall Street investment firm. Nancy Barry became the second president of WWB in 1990, after fifteen years working with the World Bank. She had served on the WWB Board of Trustees since 1981 and as its Vice Chairperson from 1988 to September 1989.

The central structure of WWB is the network of affiliates, which often take the name Friends of Women's World Banking. Affiliates are locally-established, women-led organizations located throughout the world, wherever the demand for services by poor women entrepreneurs is sufficient to support a business. Affiliates provide financial and training services tailored to best meet the needs of the women in their area. Most affiliates provide direct financial services, either through loans or loan guarantees. Many also collaborate with local banks to provide savings services for their clients, and some offer training and counseling services. To become an affiliate, the organization agrees to adhere to performance standards established by WWB, to operate in an ethical manner, and to contribute to the knowledge of the network. As part of the network, affiliates receive financial and business development products and services from WWB, and participate in information exchanges and workshops. Leaders from the affiliates are active participants in the annual meetings that determine the policies and strategies of WWB and serve on the Board of Trustees.

Affiliates are independent organizations and take a variety of structures, including trust funds, corporations, credit unions, and cooperatives. They are responsible for raising capital locally to fund their programs, establishing connections with local banks and businesses to facilitate their work, determining what services to offer, and choosing which clients to accept. Affiliates are diverse organizations, united by their shared goals and values, and by their focus on helping poor women enter the formal economy. By keeping the control of the organization at the local level, WWB is able to be flexible, adapting to the needs of a variety of regions, and to give the local people a stake in the organization, helping to motivate them to succeed.

At the time WWB was founded, a major hurdle for poor women was their inability to receive credit from established financial institutions because of social practices and the perception that they were too much of a credit risk, especially since many had no credit history. To counter-act this, one of WWB's first programs was to provide loan guarantees. WWB guarantees 50% of the loan and the affiliate guarantees another 25%, leaving the local bank with only 25% of the risk. Through this program, WWB encourages banks to work with network members and clients, enabling women to receive loans from local banks and establish their credit. In addition to providing access to the funding to start or expand their businesses, WWB also began providing technical and management training and a global support network to help their clients succeed. WWB also began working with governments, foundations, and financial institutions to change laws and business practices that restricted women's abilities to participate in the formal economy.

During the 1980s, the economy became more globalized and more commercial banks began providing micro-credit and loan guarantee programs due to the profitability of the emerging market. In response, WWB expanded their strategies to extend their influence beyond the affiliate network, although providing access to credit and the loan guarantee program remained important. In addition, WWB resolved to strengthen the existing affiliate programs to include a broader range of services, to use the world-wide recognition of WWB to facilitate collaboration within and beyond the WWB network to encourage investments in women's enterprises, to create prototype programs demonstrating ways to help women develop viable businesses, and to improve the confidence of businesswomen through training and by providing opportunities for them to learn about and meet successful women entrepreneurs.

During the 1990s, WWB became increasingly involved in leading work to create policies, regulations, and legal structures at the country and international level needed for financial systems to work for the poor majority, particularly women, and continued its efforts to build the institutional structure required to support a robust microfinance industry. During this period, WWB also began to expand its network to include institutions other than the affiliates. Beginning in 1997, WWB allowed other microfinance institutions (MFIs) to participate in the education and policy change activities of the network without becoming affiliates. Although not led by women, these MFIs shared important values with WWB and the core of their client base was poor women. Their relationship with WWB was formalized in 1999 as associates, making them eligible to receive services from WWB as well as participate in their education and policy change initiatives. WWB expanded again in April 2001 when they launched the Global Network for Banking Innovation in Microfinance (GNBI), with twenty-one founding financial institutions. The network meets to establish best practices and new products and improvements for the microfinance industry, as well as encouraging commercial banks to enter the microfinance sector by demonstrating the opportunity for profit.

As of 2006, WWB continues to be a network of organizations that offer services to poor women, enabling them to have access to the modern economy. The Global Team in New York, supporting affiliates and associates in their work as MFIs and as agents for change, offers services in four main areas. Members of the Global Team and WWB Talent Bank (experts from throughout the world) offer technical services, advising member organizations on strategies for building and strengthening their institutions, and on designing and implementing new products and processes. WWB continues to offer financial products and services to its members as well, including the loan guarantee program and the Affiliate Capitalization Facility. Established in 1997, the facility provides grants to high performing affiliates to enable them to expand. WWB is also still active in its efforts to influence policy changes to transform financial systems to benefit the poor, and to expand knowledge throughout the network, facilitating collaborations between members with workshops, exchanges and partnerships, and through producing and disseminating information on innovations and best practices in the field of microfinance.

Acquisition:

This collection was donated by Michaela Walsh and Stichting to Promote Women's World Banking in November 2002 . Additional accruals were recieved in 2009 , 2011 and 2012 with accession numbers ML.2009.011, ML.2011.017, ML.2011.036, ML.2012.004, ML.2012.017 and ML.2012.041.

An accrual of oral histories was sent in June 2013. The accession number related to these materials is ML.2013.015.

Three cartons of videotapes were sent in May 2013, with accession number ML.2013.014. Additional audio and video tapes that comprise Series 15 and 16 were donated in 2014. The accession numbers associated with these donations are ML.2014.005 and ML.2014.008.

The materials that comprise Box 226 (Series 17) were also donated in 2014. The accession number associated with this donation is ML.2014.046.

The materials in Boxes 227-228 (Series 18) were donated in 2015. The accession number associated with this donation is ML.2015.017.

The Michaela Walsh materials in Box 229 were donated by Michaela Walsh in September 2017. The accession number associated with this donation is ML.2017.027.

Appraisal

Duplicate materials, personal documents, and office receipts have been separated from this collection.

Sponsorship:

These records were processed with the generous support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Fund. The following donors supported the digitization of 40 boxes of early (pre-1990) WWB records: William H. Bohnett; Margaret Catley-Carlson; Patricia M. Cloherty; William M. Dietel; Virginia and William Foote; Donald, Arvonne, and Thomas Fraser; Elizabeth McAllister; Robert and Sarah McClanahan; Marion A. Monheim; Dr. Elizabeth Mary Okelo; Linda Schoenthaler; the Family of Martha Stuart; Barkley Stuart; Margaret Snyder; and Michaela Walsh.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Adriane Hanson, Christopher Shannon, and Hannah Wilentz in 2006. Finding aid written by Adriane Hanson in September 2006. Additional donations in 2009-2017 were processed by Mudd Library staff. Digital materials in Series 7 were processed by Elena Colon-Marrero in July 2015. The finding aid was updated by Caitlin Abadir-Mullally in 2023 to reflect recent accesions.

Conditions Governing Access

Any meeting minutes received from WWB in the future will be restricted for 20 years after the date of their creation. Additionally, materials in Boxes 1-14, Boxes 27-33, Boxes 62-72, Boxes 102-108, Boxes 113-116, Box 122, Boxes 134-136, and Box 229 are out for digitization and are not currently accessible. The remainder of the collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, any copyright vested in the donor has passed to The Trustees of Princeton University and researchers do not need to obtain permission, complete any forms, or receive a letter to move forward with use of donor-created materials within the collection. For materials in the collection not created by the donor, or where the material is not an original, the copyright is likely not held by the University. In these instances, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have a question about who owns the copyright for an item, you may request clarification by contacting us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

This collection contains 3.5 floppy disks. Researchers are responsible for meeting the technical requirements needed to access these materials, including any and all hardware and software.

Credit this material:

Women's World Banking Records; Public Policy Papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:

http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/k3569433x

Location:

Public Policy Papers

Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library

65 Olden Street

Princeton, NJ 08540, USA

(609) 258-6345

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Storage Note:

Mudd Manuscript Library (scamudd): Boxes 1-230; S-000547; 142A; 142B; 147A; 147B; 149A; 149B; 151A; 151B; 152A; 152B; 159A; 159B; 167A; 167B; 180A; 108A; 180B; 108B; 181A; 181B; 186A; 186B; 188A; 188B; 225B; 225A

Related Materials: This collection is part of a group of 28 Mudd Manuscript Library collections related to 20th century economic thought and development which were processed as part of a National Historical Publications and Records Commission funded project. Researchers wishing to access these collections should search for the subject "Economics--20th century" or related terms in the Princeton University Library Main Catalog. A collection at the Mudd Manuscript Library of particular relevance to the Women's World Banking Records is the papers of Margaret Snyder, a founder of WWB who was involved with women's economic and development issues throughout the world, especially in Africa.
Bibliography: The following sources were consulted during preparation of the organizational history: "Business People; Helping Women Abroad Get Started in Business," by Daniel F. Cuff. The New York Times (Late Edition (East Coast)), November 13, 1990. "Development Bank Puts Women in Business Around the World," by Carol Kleinman. Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1985. Materials from Series 1: Administrative and Series 6: Walsh, Michaela Files; Women's World Banking Records; Public Policy Papers, Special Collections, Princeton University Library. "Women and Development: Women's World Banking," by Nancy Barry. WIN News, vol. 24, issue 2, Spring 1998. Women's World Banking website, http://www.swwb.org. Accessed September 26, 2006.
Subject Terms:: Banks and banking.
Economic development.
Economics. -- 20th century
Financial institutions, International.
International finance.
Microfinance -- Developing countries.
Women -- Developing countries -- Economic aspects.
Women -- Economic conditions. -- 20th century
Women-owned business enterprises -- Developing countries.
Genre Terms:: Administrative records.
Born digital.
Correspondence
Pamphlets.
Reports.
Names:: Women's World Banking
Walsh, Michaela