Shymaa Allam (38) is pursuing Doctorate studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the field of Global Inclusion and Social Development. She expects to graduate in 2023.
In 2014, Shymaa completed a Master’s in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, and has more than 15 years’ experience in Social Development and Financial Inclusion in Egypt and the Arab countries. She assisted in drafting Microfinance law for private sector companies; she worked as a policy development specialist at a USAID funded activity on Micro-Enterprise Finance (EMF); and she has coordinated many of Sanabel’s project (the Microfinance Network for Arab countries).
Shymaa’s current thesis is on “The impact of Microfinance regulations on empowering women in Egypt”, aims to map the challenges and opportunities for women within the Microfinance market in order to prevent over-indebtedness and other potential harm to women entrepreneurs.
Her future plan is to be an expert in poverty alleviation issues for women. She wants to continue analyzing the impact of economic policies on the welfare of women. She hopes to do this as a university staff member, so that she also has the opportunity to teach the next generation. In her words, she is “a woman, helping women, help women.”
In 2022 Shymaa published in the Journal of International Development: An evaluation of Egyptian microfinance laws and regulations preventing overindebtedness of women.
