Gender Lens Investing: A Female-Focused Future

By Chaokun Wangli, Partnership Development Intern at Concordia

Gender equality, Goal 5 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, is defined as the state in which access to rights and opportunities is unaffected by gender. As a society, progress has been made toward this goal over recent years. Today, there are more girls in school than ever before. Between 2000 and 2017, maternal mortality rates declined by 38%, and one in five women between the ages of 20 to 24 were married in childhood, down from a rate of one in four in 2004. Despite these improvements, there is still significant room for improvement. There is a gender gap in labor force participation of 31% and, on average, women carry out three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men. Furthermore, women are 25% more likely than men to live in extreme poverty. These disparities have detrimental consequences for the long-term economic security of women, and COVID-19 has only further exacerbated these challenges, as women are disproportionately affected by disruptions resulting from the pandemic. 

The need for intervention is abundantly clear. Not only has gender equality been linked to the development of a sustainable and prosperous society, but bridging the gender gap could increase global GDP by 26%, or $12 trillion. In Latin America alone, women could add $2.6 trillion by 2025 if gender equality is achieved. In response to these challenges, gender lens investing—investing with consideration to the social and economic benefits to women—has been on the rise as actors in the public and private sectors recognize the long-term value created by closing the gender gap.

At Concordia’s recent W-GDP 2X Americas event, panelists and attendees had the opportunity to explore the current challenges and solutions surrounding gender equality in Latin America. The U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Robin Bernstein, spotlighted the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), a women’s empowerment program that aims to address the lack of economic opportunities for women in rural communities. The AWE program in the Dominican Republic received over 400 applications and ended up providing eight months of training and mentoring to 36 beneficiaries. In Honduras, the government recently signed a MOU with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to launch the América Crece initiative, which will invest $1 billion over three years into developing the country’s modern infrastructure. This will encourage job creation and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth, which is valuable as 70% of microenterprises in Honduras are led by women.

Multiple panelists also discussed innovative financing solutions to address gender inequality. Mary Ellen Iskenderian, CEO of Women’s World Banking, noted that there is a 9% gender gap for access to finance in the developing world, and that it would take over 250 years at the current pace of change to close that gap. This disparity has only widened further as the gender technology gap prevents women from participating in new digital tools for financial inclusion. Women’s World Banking has responded to these challenges through its investments into microfinance institutions to increase access to financial services for low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries, especially women.

Similarly, the CEO of Pro Mujer, Maria Cavalcanti, discussed her organization’s investment of $4 billion over the past 30 years that has supported over 2 million low-income women and their families in Latin America. These programs have leveraged innovative financing to enhance their impact, such as the VIWALA venture, which uses a gender-smart strategy to invest growth capital into SMEs. Another great example of innovative financing comes from Global Partnerships, an impact-first investing group that has invested $440 million in the last 10 years to expand opportunities for those living in poverty. Tara Forde, Managing Director of the Capital and Impact Team, highlighted the organization’s Women-Centered Finance in Education and Women-Centered Finance in Health initiatives, which have over $60 million in portfolio investments across 30 financial services providers for female entrepreneurs. These initiatives provide financial support and literacy to women living in poverty, along with access to either health services or education. 

While there is still work to be done to address gender inequality, these insightful solutions throughout Latin America provide an inspiring outlook for the future. No one can solve gender inequality and other major humanitarian challenges alone; instead, continued collaboration between actors across all sectors and industries is vital to driving forward progress.

Concordia has continued to spark and support cooperative efforts through its platforms and programs. Last month, Concordia hosted its 2020 Americas Partnership Accelerator as part of Concordia’s Innovative Financing Coalition (CIFC), during which participants convened to discuss potential partnerships and solutions that would effectively utilize investments to address some of Latin America’s greatest challenges. Looking forward, Concordia is excited to host its 2020 Annual Summit digitally from September 21-25, during which world leaders will work together to put action to their ideas and tackle some of society’s largest challenges.

Stay tuned for the official W-GDP 2X Americas: Investing in the Future of Women Report, published on August 26.