Gender Lens Investing in Southeast Asia: Literature Review
Summary
This report provides updated analysis on trends in impact investing and gender-lens investing (GLI) in Southeast Asia, based on updated data on impact investment deals for 2020-22. This report also takes a broader look into the evolution of and trends in impact investing and gender lens investing (GLI) in Southeast Asia between 2007- 2022, building on prior engagements commissioned by Investing in Women (IW).
The report reveals that impact investing has significantly increased in the region over the past 15 years, with investors committing more than 67% of the cumulative capital invested in the ten-year period spanning 2007-2016 in just the current three-year period under review. Private impact investors deployed about 40% more capital across 40% more deals in the current three-year period compared to the prior three-year period (2017-2019). Development finance institutes on the other hand, invested about USD 2 billion per year over the last six years, stabilising after a steady growth from 2007 to 2016.
It also highlights the diversity of the Southeast Asian impact investing market in terms of deal value and deal volumes, indicating that GLI has grown significantly in the region over the last six years. Despite the economic impacts of COVID-19, seven times more capital was invested with a gender lens compared to the prior, pre-COVID, three-year period (2017-2019).
Highlights
- Southeast Asia is targeted less frequently for GLI compared to Sub-Safaran Africa and Latin America but is believed to have a more commercial GLI market than other emerging markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has also spurred new and expanded initiatives supporting GLI and womenโs economic empowerment.
- Scaled GLI vehicle and products have begun to emerge Southeast Asia, including the innovative orange bond which aims to tap into the global bond market to advance gender equality
- GLI investment occurs in a wide range of sectors. There are emerging opportunities to bring GLI into climate and the care economy, but interest in these investment themes do not necessarily translate into action.
- There is a need and appetite for standards and data collection for GLI, which can be used to build and share a business case for it.
- More action is needed in order for GLI to gain momentum such as: building a more robust evidence base on the links between gender diversity, performance and value creation; providing technical assistance for investors to practice GLI; and deploy catalytic funding for innovative financial instruments.
