GLI is about examining the role of gender in every aspect of investment. This can mean making investment decisions that factor in things like female representation in the business’ leadership or the company’s impact on its community with regards to gender. Or it can mean investing in companies or funds actively looking to improve gender equality with their business model and/or investments. If we look to our network of impact investors, for example, the UK’s Big Society Capital is developing the world’s first gender lens property fund to provide housing for vulnerable women.
Or look at Asia’s Patamar Capital, working with the Australian government’s Investing in Women initiative to finance the growth of women-owned small businesses in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, mentoring and training female entrepreneurs alongside investment. Calvert Impact Capital‘s GLI strategy, which started with examining gender dynamics across their portfolio, has evolved to taking a sector and region-focused approach. Its first sector approach to empowering women and girls has focused on providing debt capital to increase access to clean energy to women in the developing world.
Read the full article here.