Above and Beyond a Grantmaking Exercise: How an Evolving Partnership Can Create Better Futures for Girls in Cambodia
5 min read
As social issues like unequal access to education transcends across multiple silos, like-minded stakeholders need to partner and move collectively to create impact. Find out how Atlassian Foundation and Room To Read are doing just that, and how you can do so too.
Closing the Expectation Gap
The question: “Where does women’s time go?” is significant. How we invest in their time and resources will not only shape communities, but also economies. Yet, we are only working at half-potential. The COVID-19 pandemic is a defining moment for social investors to ensure the decades of development gains do not go to waste. There is no better time for action than the present.
Convergence Tracks Gender Lens Investing in Blended Finance
4 min read
Advancing gender equality is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To improve women and girls’ access to, and control over, resources and capital, money must move towards projects that integrate gender comprehensively – from design to delivery and assessment.
Empowering Women in Agriculture through Responsible Investing: Perspectives from Asia
6 min read
Responsible financing models, platforms and activities have skyrocketed in the last few years. Trends show that stocks with sound environmental and social targets may fare better than those without these targets, even in times of crisis. At the basic level, a claim of responsible finance indicates that investments catalyze positive outcomes alongside financial returns. Responsible finance can also help investors reach their sustainable development goal (SDG) targets. In Southeast Asia, there is growing interest in one responsible financing approach that focuses on women’s economic empowerment, often called “gender-lens investing”. Gender-lens investing can have positive impacts on women (and their families’) health, safety, education and livelihoods.
Finding Alternative Financing by Partnering With ‘Unusual Suspects’
5 min read
Yayasan Annisa Swasti, known as Yasanti, was established in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1982 as one of Indonesia’s first non-profit organizations that empowers women through community organizing, education, and financial independence. Focusing on women porters in traditional markets, home-based workers, industry workers, and entrepreneurs, Yasanti has not only supported women to independently manage their finances but also formally recognize home-workers through government decrees.
Gender Lens Investing Series: C4D Partners’ Ecosystem-Building Approach
4 min read
Gender lens investing entails far more than investing in women. By unleashing women’s economic participation, be it as entrepreneurs, employees, or others, there will be economic and social benefits to not only women, families and communities, but also to their country’s economic development.
Gender Lens Investing Series: Investree Pairs Fintech with Debt Financing to Support SMEs
As SMEs move into the digital space, women entrepreneurs are the face and consumers at the forefront using the services and products in this space. With women making up nearly a third of borrowers, Investree sees increasing the mix of women entrepreneurs as part of their mission as a company to increase impact – providing solutions for the underserved market.
Gender Lens Investing Series: Patamar Capital on Empowering Women in Portfolios
5 min read
At the end of the day, I believe we all share the same underlying goal of gender equality, and while it’s easy to get distracted by all the details, it’s important to remind ourselves of that!
Gender Lens Investing Series: SEAF on Busting Misconceptions with a Proven Investment Strategy
Investing in women-led or owned businesses is not enough to achieve women’s economic empowerment. However, that is still not enough to achieve women’s economic empowerment. We need to strengthen existing initiatives that support women economic empowerment and/or address any discriminatory practices. In fact, companies that commit to strong internal gender equality and continuous operational improvements will be superior business performers, both financially and socially.
Gender Matters in Business: Five Takeaways for Corporates from the AVPN Virtual Conference 2020
6 min read
2020 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action – the UN Women-led blueprint to advance women’s rights, when women empowerment should have achieved significant success. We are far from that, and will actually need another century to reach gender parity. That is certainly not helped by the ongoing pandemic, which threatens to negate even the limited gains made. Across every sphere, from education and health to economy and security, the impacts of COVID-19 have been exacerbated for women and girls.
In the Fight for Gender Equality, Nutrition Is Key
5 min read
Why Investment in Nutrition is Critical? Malnutrition is a global crisis. Poor nutrition has far-reaching implications. On an individual level, it causes people to be more susceptible to illnesses due to weakened immunities. From a wider perspective, malnutrition strains healthcare systems, and causes losses in human capital and workplace productivity. During his sharing, Martin Short, CEO of The Power of Nutrition emphasised that malnutrition costs an estimated US$3.5 trillion annually worldwide.
India in the Time of COVID-19: How Women in Local Governance Can Make a Difference
8 min read
Women’s representation in local governments is essential and has proven to be more impactful than bodies with unequal gender balance. One of the reasons is that women leaders have the same kind of preferences and development priorities as the people in their communities. The following article deals with the situation of women in local governance in India and gives a concrete example of how local governments with an increased influence of women are effective in crises like the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Investing in the She Economy – the Largest Arbitrage Opportunity of our Generation
5 min read
Virginia’s work with what she calls “the She economy” spans seven years, after she founded Lean In China with a group of friends–starting what became one of China’s leading nonprofits for women. Coming from a career in law and finance, where she worked on investments in the emerging markets for almost a decade, covering more than $30 billion worth of transactions, the potential for business to grow into — or shall we say, lean into — the gender space continues to amaze her.
Putting Girls Front and Center: Empower’s Girls Advisory Council Shapes a Better Future
7 min read
To fully empower girls and young women, EMpower’s Country Director for India, Nisha Dhawan, tells us how EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation embraces “participatory philanthropy”, anchoring the opportunity for girls to write their own futures through their Girls Advisory Council in India.
Three Ways Entrepreneur Support Organisations Can Close the Gender Financing Gap
5 min read
Despite efforts to reduce it, the gender financing gap is still alive and well in Asia. Women entrepreneurs continue to receive less funding than their male counterparts. Entrepreneur support organisations (ESOs) have a key role to play in bridging this gap. With capital becoming increasingly connected, ESOs should collaborate and partner to help our female-led businesses access capital and grow more effectively. Find out how ESOs can do so.
Why Philippines is Ripe for Gender Investments – A Spotlight on Ayala Foundation
The Philippines has achieved highest gender parity in Southeast. Yet, gender lens investing has received a lot less attention. By working with philanthropy networks, investors can engage with programmes that support and foster long-term relationships within communities
