About the Repository
The repository includes research, case studies and other online resources to provide a knowledge hub for impact investors actively integrating or interested in integrating a gender lens strategy into their investment portfolio. It will be updated as new resources become available.
The repository is a resource created under the GIIN’s Gender Lens Investing Initiative and Working Group, and made possible by the support of Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian Government, and BNY Mellon.
Interested in sharing a resource for consideration? Contact GIIN Member Services at networkmembership@thegiin.org.
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Gender Lens Investing comprises two broad categories
Investing with the intent to address gender issues or promote gender equity, including by:
- Investing in women-owned or -led enterprises
- Investing in enterprises that promote workplace equity (in staffing, management, boardroom representation, and along their supply chains); or
- Investing in enterprises that offer products or services that substantially improve the lives of women and girls
And/or investing with the following approaches to inform investment decisions:
- a process that focuses on gender, from pre-investment activities (e.g., sourcing and due diligence) to post-deal monitoring (e.g., strategic advisory and exiting); or
- a strategy that examines, with respect to the investee enterprises:
- Their vision or mission to address gender issues
- Their organizational structure, culture, internal policies, and workplace environment;
- Their use of data and metrics for the gender-equitable management of performance and to incentivize behavioral change and accountability; and
- How their financial and human resources signify overall commitment to gender equality.
Source: The Landscape for Impact Investing in Southeast Asia, GIIN 2018
Below is a selection of GIIN Members' GLI strategies and approaches. While they may have specific focuses in terms of asset class and geography, their strategies and approaches are generally applicable across all asset classes and geographies.
A Selection of GIIN Members’ GLI Strategies and Approaches
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These resources help make the business and impact case for why investing in gender equality and diversity is smart investing.
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This joint report by BNY Mellon and the United Nations Foundation explores the market potential of advancing gender equality.
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Calvert Impact Capital
2018
Analysis of Calvert Impact Capital’s private debt portfolio revealed a strong relationship between gender diversity in leadership positions and financial performance. The report also shares practical guidance and tools for creating a gender inclusive investment strategy.
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This paper presents a review of gender equality and its impact on economic growth, as well as how investors can positively impact gender imbalances via their portfolio management choices.
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This easy-to-reference resource compiles data points and evidence that help build the business case for gender diversity.
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IDB-Invest and ESADE
2019
This paper offers information regarding the business opportunity that gender lens investing presents in Latin America and the Carribean, and makes the case that investing with a gender focus can generate a financial return as well as contributing decisively to advancing gender equality.
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This report features nine detailed case studies that demonstrate how IFC clients and partners have achieved results by integrating women and men more equally as leaders, employees, entrepreneurs, and customers.
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This study explores the link between financial returns and gender diversity; the lack of women in the industry; and steps needed to achieve gender balance. One of the key findings of the report is that private equity and venture capital funds with gender-balanced senior investment teams generated 10% to 20% higher returns compared with funds that have a majority of male or female leaders.
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This paper examines the link between gender diversity in senior corporate positions and financial performance of two million companies in Europe. Results show a positive association between corporate return on assets and the share of women in senior positions and establish two potential channels through which gender diversity may affect firm performance.
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Impax Asset Management
2018
This report, through economic and financial studies, makes the case that achieving gender equality is a good thing for everyone, including for business and investors.
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This report finds that as much as US$12 trillion, or 11 percent, in annual 2025 GDP could be added by advancing gender equality, and identifies six types of interventions necessary to bridge the gender gap.
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This article is adapted from the report Diversity Matters, which was re-released in February 2015. Their latest research finds that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians.
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Through this brief guide, Morgan Stanley introduces its research findings and makes the case that more gender diversity, particularly in corporate settings, can translate to increased productivity, greater innovation, better decision-making, and higher employee retention and satisfaction.
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This primer seeks to clarify the range of approaches and opportunities available for investors to successfully integrate gender diversity criteria into an investment portfolio.
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MSCI’s analysis found that the financial performance of U.S. companies with at least three women on the board experienced stronger financial performance than those with no female directors. See also their annual progress reports from 2017 and 2018.
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This global survey of 21,980 firms from 91 countries reveals the relative dearth of women in high leadership positions and suggests that the presence of women in corporate leadership positions may improve firm performance. The results found no impact of board gender quotas on firm performance, but they suggest that the payoffs of policies that facilitate women rising through the corporate ranks more broadly could be significant.
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In this paper, RobecoSAM analyzes the largest companies around the world and finds that there is inequality across all industries in terms of gender representation, pay and promotion. They suggest that companies with a more diverse and equal workforce are better positioned to outperform, however with the caveat that further research would be needed to better understand the drivers and the underlying reasons.
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This policy brief explores the business case for supporting inclusive business models and gender-balanced staffing, and examines how to operationalize gender diversity into an organization’s culture by providing steps that ecosystem actors can take across a range of industries and contexts.
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Veris Wealth Partners
2015
This second edition white paper highlights the key benefits of gender lens investing to women and girls as well as investors, and explores the state of the field and the exciting, evolving array of investing possibilities.
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These select resources provide guidance on how to incorporate gender considerations into an investment strategy as well as how to measure the impact of a GLI strategy.
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This guide shares Acumen’s approach to getting beyond the standard practice of counting heads to understanding the “how” and “why” of gender impact, and provides preliminary insights from two out of five projects that have used the tool. Lean Data is a social impact measurement approach that prioritizes the use of technology (principally mobile phones) to gather quick, robust, actionable feedback and self-reported outcomes data at a fraction of the cost of other approaches. The report is meant as a preview of the full report that Acumen will be publishing in early 2019.
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Calvert Impact Capital
2018
The report offers a three-step process to developing a gender-inclusive investment strategy, including two tools developed by Calvert Impact Capital: the first framework to help investors integrate gender into their investment strategy based on the type of capital they have, and the second framework to provide basic guidance for incorporating gender into the underwriting process.
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Following a standard investment cycle, this tool supports the design of an investment strategy with considerations for how gender dynamics might present risks and opportunities. It provides a framework to consider building a gender lens into new or existing strategies to inform investment strategy or in diligence, and can be used by anyone looking to develop a gender lens investing strategy – from foundations, to women’s funds, to investors across asset classes.
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This paper applies the Total Portfolio Activation framework to help mission investors maximize their social and environmental impact across their entire portfolios and to generate positive benefits for women and girls. It presents concrete examples of leading opportunities, as well as a variety of case studies of investors, funds, and initiatives that integrate gender considerations into their investment activities.
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This primer explores the link between value creation and gender diverse companies; highlights the rising trend of colleges and universities moving towards mission-aligned investing; and outlines a diverse range of tools and investment strategies available to decision-makers as they consider the integration of gender lens products in college and university endowments.
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The Navigating Impact project helps investors select impact strategies under specific themes, and adopt metrics that indicate performance toward their goals. The Gender Lens theme includes strategies for both gender goals internal to an investee business (gender equitable pay, gender-diverse governance and leadership, etc.) and broader gender impacts external to investee businesses (access to housing for women and LGBTQ individuals, women’s empowerment through clean cookstoves, etc.). A link to a live demo of the Navigating Impact project Gender Lens theme can be found here.
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The Gender-Smart Investing Resource Hub allows investors to explore gender opportunities, screen potential investments through a gender lens, and advise companies on how to better integrate gender through their operations and supply chains. The Hub also houses gender materiality maps to highlight where gender is financially material (or not) in the particular sector, and social impact visuals to understand what impacts can be expected when integrating a gender lens in different areas.
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The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework is a practical manual and toolkit for assessing gender equality, and identifying, implementing and measuring gender equality mainstreaming strategies within companies. The framework is designed for organizations seeking financial and impact returns through investing (e.g., private equity funds, government donors, foundations) or providing support to companies (e.g., accelerators, technical assistance providers, NGOs).
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The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) self-assessment assists companies to identify viable opportunities that improve women’s inclusion in business operations while promoting business growth and increased opportunities for investment.
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Aimed at investors and other development practitioners, this toolkit highlights the potential of using finance to impact and empower adolescent girls and young women in emerging markets. The toolkit is based on the work of SPRING and four years of experience in running its accelerator for girls and young women impact ventures in East Africa and South Asia. Case studies appear throughout the toolkit to illustrate investor approaches, business mindsets, lessons learned, and implementation of planning and investment strategies.
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In 2016, the Shell Foundation and Value for Women piloted a business-first, holistic approach to gender inclusion across SME operations and clean energy value chains. This report summarizes the findings from the pilot, namely that by investing in gender inclusion, business can generate opportunities for women while also furthering their business objectives.
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The Women’s Empowerment Principles Gender Gap Analysis Tool (WEPs Tool) is a business-driven tool designed to help companies from around the world assess gender equality performance across the workplace, marketplace, and community.
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Below are some of the influencers, as well as rankings and lists of funds/products that are helping to shape and build the gender finance ecosystem.
GLI Initiatives and Networks
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The “2X Challenge” calls for the G7 and other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to join together to collectively mobilize $3 billion to investing in women.
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Launched in 2018, the Collaborative consists of 14 DFIs plus the European Investment Bank (EIB), and supports the development of shared financing principles, definitions and methodologies that promote the integration of “gender smart” decision-making into their investment processes and operations.
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EMPEA, the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets, launched the association's first industry initiative aimed at addressing the gender gap in emerging market private equity in 2018. The Working Group leverages the convening power of the organization's 300 member firms, including both general partners and limited partners, who invest in more than 130 countries worldwide and represent over US$5 trillion in assets.
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Developed by Tara Health Foundation, Nexial, and Suzanne Biegel, this interactive map presents a comprehensive picture of the actors, tools, initiatives, and types of capital that comprise the gender finance system, as well as the barriers to and leverage points for systemic change.
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Organized as the world’s first global summit focused on gender-smart investing in 2018, the Summit launched as a platform to forge partnerships, unlock barriers, pool resources, and drive action by amplifying individual and organizational commitments all to deploy capital in a gender-smart way.
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The Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) is a network of 150 college and university endowment staff, CIOs, trustees, and other fiduciaries can learn about endowment investing for a thriving, sustainable economy for the next generation. It launched a working group focused on gender lens investing in 2018.
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The Billion Dollar Fund (TBDF) is an initiative by the Global Funders Consortium for Women, focused on mobilizing $1bn for women entrepreneurs globally. In Phase 1, The Founders and a network of partners launched a campaign "The Billion Dollar Fund Campaign" to mobilize a global consortium of Blended Finance Partners that commit to an incremental goal to accelerate access to funding for, and expand the resources available to, women entrepreneurs and women-founded and -led companies. In Phase 2, investors will be asked to re-invest their initial investment plus 50% of net profits in women-founded businesses. The cycle will be repeated until a total of $1 billion incremental dollars have been invested.
Rankings and Funds/Products
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A searchable database to compare mutual funds based on their gender-lens score and financial performance.
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A global scan of public market investment vehicles
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A global scan of private market funds
What is the GIIN’s Gender Lens Investing Initiative?
Launched in October 2017, the GIIN’s Gender Lens Investing Initiative supports impact investors, who are actively integrating, or interested in integrating, a gender lens strategy into their investment portfolio. Through the collective learnings and outputs of member-driven activities, the GLI Initiative aims to build a compelling case for gender lens investing, and ultimately, to increase investor adoption of effective gender lens strategies in deploying investment capital. Further information about the Initiative can be found here.
