Breaking Barriers
How responsAbility is contributing to the Gender Lens Investing Ecosystem
Tanya Philip Impact Officer - Impact & ESG
In the rapidly evolving landscape of finance, gender lens investing has emerged as a powerful force for change. Over the past year, responsAbility has spearheaded groundbreaking initiatives, aimed at empowering women and promoting gender-smart financial services.
These developments reflect our clear intention to expand our capacities as a gender lens investor and lend our support to help develop the ecosystem around this to drive real change.
Uniting for progress: responsAbility joins the 2X Collaborative
In August 2022, responsAbility officially joined the 2X Collaborative, a global industry body driving gender lens investing within the investor ecosystem. This significant achievement reflects the company's unwavering commitment to advancing
internal capacities as a gender lens investor and fostering an ecosystem that champions diversity.
Since 2019, several of our funds have qualified for the 2X challenge.
Empowering women borrowers through strategic impact investing
More recently, responsAbility was one among three successful investment managers that won a competitive tendering process to manage a pivotal investment vehicle initiated by IFC and KFW in 2009. The vehicle, holding funds of approximately USD 500 million, is committed to being deployed as debt to financial institutions with the explicit objective to promote gender-smart financial services and enhance lending to women, women-owned and women-led businesses.
Technical assistance will also be provided to the financial institutions to help drive gender outcomes. Gender targets will be set across different 2X pillars (representation of women in ownership, leadership, employment, and consumption) both at the fund level as well as at the company level with pre-agreed timelines.
Championing gender diversity: responsAbility and the SIFEM portfolio
Additionally, responsAbility now manages the SIFEM portfolio (Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets). SIFEM is the development finance institution of the Swiss Confederation and an active member of the 2X Collaborative.
As part of the standard process, responsAbility ensures that every investment decision under SIFEM adheres to rigorous gender representation criteria. This information needs to be made readily available prior to every investment decision made under the SIFEM mandate.
For responsAbility, gender lens investing is not just a passing trend; it's a must-have approach rooted in the belief that businesses prioritizing diversity generate profound societal impact and tend to outlast their more homogeneous counterparts. We aspire to make a meaningful contribution to gender outcomes through our investments by continually refining our internal thinking and operations around this.
Our aim is to foster a more diverse and inclusive environment both internally and among our partner institutions. Moreover, with the potential to unlock a staggering USD 330 billion in annual revenues by closing the global gender gap in financial access, gender lens investing is simply smart business for a better world.