Explore the Summit Highlights
Day 2

The 2X Global Summit is the annual convening of 2X Global members and strategic partners, aimed at fostering member connections, driving collaborations, and advancing meaningful actions to close the global gender financing gap.

This year’s summit, co-hosted with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), takes place in Manila, Philippines, from 2–4 September 2025.

The 2025 theme, Women Driving Resilience, highlights women’s adaptability and innovation as a source of strength to help navigate the challenges and opportunities in a changing world.

On this page, you can explore the highlights from Day 2 of the Summit. Scroll down to dive into the ideas, conversations, and solutions shaping the future of gender-smart investing.

Insights from Plenary Day

Day 2 | September 3 | Plenary sessions

We opened Day 2 of the 2X Global Summit 2025 with a clear signal of just how far the movement has come, and how far it still intends to go. The morning plenary set the tone with reflections on leadership, resilience, and the scale of capital needed to meet this moment. From there, participants moved into hands on deep dives.

Jessica Espinoza’s video message reminded us why this moment matters. In a region as dynamic and complex as Asia, the world’s most populous continent, the opportunity to close persistent gender gaps and raise the bar for capital deployment is immense. Under this year’s theme, Women Driving Resilience, we’re exploring how women’s adaptability and innovation are helping systems navigate disruption across climate, technology and global markets.
Fatima Yasmin, Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank, welcomed participants, celebrating women’s leadership and with a strong affirmation of ADB’s commitment to closing the gender finance gap through inclusive investment strategies in Asia and the Pacific.

The plenary fireside chat with Bhargav Dasgupta and Kshama Fernandes was a masterclass in leadership and purpose. They offered deep insights on resilience, and their reflections illustrated how bold ideas and intentional capital can reshape systems and expand opportunities.

No better way to break the ice than with a tangle of yarn. Marijn Wiersma led a dynamic icebreaker that had participants tossing threads across the room, ending in a vibrant web that captured the essence of the 2X Global network: connected, collaborative, and alive.
At the 2X Ignite panel, speakers underscored that financing early stage innovation demands more than capital, it requires fit for purpose instruments, flexibility from LPs, and a shared willingness to learn. Above all, unlocking the potential of emerging women-led funds hinges on bold, catalytic capital that meets managers where they are.
The 2X Challenge panel highlighted the scale and ambition of the initiative, with over USD 34 billion mobilised to date. It demonstrated how gender-lens investing is achieving measurable impact for women as entrepreneurs, leaders, and consumers across markets.
The session also marked the release of the new State of the Field Report by Criterion Institute, a valuable snapshot of where the gender-lens investing field stands today, and a roadmap for how we can continue building more equitable, accountable financial systems.
To end the plenary session, the ADB Chorale took the stage with a vibrant musical performance, celebrating the cultural richness of the Philippines and adding a unifying note to the morning’s reflections.

Relive the moments from Day 2

Webs of yarn, powerful plenaries, choral harmonies, and deep dive sessions. Plenary day of the 2X Global Summit 2025 was defined by connection, creativity and collective reflection.

Day 2 | September 3 | Deep Dive sessions

Following the opening plenary, participants dispersed into a series of Deep Dive Sessions, each offering a different lens on the tools, challenges and opportunities shaping gender-smart investing today.

Insuring the Future: This session explored how the insurance sector can become a lever for gender equity, through inclusive products that respond to women’s specific needs across the lifecycle. Participants examined models that bundle insurance with credit, savings and digital tools to boost accessibility. Case studies highlighted how guarantees unlock lending to women-owned businesses and how partnerships enable women’s entry into technical and leadership roles.
Community-based recovery models, such as women’s cooperatives, were showcased as scalable solutions, especially through digital platforms. The discussion also called for inclusive pension schemes for informal and gig workers, and integration of insurance into financial literacy efforts.
Climate resilience emerged as a key theme, with insurance positioned to support both recovery and investment in gender-responsive, climate-smart infrastructure. The session closed with a call for multi-stakeholder collaboration to link insurance with social protection, education, and community engagement.

Navigating the Polycrisis: A thought-provoking fishbowl dialogue unpacked the layered crises we face today, and how diverse actors can shape plural futures. This session invited participants to reflect on the future we are building, not as a unified field, but as a diverse ecosystem of actors holding different visions, truths, and priorities. Rather than seeking consensus, the discussion embraced complexity: the coexistence of dichotomies, contradictions, and multiple pathways forward.
Speakers encouraged the field to create space for these divergences, recognising that transformation often emerges from the margins. Holding complexity and resisting the urge to simplify is essential to building resilient, inclusive systems amid overlapping crises.

Women Shifting AI: This session challenged common fears around artificial intelligence, encouraging participants to approach it with curiosity, experimentation, and hands-on engagement. Rather than viewing AI as distant or intimidating, speakers framed it as a tool, one with the potential to elevate the work of the gender finance field, if we take the time to understand and shape it.
A central message emerged: AI will be defined by those involved in its development. If actors in our field are not part of these conversations, ethical standards and technical guidelines will be set without our perspectives. We have a collective responsibility to shape what AI will look like if we want it to be inclusive.
Women, Nature & Capital: The climate-smart sector is one of the fastest growing, with up to 6 million jobs projected in Sub-Saharan Africa. This session explored how targeted interventions such as training, partnerships for talent placement, business financing, networking, awareness campaigns, and technical assistance can create meaningful job opportunities for low-income women.
Speakers emphasised the importance of designing jobs with, not just for, women, and shared recommendations from a report, including the need to engage men meaningfully, empower women through agency and choice, and build business cases that drive long-term, systemic change.
Participants were also encouraged to consider how nature is being accounted for in their current investments, noting that investing in nature takes time, but livelihoods everywhere depend on it.

As Day 2 drew to a close, Amanda Lynch-Foster (Communications Lead, 2X Global) and Samantha Hung (Director, Gender Equality, ADB) returned to the stage to reflect on the day’s throughlines: resilience, inclusion, and collective action.

The Philippine Baranggay Folk Dance Troupe then filled the plenary with colour and movement, a vibrant celebration of the cultural richness of our host country.

To close the day, Tokunboh Ishmael, Managing Partner at Alitheia Capital, delivered a powerful keynote. The gender lens investing pioneer urged attendees to meet the moment with confidence, pointing to the solid data backing up the value of investing in women.

Her message spoke to the grit, ingenuity and determination of women shaping the future amid disruption. Her call was clear: women must not only be present at the table, but actively redesigning its contours.

Go back to Day 1

Agenda Snapshot

Sept 2 | Learning

Peer learning and capacity building tailored at different stages of the gender lens investing journeys including a networking with local ecosystem players.