Explore the Summit Highlights
Day 3

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 3 of the Summit. Scroll down to dive into the ideas, conversations, and solutions shaping the future of gender-smart investing.

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Insights from Members Day

Day 3 | September 4

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.

  • Show me the impact: Key learnings from 2X DFI evaluations

    This session unpacked findings from evaluations conducted between 2023 and 2025 across BII, Proparco, FinDev Canada, and FMO. The research examined the effectiveness of gender lens investing (GLI) strategies, comparing 2X aligned investments against non 2X counterparts, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship, leadership, and employment criteria.

    Key insights:

    • Outcomes for women hinge on more than just meeting 2X thresholds. Implementation beyond compliance is essential.

    • Gender diverse leadership emerged as a critical, yet underutilised driver of outcomes.

    • 2X aligned investments showed stronger and more institutionalised gender practices.

    • DFIs influence gender outcomes not only through capital but also through persistent engagement and non financial support.

    • Leadership Criteria drive transformation; Employment Criteria expand access.

    • Gender diverse leadership predicts better gender outcomes, but not in isolation.

    • 2X aligned portfolios outperformed non 2X in both impact and operational quality.

    • A deliberate, end to end approach (tools, processes, client support) is key to effective GLI.

  • Disability-inclusive investing: Investing with an accessibility lens

    This session broadened the equity conversation, centring on disability inclusion and accessibility within investment strategies. Moving beyond gender binaries, speakers emphasised the need for workplace systems that account for diverse entry points and lived experiences.

    Highlights:

    • Equality ≠ Equity: resource allocation must consider individual contexts.

    • Current rollbacks in DEI efforts were noted with concern.

    • Organisations like WomHub are embedding inclusion through infrastructure (e.g. menopause rooms, inclusive labs) and policy shifts (e.g. flexible work, GBV training).

    • Innovative practices such as KPI linked “Re-turnity” programmes signal a shift toward gender transformative approaches.

    • The call: inclusion must move from tokenistic to systemic, supported by leadership buy in and data beyond binary classification.

  • Mobilising Impact-Linked Finance

    This session explored how linking capital to outcomes, particularly through 2X Certification, can accelerate gender impact.

    Highlights:

    • Impact linked rewards (e.g. 1.0x–1.2x multipliers) incentivise measurable gender progress.

    • Examples like Jamii.one in Ethiopia demonstrate how financial levers can shift business models and user demographics.

    • Institutions such as IDB Invest and SDC are embedding these tools into blended finance vehicles and gender bonds.

    • 2X Certification provides an anchor, clarifying metrics, simplifying tracking, and reinforcing accountability.

  • New pathways to finance women entrepreneurs: Breaking myths and redesigning products

    This session addressed longstanding assumptions in the finance sector. Data from Grameen Bank and IFC confirm that women are, in fact, more reliable loan repayers than men.

    Highlights

    • Barriers persist: collateral constraints, household responsibilities, and time poverty.

    • Group based lending models (e.g. Village Savings and Loans Associations - VSLAs) offer practical, scalable entry points.

    • Human centred design principles and lifecycle approaches are needed to tailor financial products to women’s realities.

    • Financial institutions must reframe women as viable long term clients, not simply beneficiaries, but future investment ready entrepreneurs.

What Happened on Day 3

On the final day of the 2X Global Summit, conversations came full circle.

  • Insuring climate risk: Gender responsive solutions for climate adaptation

    This session connected climate resilience with gender equity through the lens of insurance and risk transfer. Discussions spanned microinsurance, sovereign risk pools, and SME focused coverage.

    Highlights

    • Climate disasters are not gender neutral, access to insurance remains skewed.

    • SEADRIF’s payouts in ASEAN (e.g. USD 1.3M to Laos in 2023) illustrate the power of sovereign instruments, but delivery must reach women at the household level.

    • AXA and WWB pointed to the need for contextualised, empathetic product design.

    • Emerging risks, like heat stress, demand new frameworks that include women in both design and distribution.

  • Serious about safety: Tackling GBVH

    A powerful session that addressed gender-based violence, harassment, and exploitation as central concerns in the investment ecosystem.

    Highlights

    • Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (SEAH) is a legal and strategic issue. Safe workplaces are productive, stable, and resilient.

    • From 2019, 2X aligned DFIs have embedded gender assessments into due diligence, using clear definitions, survivor centred reporting, and portfolio wide capacity building.

    • Collaboration with women’s rights organisations strengthens practice and ensures local relevance.

    • SEAH risk is now routinely integrated into contracts and technical assistance frameworks.

    • Preventing GBVH is not an add-on. It is intrinsic to sustainable investment and inclusive growth.

  • Gender bonds with integrity: Building confidence through standards

    This discussion highlighted gender bonds as a scalable tool for mobilising capital with impact.

    Highlights

    • Gender bonds set measurable impact targets, blending financial and social returns.

    • Examples ranged from improving access to finance to empowering women entrepreneurs.

    • Verification, data systems, and cross-sector collaboration were identified as critical success factors.

    • Barriers persist: limited investor awareness and insufficient local capacity.

    The conclusion was pragmatic: gender bonds are not a silver bullet, but when designed well, they can shift the centre of gravity in sustainable finance.

  • Session: The LAC Approach: Challenges, Solutions, and Impact

    The discussion traced how gender lens investing is evolving in Latin America and the Caribbean.

    Highlights

    • Gender lens investing is evolving in Latin America and the Caribbean. Private debt is advancing with tailored banking products like GTC Mujer, while sustainability-linked bonds are emerging in Brazil and Chile. Venture capital remains limited outside Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.

    • The region has advanced through private debt instruments and has become a global leader in gender bonds

    • ProMujer illustrated this shift with its issuances in Argentina and Nicaragua, alongside efforts to embed women as entrepreneurs, leaders, and investors across the value chain.

    • IDB Invest reflected on two decades of linking gender and blended finance, supporting more than 20 gender bonds, including one with Natura. Yet, persistent gaps remain.

    • Banco ProCredit Ecuador flagged persistent leadership gaps in the country: only 23.7% of women hold management roles despite high workforce participation. Just 10% of its green portfolio is women-led, prompting efforts to raise awareness and support cases like Adhinflex S.A.

    • Climate-KIC added the lens of intersectionality, stressing how climate change compounds barriers for women. Still, targeted entrepreneurship programmes are beginning to build capacity and resilience.

    • Despite the challenges, there was optimism. The region is moving beyond donor dependence and shaping home-grown models of gender-smart finance that reflect its own realities and ambitions.

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.

Sept 3 | Plenary

Panel discussions and interactive thematic deep dives to explore opportunities, challenges and ways to leapfrog gender-smart innovations.

Sept 4 | Members

Small group workshops and focused networking and knowledge sharing to foster deeper engagement within the 2X Global network.

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