World Café | Financing an inclusive climate transition

Gender has to move from the margins to the core of climate investment, and Canadian commitments are already backing that shift.

Key insights

• Deetken Impact is working towards its sixth fund, the Inclusive Climate Action Fund, anchored by Global Affairs Canada.

• Canada committed CAD 15 million to the Women-Led Coal Transition Mechanism, embedding women's leadership in the design and decision-making of coal-transition strategies.

• Mentoring, networks and shared data were named as what brings more women into the climate-finance ecosystem.

Q&A

• What does effective gender integration in climate finance look like in practice? Mentoring and being part of an ecosystem or network is key, and the lack of women in the financing ecosystem must change.

• What partnerships, tools and evidence are needed to scale gender-smart climate finance? Collective data and evidence.

From the room

“For a fund to deliver meaningful and lasting change, inclusion cannot begin when capital is being deployed. It must be embedded in the fund's architecture from the outset, shaping who participates, how decisions are made and who ultimately benefits.” 

World Café | Infrastructure: Breaking barriers, building value

Infrastructure delivers the strongest gender outcomes when inclusion is designed into how projects are built and operated, not treated as an ESG add-on.

Key insights

• Gender becomes actionable when tied to talent, leadership, supply chains and community relations, and built into the investment thesis from the start.

• Design for retention, not only recruitment: safe transport, childcare, appropriate PPE and workplaces where women feel safe.

• Inclusion delivers measurable value - from women solar-panel installers to women-owned suppliers entering sustainable aviation fuel value chains.

Tools and resources

• The expanded 2X supply-chain criteria, opening additional pathways for gender impact across procurement and supply chains.

Fishbowl | Leading with clarity and courage

Advancing gender equality takes intentional leadership, the courage to challenge restrictive policies, and evidence used strategically, even when the environment is resistant.

• One panellist described using her board position to increase women's representation in senior leadership — influence applied strategically from within institutions.

• Courageous leadership means challenging the policies and practices that disadvantage women.

• Evidence shifts entrenched inequalities: a microfinance institution issuing a bond, FMO research on gender-diverse leadership, and only 3.8% of philanthropic funding in New Zealand reaching women.

From the room

• “We [women] never get territory for free.” 

Tools and resources

• FMO report on gender-diverse leadership. Gender-Diverse Leadership: From Blind Spot to Corporate Value 

  • Evidence-based case for gender-diverse leadership across the Risk, Return and Impact Triangle

  • Practical roadmap for investors, companies and development finance institutions

  • Emerging-markets focus with locally responsive and sector-specific approaches

  • Action agenda for capital deployment, governance, talent pipelines and collaboration

Fishbowl | Shaping the future of Gender Lens Investing

The next phase of gender lens investing depends on designing capital around women's realities, with catalytic funding, stronger data and investor-specific readiness unlocking domestic and commercial capital.

Key insights

• Investment readiness should be designed backwards from each capital provider's requirements and from women's realities as end users (e.g. tailored allocation-readiness for pension funds).

• Domestic pension funds could significantly expand the pool of capital for gender lens investing in Africa, if approached through their own investment logic.

• Catalytic capital should prepare viable opportunities for commercial investment, with examples drawn from India, Nigeria and Kenya.

Q&A

• How can the sector change investors' perception of risk and bring pension funds in? Start with their allocation requirements, address regulatory barriers and build a readiness strategy suited to pension-fund decision making.

• Can fundraising be delegated to AI? The value of data and AI tools was recognised, with a warning that women could be left behind; the effect on early-career learning remained an open question.