Identifying Gender Data Gaps to Move the Field Forward
By Danielle Burt, World Benchmarking Alliance
It’s 2020 and there is a lot of gender data out there, whether you’re making the business case or developing an impact framework. However there is also an opportunity to be more efficient and effective with the gender data that is or will be collected. This could be by aggregating existing resources in an accessible format, developing compelling narratives aligned to key data, or harmonising the data so there is some consistency of definitions and metrics.
The gender-smart investing community is a great accelerator in itself, and our collective experience can both inform those newer to the field as well as solve for remaining challenges. The following unmet gender data needs, identified during the recent GenderSmart Virtual Programme, are an opportunity to work more efficiently as a community and move further, faster, and smarter together. We’ve also compiled a list of what’s working well today.
General Gender Data and Resources
There’s an appetite for key resources that aggregate gender data knowledge and support the diverse needs of gender smart investors at scale, for example:
Beginner’s Guide to Gender (Data): A primer for those earlier in their gender smart investing journey that addresses gender norms/biases, gender smart investing frameworks, and/or the basics of gender data and how to think about it.
Who’s Who in Gender Data: A way to leverage the power of this GenderSmart investing community that makes better use of what’s already out there and what we already know by capturing relevant frameworks, tools, data sets, etc. used by this community, indicating how they’ve been used, for what purpose and what was learned
Gender Data Warehouse: The one-stop-shop of gender data that consolidates all available data today into a user-friendly interface that allows for searching by investment thesis/theme, stage in investment process (e.g., due diligence, monitoring), sector, geography, value chain element, etc.
Business Case 2.0
For those that have already embarked on their gender-smart investing journey, the overall business case for gender equality is clear. However, there is also a desire for sharpening this case further for specific audiences:
The newbies: Most compelling overall ‘business case for gender equality’ to share with those that are not yet on board with gender-smart investing or those very early in their journey - e.g., myth-busting data that affirms that first time fund managers of gender-smart funds perform equally well
The skeptics: Evidence that substantiates the business case further including by linking business/social performance with effective gender integration work (e.g., G-SEARCh for SMEs with AlphaMundi et al.; SheEO) or by disproving that investing in women leads to lower returns or bad outcomes
The issue-specific: Evidence to support the business case for specific areas (e.g., menstrual health; infrastructure sector; emerging markets)
The progressives: For those further along the spectrum that are interested in data that goes beyond ‘counting women’ (e.g., in leadership/employment) to create measurable and long-lasting value, which may include more evolved data (e.g., job creation, retention, company culture)
Gender Data 2.0
There’s an opportunity to use gender data in a more compelling way (e.g., to encourage corporates and policymakers to act), as well as source more compelling gender data (e.g., across value chains, beyond financial impact). We need to move beyond the simplest data that ‘counts women’ in leadership or employment to:
Data that looks across value chains
Women’s representation in core P&L functions
Economic impact of women entrepreneurs / diverse teams
Beyond financial impact
e.g., networks, expertise, buying power
e.g., rights/resources/representation outcomes (that look beyond women as leaders, employees, customers)
Ecosystem impact beyond just counting women e.g., youth unemployment in South Africa and its links to labour market entry costs, how to cultivate good quality jobs for women in sectors that aren’t typically female
Qualitative data that is accepted/valued
Company culture data
Support For Fund Managers
Building on the robust resources and GenderSmart investing community experience, there remains an appetite for further gender-smart guidance for fund managers, from portfolio assessment and due diligence/monitoring, to impact assessment and effective TA, including particular interest in first-time/emerging managers. Specifically:
Assessing funds themselves, e.g.,:
Diversity of portfolio managers
Performance of early-stage/first-time funds, disaggregated by gender
Performance of GLI funds by investment thesis/theme, vs. benchmarks
How to support funds and SMEs to consider women across value chains, including how to effectively capture gender data (e.g., gender-inclusive due diligence questionnaires/processes), assess, monitor, and analyse gender data, act on gender data and/or drive effective TA
More case studies and examples of how fund managers have gone about implementing a gender lens in successive funds or have used gender data to design/structure a new fund and short-list investments
Additional resources for emerging managers
Corporate Gender Data that Moves People
Alongside the appetite for greater depth and scale of corporate gender data is the appetite for corporate gender data that ‘moves’ policymakers, shareholders, civil society activists and corporates themselves. Target outcomes include corporate transparency, and corporate action via shareholder resolutions or, for policymakers, working with governments to mandate reporting.
Sectoral, Regional, and Context-Specific Needs
With such a diverse community, comes a diverse set of gender data strengths to build on and unmet gender data needs to address regarding: Emerging markets; Intersectionality; COVID-19; Informal sector; Climate; Care Economy; Healthcare; Financial Services; Infrastructure; Education.
If you’re working on any of the gaps above, please let us know so that we can reduce duplication, and connect you to possible collaborators, as appropriate.