What can development actors, philanthropists and foundations do to support the field of gender lens investing? Suzanne Biegel lists seven high impact strategic levers that could have an exponential impact on the movement of gender lens capital globally.

If you take a quick glance at the agri businesses in West-Africa, what you see is a male dominated sector. Typically, financiers look at who sells the commodities (men), who is registered as owner of the land (men). and who is more likely to have a full-time written contract (men). It’s as if women do not exist in the agri value chains. But the opposite is true.

A focus on equality and gender has to be an integral part of green investments and policy actions, not an addition or afterthought. EBRD write about their work to integrate gender across a range of programmes over the last year, providing financing, policy dialogue and technical assistance.

This article is part of a series from contributors to GenderSmart’s Gender and Climate Investment Working Group. For most, Gender and Climate Investing is a new field, but there is already a lot of great work underway. By showcasing powerful examples from across the investment ecosystem, Working Group contributors are using their voices in the lead up to February’s GenderSmart Investing Summit and beyond to highlight the important role a combined gender and climate lens can play in delivering a just, green economy transition.

We speak to Charity Wallace, Managing Director for the Global Women's Issues office, and Alec Paxton, Director in the Social Enterprise Finance Team and the first chair of the 2X Challenge, about the forging new public-private partnerships, institutional buy-in, and the importance of intentionality.

We speak to Jen Braswell, Director of Value Creation at CDC Group, about the importance of designing a gender strategy with operationalisation in mind, getting leadership and team buy-in, and maintaining momentum at a time of immense global upheaval amidst competing business priorities.

Jessica Espinoza is gender lead at Germany’s development finance institution, DEG, where she has been spearheading gender strategy across the organisation since 2018. Jessica co-leads the investment officer and tools working group at the Gender Finance Collaborative, and was recently announced as the new chair of the 2X Challenge. The following interview took place in July 2020.