From Oliver Wyman Forum - More than a fifth of major corporations have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Yet few actively include or consider women in their climate action decisions and plans. This is a mistake. Research shows that women are the most likely change‑makers for climate in economic areas from corporate leadership to product development. But these potential contributions are generally overlooked, we discovered in interviews with more than 20 companies across a range of industries. These challenges should be linked together, especially given the similarities in their requirements for tangible impact: committed leadership, a rigorous focus on data, and continuous learning across the organization. Our conversations and research uncovered opportunities for corporations to speed up the world’s race to net zero by mainstreaming gender considerations in climate focused business initiatives — in particular, by actively considering women in three roles: Climate action leaders; Climate-lens investors; Low-carbon product influencers.

From WOCAN and the W+ Advisory Council - This white paper posits that if we don’t address gender and climate jointly, we undermine both agendas. By integrating the two, we can amplify the impact of both. The cost of inaction is high. To reach the scale required for fast climate results, we cannot afford to exclude the knowledge, skills and networks of women by neglecting their contributions to tackle climate change, nor ignore the threats climate change poses to global gains in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

From Frontier Brokers and Australian Aid - “The report shares insights and process learning from design and early implementation of the Frontier Brokers’ projects. Key takeaways are included for funders, brokers, and others in the investment community who are interested in pursuing gender lens investing, and the report also includes recommendations for DFAT and other donors to pursue in promoting gender lens investing.”

From Moxie Future: This study provides clear data that a more diverse boardroom leads ot bolder measures in addressing climate change after studying 159 global firms, some of which are the world’s biggest carbon emitting companies.

From the US Department of State- This report details the first National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality from the USA and presents a comprehensive overview of the government approach.

From Fairview Capital- “In our latest report, we share Fairview’s data on the size, evolution, and current characteristics of the universe of woman and minority-owned private equity and venture capital firms (firms majority owned by women and/or ethnic minorities in the US). In 2021, we found that this set of diverse private equity and venture capital firms is larger and more dynamic than ever before.”

From Women Win. The Gender-Responsive Due Diligence (GRDD) Platform describes the process of adding a gender lens to human rights due diligence and offers practical resources and advice to help implement each step of the due diligence process. This platform consists of two core components:

1. Understanding GRDD

2. Implementing GRDD

The GRDD platform has primarily been designed and developed for multi-national enterprises and brands with global supply chains, in both products and services sectors. The platform is intended for any company that has started, or is going to start, implementing human rights due diligence and is keen to ensure this is done in a gender-responsive manner.

Gender diversity at work and investing in equality for women can actually increase a company’s—and your portfolio’s—bottom line. Lily Trager, Wealth Management, Director of Impact Investing at Morgan Stanley, explains.

From IFC. As part of efforts to bring greater clarity on what the bond market can do to advance gender equality, IFC, in partnership with UN Women and the International Capital Market Association, developed Bonds to Bridge the Gender Gap: A Practitioner’s Guide to Using Sustainable Debt for Gender Equality. The guide provides a framework to the market on how sustainable debt instruments can be used to advance gender equality in both the public and private sectors.

The guide, which was developed with financial support from the Government of Japan, provides illustrative examples of gender-related activities and targets that potential issuers can consider. The publication will especially be helpful for arrangers, borrowers, underwriters, external reviewers, as well as new and existing bond issuers to take steps to integrate gender equality objectives into sustainable debt products.

The guide is also a resource for investors seeking to understand and support projects and strategies that are designed to advance gender equality.

From Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society. This paper offers insights and practical guidance for procurement professionals and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion advocates to build engagement and inspire action on supplier diversity and genderinclusive sourcing. Part of the Women4Business Toolkit for Action, it includes key steps for building engagement internally, with suppliers, and in external communications. The guide features case studies of best practices to deepen knowledge in the field, along with a set of talking points and key resources to strengthen the case for advancing supplier diversity and inclusion globally.

From summer camps to long-term care insurance, automated meal-planning, and renovations to make beloved homes more accessible for older adults, the market for products and services that help consumers care for the people in their lives is huge. In fact, in 2019, the care economy totaled at least $648 billion, making it $138 billion larger than the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

The Investor’s Guide breaks new ground by measuring the care economy as a singular, holistic market. The findings help founders and funders think strategically about entering the care economy.

From the 2X Collaborative. A toolkit enabling investors to identify opportunities and mitigate risks in gender and climate finance. This Toolkit explains how investors and fund managers can identify and prioritise gender-smart climate investments, as well as related risks and opportunities. They can do so by applying a gender-smart lens to their climate finance qualified investments. Both direct investments and indirect investments in financial intermediaries (including a percentage of a financial institution’s on-lending facilities or a percentage of a fund manager’s portfolio) may qualify.

From AlphaMundi and Value for Women. Over 18 months, AlphaMundi and Value for Women (VfW) piloted strategies designed to both address gender disparities and improve business performance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. Learn about these strategies and the exciting early impacts and results.

From Criterion Institute and Tiedemann Advisors. Tiedemann Advisors and Criterion Institute have developed a detailed guide on how investors can start moving capital in alignment with ending gender-based violence. Their hope is to bring greater awareness to the issue of gender-based violence; inviting more people within the financial services community into that fold to help accomplish systemic change.

From Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) and the Angel Investment Network Indonesia (ANGIN). The Emergence of Angel Investment Networks in Southeast Asia is the first research of its kind focusing on Angel Investment Networks (AINs) in Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on Gender Lens Investing practices.

As first report of a three part series, A Good Practice Guide to Effective Angel Investing focuses on the development and current landscape of Angel Investment Networks in Southeast Asia and provides an overview of the functions, taxonomy, and challenges facing Angel Networks in the region. Based on interviews with expert practitioners, this report also provides advice for managers and members of Angel Investment Networks to explore mechanisms to achieve financial sustainability, implement operational improvements, and pursue collaborations with other ecosystem players including entrepreneurs, government, intermediaries, and other investors.

The second report, A Spotlight on Gender Lens Investing (GLI), examines how GLI is being applied by Angel Investment Networks in Southeast Asia and provides insights into the opportunities and challenges for hybrid GLI-Angel Investments.

From Digital Undivided. The 2021 update to digitalundivided’s ongoing, proprietary research initiative on the state of Black and Latinx women founders.

From CNote. This report reflects insights from BIPOC women entrepreneurs collected through survey responses from over 75 women, more than 40 hours of individual interviews, and a two-day convening of 20 women. Research participants represented a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, industries, geographic regions, and stages of business. Additionally, Impact Experience surveyed more than 20 CDFIs, capital providers, and intermediaries to better understand the challenges that community lenders face when women of color come to them for lending.

From McKinsey. An updated view into gender and racial diversity in financial services—as well as women’s day-to-day work experiences—reveals some progress. But challenges in building an equitable and inclusive workplace persist.

At the beginning of 2021, women in North America remained dramatically underrepresented in the financial-services workforce—particularly at the level of senior management and above. A new industry-specific analysis of data from the latest Women in the Workplace report, a McKinsey collaboration with LeanIn.Org, reveals a leaky pipeline from which women are falling out in greater numbers as they progress up the career ladder, resulting in significant inequality at the top. Consistent with previous years, women in financial services continue to experience a “broken rung” at the first step from entry level to manager—where they are significantly less likely than men to be promoted (for more about our research, see sidebar “About the research and findings”). At the same time, women leaders have taken on the additional responsibilities of supporting employees and investing in diversity and inclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic—but they aren’t being rewarded for this critical work.

From Oxfam. Care work needs to be recognized, shared and invested in now more than ever given that progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 – Achieve Gender Equality – is behind target and COVID-19 has created additional challenges with increases in care work, poverty and precariousness that could reverse gains made in gender equality and poverty reduction. Tools that can enable countries to monitor and track progress and hold governments to account on these commitments are critically needed as countries rebuild their economies and address the fallouts from the pandemic.

The Care Policy Scorecard provides a practical tool to assess and track the extent to which government policies related to care are adopted, budgeted for and implemented, and the extent to which they have a transformative effect on care. It can be used at the national or sub-national level. The Scorecard is intended to be used by civil society, government and academia alike. Whether you are a policy maker, work for an NGO or are a researcher, the Scorecard allows you to carry out an assessment of the care public policy environment in your country to understand where there is positive progress, and where there are gaps and room for improvement.

From Agence Française de Développement and UN Women. This report offers a unique perspective with concrete examples of how Public Development Banks (PDBs) have delivered on a gender equality agenda across their varied mandates, histories and methods of engagement. The report’s case-studies show both internal and external approaches and practices to tackling gender equality. It underlines and demonstrates the tremendous benefit for PDBs in understanding how to address and measure their own gender equality, either as organizations and/or with their partners, in order to create a more inclusive and equal world.