From Criterion Institute - Criterion Institute has created a tool that can be used by anyone looking to develop a gender lens investing strategy – from foundations, to women’s funds, to investors across asset classes. Following a standard investment cycle, this tool supports the design of an investment strategy with considerations for how gender dynamics might present risks and opportunities. It provides a framework to consider building a gender lens into new or existing strategies. This tool can be used to inform investment strategy or in diligence. Wherever you find yourself in your gender lens investing journey, we hope this tool helps expand imagination of what is possible in the field.

From MEDA - The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework is a practical manual and toolkit for assessing gender equality, and identifying, implementing and measuring gender equality mainstreaming strategies within companies. The framework builds upon the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment standard by mainstreaming gender across ESG criteria. This alignment with the ESG investment standard promotes adoption in an industry that is increasingly ESG-compliant.

Designed for organizations seeking financial and impact returns through investing or providing support to companies, the manual is applicable to a wide range of investors (e.g. private equity funds, government donors, foundations) and capacity builders (e.g. accelerators, technical assistance providers, NGOs).The ultimate aim of the framework is to transform companies to be more gender equitable while supporting business growth and impact.

This report from FSA Open Policy Lab summarises gender diversity challenges in Japan’s startup ecosystem based on 19 individual interviews, discussion at a workshop, data analysis and literature review conducted by the Open Policy Lab. Three main findings in this report are as follows: Firstly, Japan needs to overcome the persistent gender inequality in the management of listed companies. While numerous measures have been in force, female leaders of the newly listed companies account for only 2%. Secondly, gender diversity in the startup ecosystem is a critical agenda from economic perspectives. Lacking in gender diversity, male-dominant companies may suffer from a variety of losses, including the impact on profitability. Third, all stakeholders in the startup ecosystem should act now to change the status quo. Investment in startups has been on the rise. If current practices remain unchanged, existing distortions would likely be maintained or even strengthened.

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.

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 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 Forbes. There have been at least six shareholder proposals during this proxy season, according to Parallelle Finance, a research firm that monitors, analyses and advocates for gender lens investing. It appears that shareholder activism is increasingly a successful strategy by investors to enhance companies’ performance and disclosures on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, including in diversity and inclusion.

From the Government of Canada. In 2013, the Government of Canada announced the Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP). It is a market oriented approach to put Canada's VC industry on the path to sustainability, make it more globally competitive, and increase the availability of financing for innovative Canadian firms.

Under VCAP, the Government is deploying $390 million in new capital. In particular, VCAP has made available:

• $340 million to establish and recapitalize four large scale private sector-led funds of funds in partnership with institutional and corporate strategic investors, as well as interested provinces; and

• $50 million in four existing high-performing VC funds in Canada.

The four VCAP funds-of-funds attracted significant investments from a diverse set of investors that included pension funds, high-net-worth individuals, corporations, banks, and the governments of Ontario and Quebec. Including the federal government investment, the four funds-of-funds raised $1.356 billion. Of that, $904 million came from private sector investors.

From University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this study of IBM’s LGBT+ self-identification practice, we inaugurate a series of case studies of diversity and inclusion policies and practices adopted by innovative companies.

This report and the series are designed to explore the business rationale and goals of IBM and other companies when adopting inclusive policies and practices, to assess the impact of the policies and practices, and to provide insight for employers who might learn from the experiences of innovators. The series will also serve learning goals for students and other relevant practitioners. After a brief introduction, this report describes how IBM’s selfID process works. The second section describes how IBM arrived at this moment, and the third and fourth sections describe implementation and the uses of the data. The final section looks ahead to the future of the practice.

By Cathy Clark, Jed Emerson, Ben Thornley. This book offers precise details on what, exactly, impact investing entails, embodied in the experiences and best and proven practices of some of the world's most successful impact investors, across asset classes, geographies and areas of impact. The book discusses the parameters of impact investing in unprecedented detail and clarity, providing both context and tools to those eager to engage in the generational shift in the way finance and business is being approached in the new era of Collaborative Capitalism.

The book presents a simple thesis with clarity and conviction: "Impact investing can be done successfully. This is what success looks like, and this is what it requires." With much-needed lessons for practitioners, the authors view impact investing as a harbinger of a new, more "multilingual" (cross-sector), transparent, and accountable form of economic leadership.

From MIT D-Lab and SEED. How do we co-design partnership models where all partners — despite their differences — have a shared understanding and buy-in for the value created and captured within the partnership? The Partnership Co-design Toolkit (P.ACT) seeks to tackle this challenge and offers a disciplined, inclusive, and practical approach to co-creating better value chain partnerships.

Collaboration between impact entrepreneurs and large corporate, government, or development actors holds the promise of scaling key innovations, yet these hybrid partnerships are difficult to forge, and many often fail due to uneven foundations. This toolkit is targeted towards impact entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, partnership brokers and facilitators, and accelerators supporting impact entrepreneurs who are initiating value chain partnerships, partnerships where organizations seek to integrate existing or create new value chains to bring these innovations to market.

Designed to maximize partnership success, P.ACT offers four unique features:

• Co-design process: A four stage co-design framework to ensure inclusive participation and continuous engagement of all partners.

• Value focus: Emphasis on defining both the value created and the value captured through the partnership. It focuses the partners' attention on generating value for their customers and beneficiaries as well as for their organizations.

• Collaborative approach: Individual self-assessment and reflection alongside collective problem solving, constructive dialogue, decision making, and action planning.

• Modular use: Enabling users to diagnose their partnership needs and helps them identify the right tools to move their partnership forward.

From Criterion Institute. There is a documented correlation between levels of violence against women and state instability. In fact, the level of violence against women in a given country is said to be a better predictor of peace, compliance with treaty obligations, and relations with neighboring countries than indicators measuring levels of wealth or democracy. Yet the methodologies currently used to measure political risk—which guide investors, corporations, insurers, and governments in assessing conditions that may impact the profitability of investments in a particular country—do not include indicators measuring violence against women. This is despite the fact that these same methodologies account for riots, terrorism, civil war, and other types of violence.

Gender lens investing (GLI) is based on the premise that investing in companies that promote gender equality through their internal policies or through their business activities is not only morally responsible but can lead to higher financial returns. To date, the majority of GLI in Sub-Saharan Africa has been carried out through dedicated investment vehicles such as Alitheia, a Nigerian private equity fund which uses a gender lens approach, or initiatives such as the IFC’s Banking on Women (in conjunction with Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women). Now, a number of development finance institutions (DFIs), development agencies and investor groups are looking to expand the footprint of GLI, popularise gender considerations in investing and provide greater clarity about GLI.

Gender bonds, as a recent development in both the themed bond space and in the GLI space, are still relatively poorly defined, beyond being bonds that support the advancement, empowerment and equality of women. No official or universal definition exists. Like other themed bonds, gender bonds can be issued as senior unsecured notes referencing the balance sheet of the issuer, where proceeds are ringfenced for specific use on eligible ‘gender’ activities, or as securitisations referencing a pool of assets directly (e.g. issued off balance sheet by an SPV into which a portfolio of eligible loans are placed).

According to asset managers and industry associations with which GAO spoke, minority- and women-owned (MWO) asset managers face challenges when competing for investment management opportunities with institutional investors, such as retirement plans and foundations. For example, institutional investors and their consultants often prefer to contract with large asset managers with brand recognition and with whom they are familiar. Also, small firms, including MWO firms, are often unable to meet minimum requirements set by institutional investors, such as size (assets under management) and past experience (length of track record). State, local, and private retirement plans and foundations GAO interviewed addressed these challenges in a variety of ways, such as asking their consultants to include MWO firms in their searches. Many plans also lowered their minimum threshold requirements so that the requirements were proportional to the size of the firms while maintaining the same performance requirements for all asset managers in their selection processes.

Federal retirement plans, the endowment, and the insurance program GAO reviewed invest in asset classes in which MWO asset managers have a market presence, but overall use of MWO firms varied. For example, some retirement plans either did not use any MWO firms or did not track this information. The endowment and insurance program reported using some MWO asset managers.

GAO identified four key practices institutional investors can use to increase opportunities for MWO asset managers. These practices are consistent with federal interests in increasing opportunities for MWO businesses.

• Top leadership commitment . Demonstrate commitment to increasing opportunities for MWO asset managers.

• Remove potential barriers. Review investment policies and practices to remove barriers that limit the participation of smaller, newer firms.

• Outreach. Conduct outreach to inform MWO asset managers about investment opportunities and selection processes.

• Communicate priorities and expectations. Explicitly communicate priorities and expectations about inclusive practices to investment staff and consultants and ensure those expectations are met.

Some federal entities we reviewed, such as the Federal Reserve System, have used all the practices, but others made partial, limited, or no use of the practices.

• The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board does not intend to use the practices in its planned mutual fund window platform.

• The Navy Exchange Service Command and Tennessee Valley Authority Retirement System used one practice, but have not used the others.

• The Army and Air Force Exchange Service has used two practices, and partially used two practices.

By using the key practices, the entities GAO reviewed could widen the pool of candidates in their asset manager searches and help ensure that they find the most qualified firms. In keeping with federal interests, the practices could also help address barriers MWO firms face and increase opportunities for them.

From the Financial Times. All-women and mixed-gender US fund teams outperformed all-male portfolio management teams so far this year, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis that raises fresh questions about the investment industry’s progress in addressing its gender diversity problems.

To mark the centenary of US women winning the right to vote, Goldman analysed 496 large-cap US equity funds with combined assets of $2.3tn to compare the performance of funds where at least one-third of the portfolio management roles were female with portfolio management teams run entirely by men.

From Glenmede. While deeper measures of gender equity may be necessary to achieve social outcomes, do they offer the potential to achieve financial outcomes as well? This paper explores the materiality of five dimensions of gender equity: women in leadership, access to benefits, diverse supply chains, pay equity, and talent and culture. Within each dimension, we will explore the economic argument for why public companies should look beyond the women in leadership metric to ensure equitable conditions for all employees. Companies who fall short in this area may face unexpected risks, hampering long-term growth opportunities and weakening their bottom line.

From Parallelle Finance. This table lists the primary publicly-traded gender lens equity funds available to individual investors, including mutual fund, ETF, ETN, SICAV, sub-SICAV, trust and unit trust structures. Some provide several share classes and multiple exchange listings. The funds are divided into global and regional equity, then ranked by AUM, which totals $2.7 billion.

From Morningstar. As goal #5 of The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals states, “Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.“ In the corporate sphere, the same principles hold. Research has shown that companies committed to robust gender diversity policy and practice achieve superior financial results. The Morningstar® Developed Markets Ex-Japan Gender Diversity IndexSM offers exposure to companies exhibiting strong gender diversity policy and practice, leveraging The Equileap Gender Equality Scorecard™.

From UBS. Over the last decade, social diversity and economic inequalities have come to the fore as social and political flash points in advanced economies and beyond. They are stoking public calls for change and presenting disruption and opportunities alike to the global economy.

In this long-term investment theme, UBS analysts focus on applying a diversity lens to investing in public equities, one that homes in on the impact of diversity on the economic labor force and the corporate workplace. While gender lens investing has been a core pillar of sustainable investing for the last decade, our understanding of social inequalities and the intersection of gender with other forms of diversity is a more recent development.