SWEEF Capital Publishes Practitioner’s Manual for its Gender ROI Assessment Tool

Singapore-based SWEEF Capital has published a Practitioner’s Manual to accompany its groundbreaking Gender ROI Assessment Tool.  “Increasing numbers of organizations, government bodies, industry advocates and investors are engaging in frank conversations about barriers preventing women’s full participation in many activities, including access to capital and meaningful career pathways,” writes the gender-lens investment firm. “The new…(Read more)

Scaling Gender Change in Canadian Climate Finance in Developing Economies

Global Affairs Canada has released a new report entitled A Journey of Purpose: Learning to Scale Gender Change in Canadian Climate Finance in Developing Economies. Authored by Dr. Edward Jackson for the Department’s Climate Finance Division, the discussion paper examines Canada’s USD 3B long-term debt portfolio with multilateral banks and funds aimed at financing major…(Read more)

Ventures at the Helm of their Impact Measurement

Longtime Jackson and Associates colleague and global thought leader in impact assessment, Karim Harji has worked with a team of colleagues—Laura Budzyna, Penny Hawkins, and Heather Hachigian—to produce one of the field’s most innovative tools, entitled Ventures at the Helm. “This guide,” the authors write, “seeks to help impact ventures identify and advocate for the…(Read more)

A Gender Lens Investing Roadmap for Australian Investors

One of the most significant events at the Impact Investment Summit for the Asia Pacific region, held in Sydney on March 29-31, 2022, was the release of the report entitled A Roadmap for Australian Investors: How to invest to achieve gender equity, racial equity, diversity, and inclusion, by Capital Human and Impact Investing Australia.  Taking…(Read more)

Forthcoming: Special JSFI Issue on Growing Gender Lens Investing in Emerging Markets

From November 2021 through February 2022, the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment published six articles online on gender lens investing that will appear in the forthcoming special JSFI issue on Growing Gender Lens Investing in Emerging Markets. Edited by Edward Jackson and Carolina Robino, and supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, the articles…(Read more)

Standards Setters Work Together on Inclusive Finance Playbook

On February 18, 2022, the Investor Leadership Network convened a group of prominent standards organizations to discuss a common playbook for accelerating and measuring inclusion in sustainable investments. As ILN reported: “Roundtable participants included senior leaders from Values Reporting Foundation, Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), Responsible Investment Association (RIA), OECD’s Business for Inclusive Growth (B4IG),…(Read more)

CAFIID releases 2021 State of Sector Report

On December 1, 2021, the Canada Forum on Impact Investment and Development (CAFIID) launched its 2021 State of the Sector Report.  Among other findings, the report found that Canadian impact investment assets in developing and emerging economies total $3.5 billion, a significant increase over the past three years. The report also examined diversity in the sector,…(Read more)

Designing Evaluations of Blended Finance Instruments

A new OECD working paper takes a pluralist and pragmatic approach to the design of evaluations of blended finance instruments at the front-end of the results chain–particularly related to mobilization and leverage, additionality, and concessionality–and for downstream results, as well. Prepared by a team from DEval, the German Institute for Development Evaluation, and drawing on…(Read more)

Blended Finance, Gender Equality and Climate Change

In early November 2020, the Convergence Blended Finance Platform published a Brief entitled How can blended finance address the gendered impacts of climate change? As Senior Associate Andrew Apampa writes, of 63 blended finance transactions at the gender-climate nexus, most have been structured through funds and companies and have focused on clean energy, particularly renewable…(Read more)