A recent post by the International Finance Corporation highlighted an investment by Circulate Capital, a Singapore-based climate fund, in Union J Plus in Thailand, “a women-owned and led company that collects and recycles large volumes of domestic plastic waste in Thailand and converts it primarily into premium, food-grade polyolefin plastic”. The injection of capital “will…(Read more)
Tag: impact investment
Just Transition Finance: Pathways for Banking and Insurance
At COP 28 in Dubai, the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Program and the International Labour Organization released a new report entitled Just Transition Finance: Pathways for Banking and Finance. Among other things, this guide for financial institutions to: “Tailor products to support place-based just transition priorities and invigorate local economies; promote investments…(Read more)
Disrupting Trust Fund Madness
In this opinion piece, Ted Jackson argues that multilateral development banks incentivize their staff for continuous and relentless fundraising to fill the coffers of their ever-increasing number of trust funds. Instead, MDB staff should be rewarded for reducing poverty and making communities fairer, cleaner, and safer on the ground in the Global South. Access the…(Read more)
Plastics Circularity Investment Tracker Identifies $160B in Private Investments
In early November 2023, The Circulate Initiative, a US non-profit, published the key global findings of its Plastics Circularity Investment Tracker, an online tool for investors. For the period 2018-2023, the tracker identified 3,700 investment deals around the world and USD 160 B worth of investments in upstream and downstream products and services, including materials,…(Read more)
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)
Gender inclusion through investing: Exploring the possibilities in Bangladesh
On December 13, 2022, LightCastle Partners, a Dhaka-based management consulting firm, hosted an expert panel entitled “Gender Inclusion through Investing: How can we do that?” The event was co-sponsored by the Biniyog Briddhi Programme, a Swiss-funded initiative that provides impact-linked financing to social tech enterprises in Bangladesh (see https://www.sie-b.org/) and which had organized a previous…(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)
Special Journal Issue Launched: Growing Gender Lens Investing in Emerging Markets
“Driven by reciprocal scholar-practitioner partnerships, future research on the growth of gender lens investing in emerging markets should be Southern directed, methodologically plural, anchored in open data, and actionable in real time,” write co-editors Carolina Robino and Edward Jackson in their editorial for the recently launched special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Finance and…(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)