Episode 14

#14 How Gender-Lens Investment and Economic Development Can Drive Impact Together

According to the GIIN's 2018, Annual Impact Investor Survey, a majority of respondents reported applying a gender lens to their investments processes—an astounding 70%. And while gender lens investing holds the potential that investment capital can support women-owned and gender-friendly businesses while delivering a return on investment, a separate question persists: can gender lens investing actually support women's economic empowerment in the world's most challenging markets?

UNCDF and Artesian, the global alternative investment management firm, are offering their own answer to this question. Last week, they launched an impact partnership to support gender lens investing, boost female leaders in the corporate workplace, and support women's economic empowerment in the LDCs. Under this partnership, Artesian's gender-lensed investment bond fund (the WE Fund) will donate a third of its management fee to UNCDF and to the nonprofit, SheSyndicate, to support their work in the area of women's economic empowerment, including work in the 47 LDCs.

For Episode 14 of Capital Musings, we talk with Vicky Lay, Managing Director of Artesian. She discusses the demand for gender lens investment opportunities, the economic argument for women's economic empowerment, and the impact partnership with UNCDF. 

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Capital Musings
Capital Musings is the Podcast show of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

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United Nations Capital Development Fund

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 45 least developed countries (LDCs).

UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

UNCDF pursues innovative financing solutions through: (1) financial inclusion, which expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the local economy, while also providing differentiated products for women and men so they can climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; (2) local development finance, which shows how fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion, women’s economic empowerment, climate adaptation, and sustainable development; and (3) a least developed countries investment platform that deploys a tailored set of financial instruments to a growing pipeline of impactful projects in the “missing middle.’’