Promoting gender equality and diversity

Promoting gender equality and diversity

We are committed to making our investments work for women and underrepresented groups. Whether that’s backing businesses that channel funding to female entrepreneurs or partnering with companies to improve opportunities for women in their workforce.

When we launched our Gender Finance Strategy in 2018, gender-lens investing was a small and relatively unknown concept. Since then, it has grown rapidly and is now a key part of impact investing. We’ve seen similar growth in our own commitments, which have increased from £24 million of gender finance commitments that qualify under the 2X Challenge in 2019 to £499 million in 2024, equivalent to 29 per cent of our commitments. Under our current strategy, our ambition is for 25 per cent of our commitments over the five-year period to be gender finance qualified. Over the last three years, an average 34 per cent of our commitments have been gender finance qualified.

Prioritising women in our investments

We continue to find new ways to maximise impact for women. For example, we focus on ‘directed lending’, where the capital we provide to financial institutions is earmarked for female customers. In 2024, we invested in KCB Bank Kenya to increase its lending capacity to women-owned and -led small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as climate-related projects. Another recent investment is in BRAC Bank in Bangladesh, where our commitment will be used as a directed lending line to provide finance for MSMEs and women-owned and -led businesses in the country (see case study).

Gender bonds are another increasingly used financing tool, to support the economic empowerment of women and girls. In 2024, we published a gender bonds toolkit in partnership with FSD Africa, FSD Network and UN Women, to provide guidance on how to design and issue gender bonds with a focus on advancing gender equality in Africa. Since then, we’ve held launch events and training in Nairobi, Lusaka and Lagos.

We continue to partner with businesses in our portfolio to maximise impact for women. Through our technical assistance facility, BII Plus, we backed Veritas, an Indian non-financial banking company, to support women entrepreneurs and launch a product designed specifically for women. This enabled Veritas to launch Dhana Shakti, a collateral-free loan product with lower fees, designed specifically to address barriers faced by women-led MSMEs. This has already reached over 1,600 customers and Veritas’ women borrower numbers grew by 60 per cent between 2023 and 2024.

 
Sharing what we’ve learnt

To mark six years since we first published our Gender Finance Strategy, in 2024 we published a new report, “Closing the gap: Lessons from six years of investing in women”. It outlines the progress we’ve made, shares the lessons we’ve learnt, and explores what more can be done to promote gender equality in emerging economies. We also published an evaluation on how businesses with female owners and leaders support positive outcomes for women. The evaluation found that businesses with gender-diverse leadership show higher standards in gender-smart business practices compared with others.

We continue to champion the growth of the gender-lens investing industry. In 2024, the 2X Framework was updated to strengthen the rigour with which we, and other investors, qualify 2X investments. BII has provided ongoing support to 2X Global to further refine and improve guidance on implementation of the new 2X Criteria and Framework. This will help build the quality of gender finance. We are pleased to be part of the third phase of the 2X Challenge, in which members have collectively committed to mobilise at least $20 billion over three years under this new strengthened standard.

Our training programme on gender-based violence and harassment continues to move from strength to strength. In 2024, we delivered training to over 550 participants across 11 countries. This included partnering with four DFIs – Proparco, DFC, DEG and Norfund – to deliver a new advanced training programme. The training, which is funded by our technical assistance facility, BII Plus, equips companies with practical tools and strategies to tackle these issues.

 
Increasing diversity across our portfolio

Across the impact investment ecosystem – from DFIs to private equity and from venture capital funds to the philanthropic community – there is increasing recognition of the need to take a more diverse approach to allocating capital. As a long-term partner to businesses in Africa, we are stepping up our approach. We have committed to increase the representation of Black-owned and -led businesses in our sub-Saharan Africa portfolio. Investments include H1 Capital, a South African Black-owned and managed renewables investment and development company that is expanding access to clean and affordable energy in the country. Our recent investment in Johnvents, one of Nigeria’s largest cocoa processors (see case study) also shows our support for Black-owned and -led businesses in Africa, which often struggle to get the funding they need to grow.

£499m

gender finance commitments in 2024, which represent

29%

of our total commitments

Gender breakdown of jobs in our portfolio
Chart
Backing the potential of small businesses

Backing the potential of small businesses

Our lending is expanding access to finance for up to 3,500 MSMEs and women-led businesses in Bangladesh.

80%

of Bangladesh’s population work for MSMEs

Investment name: BRAC Bank
Location: Bangladesh
Investment type: Growth Portfolio

Shaping a new market

Shaping a new market

Our joint venture investment is helping to grow India’s sustainable electric vehicle market while creating green jobs for women.

600+

green jobs created for women to date

Investment name: Mahindra Electric Automobile Limited
Location: India

Investment type: Growth Portfolio

Powering South Africa’s shift to clean energy

Powering South Africa’s shift to clean energy

By backing one of the world’s largest solar-battery projects we’re helping to bring reliable power to South Africa, and empowering women along the way.

540MW

clean energy powering South Africa’s communities

Investment name: Kenhardt Solar Project
Location: South Africa

Investment type: Growth Portfolio

Fairer futures for cocoa farmers

Fairer futures for cocoa farmers

Backing Johnvents encourages sustainable cocoa sourcing that supports smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

87%

farmers report higher earning through Johnvents

Investment name: Johnvents
Location: Nigeria

Investment type: Catalyst Portfolio

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