Original alignment date: 2019
Gender lens indicators
Leading development finance institutions (DFIs) and the GIIN have co-developed a set of gender impact metrics that will be adopted by members of the 2X Challenge. This is a commitment to mobilize US$3 billion by 2020 for investment in business activities that will benefit women, to track progress in directing more capital to advance women’s economic empowerment in emerging markets.
There has been a growing interest among investors for gender-smart investing, as more evidence has revealed the scale of opportunity that arises from including and empowering women throughout the business value chain; companies with more than one woman in senior management have returns 3.7 per cent higher than sector peers, and women control an estimated $15 trillion of consumer spending.
DFIs involved in the 2X Challenge and the European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) have joined forces with the GIIN to ensure that a common set of gender metrics, aligned to the 2X Challenge criteria, are available to the industry on the GIIN’s comprehensive impact measurement and management system, IRIS+. The metrics are structured around the 2X Challenge criteria, and cover data points on areas such as ‘women-founded businesses’ and the ‘representation of women in investment committees’. They have been selected drawing on the GIIN’s decade-long history developing standardized, evidence-backed impact metrics and experience working with leading impact investors around the world. They also include indicators on whether investees have initiatives in place to advance women in the workforce and whether companies provide products and services that particularly benefit women.
Each 2X Challenge criteria (along with associated metrics) form the basis of an IRIS+ Core Metrics Set in the Gender Lens theme.