The worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression comes a focus on the recovery of economic livelihoods and societal welfare across the world, particularly in Africa. At the heart of this is a targeted approach to deploying capital and investment to sectors that are likely to drive a robust recovery through value chain multipliers as well as the creation of more inclusive and dynamic societies. Following an unprecedented year that has also accentuated societal inequalities, it is only fitting that an alternative investment strategy focusing on women fund managers and gender-lens investing (GLI) is emerging within the global impact investing market. Despite significant gains in GLI made over the last few years, however, there are still a number of hurdles to overcome.
Companies founded by women receive less than half as much funding as those founded by men, although they deliver twice as much revenue per dollar invested. In June 2018, the G7 and Development Finance Institutions committed to mobilize $3bn towards the 2X Challenge to invest in projects that empower women in developing countries. The 2X Challenge surpassed our initial investment target and we developed the 2X framework and criteria as a new industry standard for gender lens investing. For gender lens investing to be truly transformative, we need to allocate much more capital to diverse and pioneer fund managers who, in turn, invest in diverse entrepreneurs. Complementary to these gains, in 2018 the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), in response to a call to action by the African Women Leaders Network, embarked on an initiative to empower female fund managers across the continent and collaborated with Standard Bank to launch the African Women Impact Fund (AWIF) in 2020.