Value for Women Monthly Newsletter

The third edition of the Value for Women LinkedIn newsletter is here. Our monthly newsletter features insights, updates, opportunities and more about our work and that of our partners working towards gender inclusion in businesses across emerging markets. Hit subscribe to stay updated and receive notifications and updates!

In this edition, we give you a sneak preview on our upcoming new publication, and also feature perspectives, resources, organizations and partnerships that drive our work across the emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We’ve seen many firsts and watched many success stories unfold in our work for over a decade now. We’ve worked with development finance institutions, investors,? corporate foundations, enterprises, entrepreneurs, businesses across emerging markets, to achieve their gender-inclusion goals.? We’ve seen tremendous progress in the sector, and we know there’s a long way to go.?

Our upcoming Insights series draws on our decade of work, and takes stock of how far gender inclusion has come in business, investment, and finance in the past decade. The series was created with the generous support of the Visa Foundation, and draws from over 100 interviews with experts, investors, business leaders, and other stakeholders across the globe. Our team and partners share key learnings, tools, case studies, and fuel up for what’s next in the world of business and gender inclusion.

Sign up now to be notified when we launch this in a few weeks. ?

Anne Maftei , Senior Engagement Manager at Value for Women, who leads a range of our technical assistance projects with investors and businesses, hosted a moderated discussion with representatives from Incofin Investment Management and Alterfin , on how they practically navigated their fund’s journey towards gender inclusion.?

The webinar hosted on Jun 22, 2023, by Value for Women, in partnership with the Walmart Foundation, Root Capital , Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) featured two investors that VfW worked with over the course of 2022, and highlighted how they turned their gender intentions into action, each focusing on the entry point and GLI actions most aligned with their business and impact priorities.?

Watch the entire webinar here:

Accelerating gender lens investing in Latin America with LAFISE Investment Management

Our team members Asya Troychansky , Norman Sarria, MBA , Daniela Moctezuma and Erica Berthelsen , recently kicked off an exciting Technical Assistance engagement with LAFISE Investment Management (LIM) in Latin America. Our team’s work will help LIM take concrete actions toward promoting gender equality within the firm. Read more about LIM's work and gender committments in our Partner Spotlight below.

Encouraging the uptake of gender transformative investment processes and equitable capital flows through immersive investor training

Value for Women’s team members — Luis Marquez , Anne Maftei and Kriti Barman , in collaboration with Tetra Tech International Development facilitated the first phase of a gender lens investing training in The Netherlands in June 2023.??

Representatives from 14 investment funds mobilizing capital across Africa, Asia, and Latin America united to catalyze change in how and in whom they invest. They pledged to see things differently, through a gender lens.?These training sessions are a part of the Gender Lens Investing Technical Assistance, initiated by the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) , to support and accelerate a paradigm shift in financial investment practices globally.?

Closing the gender gap in agricultural investments

Financial institutions and investors in the agriculture sector have traditionally struggled to reach women through standard investment processes. However, those that have adapted their approach to bring more women into their portfolios have seen the upside. Getting started is often the hardest and most important step.

This report is published in partnership with Root Capital and Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) and with support from Walmart Foundation. It features our work with CSAF members Alterfin , Incofin Investment Management and Cordaid Investment Management over 9 months as part of a gender lens advisory engagement.?

Read the report and the case studies here .

Exploring emerging issues relating to women’s entrepreneurship and economic and digital empowerment

The newly released multi-country study on women-led MSMEs, with a focus on microenterprises in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Rwanda and Uganda, is a key output of the Together Digital Programme co-launched by UN Women and the Ant Foundation in 2022 to support women-led MSMEs and to empower them to participate and thrive in the digital economy. The multi-country study is intended to inform the design and implementation of programmes, initiatives, and strategies supporting women’s entrepreneurship. This report was commissioned by UN Women and prepared by Value For Women Ltd. .?

Access the full report and the key highlights on our website .

LAFISE Investment Management (LIM) is a venture capital private equity fund which invests in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central America, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. Their CASEIF IV LP Private Equity Fund has been selected as 2X Challenge’s first flagship Fund in Latin America and the Caribbean. CASEIF IV LP will help increase women’s participation in the formal economy as business owners, leaders, and employees. Here are some of the first steps that LIM has committed to taking:

• Applying a gender lens to their investment strategy
• Having at least 30% of the transactions will qualify under the 2X Challenge
• Support their portfolio companies with creating a gender action plan?
• Having more gender representation on their investment teams, with more than 40% of their team being women?

Find us at:

Our global team brings a powerful blend of expertise on gender, social inclusion, business, investment and finance to our engagements and partnerships. We'll be at the following events soon, do reach out to us if you'd like to get in touch!

• Africa Impact Summit , Cape Town, South Africa | July 13-14, 2023
• Feminist Finance Forum , Bangkok, Thailand | Aug 16-17, 2023
• YSB’s Annual CEO Forum 2023, Pune, India | Aug 17-18, 2023

Value for Women is a global pioneer catalyzing women’s participation and leadership in business, finance and investment in emerging markets. We are a woman-led social enterprise with a mission to equip leaders and institutions to make tangible changes for women’s equality and toward social inclusion. We design and deploy practical ways for investment, finance and business to advance gender inclusion while creating value, mitigating risk and driving innovation. We would love to hear from you and help you in your journey toward gender inclusion. You can write to us on [email protected] or visit us on www.v4w.org .