NOTE: The INVEST project closed in September 2024. All data is accurate as of that date, but this page is no longer being updated.
When women are economically empowered, they invest in their businesses, families, and communities, producing a multiplier effect that spurs economic growth. Unfortunately, pervasive gender gaps and lack of access to financial services often block women from the tools and resources that they need for their families and businesses to thrive.
USAID INVEST worked with the USAID Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Hub and USAID Missions to advance women's economic empowerment by unlocking private investment in women around the world. The stories and tools below capture what we’ve learned from partnering with the private sector to mobilize capital, mainstream gender-smart policies and practices, and increase access to capital for women and women-led businesses.
BY THE NUMBERS
OUR WORK
Colombia: Access to finance
Women entrepreneurs in Colombia face significant obstacles, especially in rural areas where they lack access to financial products and education to build their businesses. With the support of USAID, Microempresas de Colombia is developing a new line of credit aimed at supporting rural women, providing business and leadership training, and helping more Colombian organizations incorporate gender policies into their operations. The project addresses the urgent need to close widespread gender gaps in financial inclusion, improving the lives of women and their communities.
Read more in Improving Access to Finance Among Rural Women
St. Lucia: Accessible loans for women entrepreneurs
INVEST, in collaboration with Making Cents International, launched a pilot program in St. Lucia to support female entrepreneurs facing financing challenges. The initiative aims to provide accessible loans and technical assistance to women-led SMEs. Through partnerships with the Bank of St. Lucia and local business support organizations, the program offers loans with minimal collateral requirements and supports women in preparing strong loan applications. The success of the pilot has led to a commitment from local financial institutions to expand these inclusive lending products.
Read more in USAID Tests a New Approach to help Female Entrepreneurs in St. Lucia Get Loans
Vietnam: An investment system to fit women's needs
Women entrepreneurs face significant challenges in building their businesses. The USAID-supported Beacon Fund, established in 2020, provides fit-for-purpose financing and business support to women-led businesses in Southeast Asia. One of its first investments was in Hoa Nang Organic, a women-led organic rice company in Vietnam that has sustainability and gender equality at the center. The investment has already given Hoa Nang more confidence and credibility, showing the impact that applying a gender lens to investments can have in empowering women and giving them more economic opportunities.
Read more in Making the Financial System Work Better for Women Entrepreneurs
Honduras: Gender equity and renewable energy
"If women and girls, particularly those that live in the communities surrounding energy projects, are excluded from participating in or consulting on renewable energy project design and development, they may ultimately end up disadvantaged by the project instead of benefitting from the economic and energy resources renewable projects offer."
Read more in Renewable Energy Project Advances Gender Lens Equity in Honduran Community
South Africa: Inclusive investing
"As owners of two of the too-few Black women-owned and led private equity firms in South Africa — and across the globe... we are all too familiar with being overlooked… Our difference in perspective is our strength, allowing us to see and capitalize on opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed."
Read more in Seizing Africa’s Overlooked Investment Opportunities with an Inclusivity Lens
Senegal: Women investing in women
"31% of entrepreneurs in Senegal are women, which is higher than much of the rest of the globe. However, the rub is that the majority of women-led businesses are operating at a very small scale, generating less than $200,000 USD a year in revenue. And because of that, they are not attractive to banks. We’ve found that about 44% of Senegalese women entrepreneurs who borrow money do so from relatives, and only 3.5% of them use financial institutions to access credit. That is holding them back."
Read more in Africa: Women Entrepreneurs Can’t Get Access to Capital…Unless Other Women Are Managing It
TOOLS + RESOURCES
Achieving Social & Business Impacts Through Gender-Smart Strategies: A Case for SMEs, Investors, and Donors
AlphaMundi, alongside Value for Women, provided gender-smart technical assistance to nine SMEs in Latin America and East Africa to pilot strategies designed to both address gender disparities and improve business practices. This final report shares the exciting early impacts and preliminary results seen by the SMEs. Lessons learned are applicable for other SMEs, investors, and donors. Read the report
Ilu Toolbox: Forging Diverse, Inclusive and Equal Businesses
The Ilu Toolbox, developed by Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer, aims to help address the gender gaps that exist within companies. This resource is available to all companies interested in taking advantage of the potential of gender equality to improve their competitiveness, market value, work environment, and social impact. Visit the toolbox in English / Spanish
Gender Lens Investing Landscape: Gaps, Challenges, and Opportunities in Financial Inclusion for Women
In developing its Gender Lens Investing strategy, online lending platform Kiva received support from USAID to identify gaps and opportunities in the market. This report offers a broad overview of the current GLI landscape and ecosystem in emerging markets. It includes an analysis of gaps in the current investable market as well as near- and long-term opportunities in the financial inclusion space. Read the report
Gender Equity Assessment Rating (GEAR) Tool
With INVEST support, Kiva developed a publicly available Gender Equity Assessment Rating (GEAR) tool for financial service providers that assesses how an organization considers gender across its work environment. The tool will be used across Kiva’s investment processes with over 180 partners, ultimately reaching approximately 6.4 million borrowers, the majority of whom are women. The hope is that other organizations can also use the results to catalyze meaningful dialogue and organizational transformation to advance gender equality across the financial inclusion sector. See how the tool works
GBV-Aware Investing Tool
With support from INVEST, Milliman Center and Making Cents International developed this tool to provide institutional investors—insurers, pension funds, asset managers, and impact investors, among others—with a baseline understanding of gender-based violence (GBV) within certain industries and countries that they can incorporate into their decision-making and portfolio construction processes. The webpage includes information on the baseline economic risk of GBV country scores, GBV sector scores by country, and knowledge products focused on the business case for GBV-aware investing and potential applications for institutional investors. See the GBV tool
How Regulators Use Sex-Disaggregated Data and RegTech to Enhance Financial Inclusion
A study conducted by Toronto Centre examines the role that financial regulators can play to expand financial inclusion of women. Specifically, it addresses how regulators are using, or could use, sex-disaggregated data to enhance women’s access to and use of financial products and services. The study also explores how new technologies could help foster financial inclusion. Read the report
"Finanzas para todas" financial education design tool
In Colombia, USAID engaged financial services provider Microempresas de Colombia and academic institution Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) to study the specific needs and barriers for women and women entrepreneurs in accessing financial education, considering intersectional factors such as age, race, geography, and income. Based on these findings, the partners then developed an interactive and open-source digital tool to guide financial service providers in designing and delivering financial education using a gender and intersectional approach. See the tool and read a blog about how it's used
Gender-Aware Supervision Toolkit
The Toronto Centre created this toolkit to help financial supervisors from emerging markets integrate gender dimensions into their supervisory practices. Its modular format allows supervisors to customize their learning based on their organization's starting point – be it through step-by-step guidance on the foundational aspects of gender-awareness thinking, better harnessing technology to enhance existing practices and understandings, or integrating gender aspects into day-to-day supervision. Review the toolkit
USAID INVEST Close-Up: Catalyzing Private Investment for Women's Economic Empowerment
USAID supported the Women's World Banking Capital Partners Fund II, which is investing in emerging market financial service providers that serve low income female clients, ensure gender diversity within their staff and management teams, and use innovative solutions to increase customer reach and engagement. This close-up provides background on the innovative partnership, explores the potential of using blended finance to expand economic empowerment for low-income women, details the process of an international development institution piloting a new way to engage with the private sector and discusses the implications of the success of that pilot for the development road ahead. Read the report
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This page is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this page are the sole responsibility of INVEST, managed by DAI, and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.