Gender equality
Gender equality is a fundamental human right and is integrated in all BIO's projects, strategies, policies, and actions.
Despite some progress in recent years, according to the UN gender inequality index, no country in the world has achieved full gender equality, nor are they expected to achieve it before 2030. Despite being the numerical majority, women are a minority in leadership positions and politics all around the globe. Because of increased household burdens and heightened risk of violence, they are also usually affected the worst by crises, such as the pandemic or climate change.
Since such gender inequalities pose a real barrier to sustainable and inclusive development, and could seriously harm the businesses themselves, Development Finance Institutions like BIO have intensified their efforts to reduce them.
For BIO, gender equality is a fundamental human right. Since 2018, the topic of gender justice has been increasingly integrated in its strategic thinking and in all of its operations. Beyond merely increasing the number of female employees or clients of a company, BIO’s gender strategy focuses on empowering women by enhancing their economic opportunities. To create these opportunities, BIO has adopted a 360° gender lens, to look at gender from all angles, considering all the roles women can have in a company: entrepreneurs, leaders, workers, consumers, and community members. This lens provides a framework to collect gender-related information, evaluate key dimensions of gender equality, and engage with clients on gender-related issues.
BIO's approach to Gender Lens Investing fully embraces the private sector's catalytic role in advancing gender equality, from E&S standard compliance to the bold ambitions of the new 2X Challenge
BIO is a member of 2X Global, a global organisation dedicated to unlocking gender-smart capital on a significant scale. It is an initiative launched at the G7 Summit in 2018 which seeks to inspire DFIs to concentrate their financing efforts on advancing women's economic empowerment and fostering gender equality. This challenge calls for directing resources towards initiatives that enable women in developing nations to access leadership opportunities, quality employment, financial support, enterprise resources, and products and services that promote the inclusion of women and girls.
Timeline of major gender equality steps at BIO
2X eligibility
To qualify for the 2X Challenge, a client must formally (commit to) achieve at least one of the following criteria:
- Entrepreneurship – The business is founded by a woman who still maintains an active role OR holds more than 51% in shares.
- Leadership – 30% of women are in senior management OR 30% sit on the board or the investment committee.
- Employment – At least 40% of employees are female AND a policy or programme is in place to address barriers to women’s quality employment (beyond those required by local law or compliance).
- Consumption – The company provides products that address women’s unique needs, address a problem disproportionally impacting women, or that have a majority of female customers or beneficiaries.
Out of the 14 2X eligible projects (for a total amount of EUR 119.5 M) that BIO approved last year, most projects scored well on the leadership and employment criteria, while nearly half of the projects approved in 2023 qualify on at least three 2X criteria.
Locfund Next
In 2023, BIO invested an additional USD 12 M in Locfund Next, an open-ended fund which aims to provide local currency financing to Tier II and Tier III MFIs in Latin America and The Caribbean. The fund aims to improve people’s access to financial services, with a focus on female and rural clients. BIO supports the adoption of a gender lens by providing technical assistance to improve inclusion of women through digital transformation.
Locfund Next meets three 2X criteria, confirming its dedication to advancing women's economic empowerment and fostering gender equality.
- Leadership:
- Women represent 38% of the senior management team at Locfund Next
- Employment:
- 63% of the workforce are women at a fund level (exceeding the 40% 2X threshold)
- Commitment to implement additional policies and procedures to support women in the workplace (lactation room, paid maternity leave, parental leave, sexual harassment policy, code of conduct)
- Strive for continued gender balance through the 2X flagship fund Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
- Consumption:
- MFIs supported by Locfund Next had a majority (70%) of women customers, which ties into Locfund Next's corporate social target of reaching at least 50% of women end-clients.
- MFIs supported by Locfund Next had a majority (70%) of women customers, which ties into Locfund Next's corporate social target of reaching at least 50% of women end-clients.
Ms Claudia Moreno is the Deputy Executive Director of Fundacion Espoir, an Ecuadorian NGO specialising in microcredit. Most of its clients work in the informal sector, delivering services or selling food, often on the street. They are mainly women, who are also often the main providers in the household.
Sixty percent of the NGO's clients are exclusive, either because Fundacion is the only financial institution in their region, or because they are the only one willing to provide credit. The clients are often people without collateral or credit history and for them collective credit is a way to move forward.
These credit groups are also spaces where people feel comfortable and supported to take their lives in hand. That is why many women who are entitled to individual credit still prefer to remain a member of their credit group. Women are excellent workers and can contribute to the economic revival, if you let them. That’s not just empty talk, it’s an institutional conviction. Let this be a lesson to all institutions, public and private, out there: you can be profitable and socially responsible at the same time.