MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Development Finance Institutions Collaborate to Add Gender Metrics to Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) IRIS+ System

A group of development finance institutions (DFIs) recently collaborated with the US-based nonprofit Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) to improve the way they track the results of their investments in women in developing countries. The outcome is an expansion of GIIN’s Impact Reporting and Investment Standards Plus (IRIS+), which provides a framework to “identify, measure and manage the social and environmental impact of investors’ actions and report their impact” as well as provide investors with “impact data” that can inform their investment decisions.

The new metrics are grouped into approaches such as gender-specific services; increasing equality through financial inclusion; and governance, leadership and ownership. Sample metrics include the percentage of female employees, pay equity by gender and whether a business is woman-founded.

The participating DFIs include members of the 2X Challenge for investing in women in developing countries and the Belgium-based European Development Finance Institutions ASBL. Founded in 1992, EDFI has 15 members. The 2X Challenge is a commitment by 11 DFIs to invest USD 3 billion in women’s empowerment.

Sources and Additional Resources

CDC Group press release
https://www.cdcgroup.com/en/news-insight/news/cdc-group-giin-and-the-2x-challenge-create-aligned-gender-impact-metrics-in-major-boost-to-advance-womens-economic-empowerment-and-gender-equality/

GIIN homepage
https://thegiin.org

IRIS+ webpage
https://iris.thegiin.org

IRIS+ presentation
https://s3.amazonaws.com/giin-web-assets/iris/assets/webinar/IRIS-AVPN-Webinar_20191213.pdf

European DFIs homepage
https://www.edfi.eu/contact/

More news on the financial inclusion of women
https://www.microcapital.org/category/women/

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