A Legacy of Impact
Building on a successful 15-year track record, the Microfinance Enhancement Facility (MEF), initially founded in 2009, was transformed into the Global Gender-Smart Fund (GGSF) on 1 January 2024, introducing a new gender-focused strategy as well as a new structure. Since MEF’s inception, the Fund evolved and successfully provided liquidity to the microfinance sector across the developing world, focusing on low-income households and micro-entrepreneurs with average end-borrower loan sizes of USD1,700 and high outreach among women and rural populations.
Strengthening Gender-Smart Financial Services
The new strategy focuses on strengthening the provision of gender-smart and responsible financial services concentrating on underserved women as well as women-owned and women-led businesses in developing markets, thereby seeking to improve livelihoods, increase gender balance and outreach, and promote women’s leadership. Additionally, the Fund aims to improve gender equality at the level of the financial institutions themselves: On the one hand, by improving the gender-balance at all levels (board, management and staff), on the other hand by improving working conditions for women. In this dual approach, the Fund aims to build on the 2X criteria, a global baseline standard for gender finance (2xchallenge.org/2xcriteria) and encourage 2X Certification for its investees.
What is Gender-Smart Investing?
Gender-smart investing, also known as gender-lens investing, involves using capital to generate financial returns while advancing gender equality. This approach integrates gender analysis into financial analysis, assessing factors such as gender segmentation of the portfolio.
Founding partners: The Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German development bank KfW, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB).
AIFM: Innpact Fund Management S.A.
Portfolio Managers: Incofin Investment Management, responsAbility Investments AG and Triple Jump BV
Technical Assistance Preferred Providers: NIRAS International Consulting, Women’s World Banking
Visit the GGSF website here.
