The move to gender lens investment in the Caribbean, an initiative of UN Women and US firm Portland Private Equity, in partnership with the 2XCollaborative, has begun with an agreement to make financing accessible to women-led businesses.
Government leaders, regional and multilateral development finance institutions, and public and private investors gathered virtually to launch the initiative on December 10, during which a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the UN Women Multi-Country Office (MCO) Caribbean and Portland Private Equity.
2XCollaborative was created to serve investors across the globe, making their first gender-focused investment.
Gender lens investing is a strategy that takes into consideration gender-based factors across the investment process, and the programme is intended towards bolstering gender lens investing in the region, specifically by enhancing capacities across the private sector and governments to ensure businesses owned or led by women have access to capital to develop and scale their businesses.
Regional director for the Americas and the Caribbean, UN Women, Maria-Noel Vaeza, speaking at the signing, described it as "a pivotal day for UN Women and for the Caribbean."
"This MOU with Portland Private Equity will implement gender lens financing with the Caribbean Basin Gender Equality Fund (the Gender Equality Fund), leading the region in gender equality investments across the wider Latin America and the Caribbean region."
With the technical support of UN Women, she said, "This fund is the first regional investment under the Global 2X Collaborative launched by the 2X Challenge founded by the DFIs from the G7 as a call to action for investment capital to empower women."
[caption id="attachment_931070" align="alignnone" width="640"] , Maria-Noel Vaeza, regional director for the Americas and the Caribbean, UN Women. -[/caption]
The fund will build on lessons from the Innovative Financing and Gender Lens Investment Initiative launched in Latin America in 2020 by UN Women to attract private sector investment, strengthen the ecosystem of gender-sensitive investments, and contribute to the generation of partnerships for the achievement of sustainable development goal five, mainly through the promotion of capital mobilisation and investments oriented towards the gender lens.
Doug Hewson, managing director of Portland Private Equity, founding member of 2XCollaborative explained why gender lens investing was good for business.
"As a general partner of growth equity funds," Hewson said, "our job is to attract, understand, do due diligence and influence the growth of our portfolio businesses, and we think incorporating gender lens investing will help us find more interesting business in the region to invest in and in terms of value, we think that more diversity leads to better corporate cultures, better decisions and better outcomes."
Hewson said, as a private equity company adhering to standard industry practices, gender lens investing proves more profitable,
