Investing at the Intersection of Climate, Gender, and Equity

Understanding the intersectionality of the climate crisis with structural, societal inequities is complex and can be difficult. It can be particularly precarious for values-aligned investors navigating the various considerations and potential pitfalls. Yet, this is a necessity for those working to create a low-carbon and more just economy. Here is one investor’s learning journey.

Speakers

• Suzanne Biegel, Founder of Catalyst At Large, Co-Founder of GenderSmart

• Dana Lanza, President & CEO, Confluence Philanthropy

• Ishita Shah, Director, Catalytic Capital, Align Impact

An excerpt from the discussion with Ishita Shah can be found at: https://confluencephilanthropy.box.com/s/ks2kjg4uzmhclqowlkbyo3txhs5og23w

Investing with a gender and climate lens is simply smart investing. The approach promises to amplify impacts and returns by uncovering new investment opportunities, mitigating risk, and improving decision making. It's also an important lever for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement and UN SDGs by 2050. While women today are disproportionately impacted by many elements of climate change, gender equality, and women’s leadership, employment and consumption are also vital for delivering environmental and consumption are also vital for delivering environmental sustainability and resilience. Across sectors, in both developed and emerging markets, this session will explore what we can learn from the experiences of pioneers in this space to help investors hit the ground running, as well as to understand what’s needed to bring this approach into the financial mainstream.

The Institute of Retirement Funds (IRFA) invites retirement ecosystem thought leaders to share ideas, have meaningful discussion and find practical solutions to critical issues plaguing South Africa. The current challenges are negatively impacting on the financial well-being of our society. The world as we know it has changed. We must act now and when; we talk it must be to find solutions to the greatest threat humanity faces.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the need for positive change. We are all impacted by pandemic, climate and ecological crises, gender inequity, social injustice, a struggling economy, and unemployment. How should or can we as the retirement sector bring meaningful and practical change.

Speakers

Session: Woman in Finance and the World Economy

Geraldine Fowler - IRFA President and Chairperson

Polo Leteka - President at The Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP)

Suzanne Biegel - Founder of Catalyst At Large and a global leader in gender-smart investing

For the first time in decades, the world has retreated in its progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Worse still: if we do not act, the Covid-19 pandemic could push us into a lost decade of global development.

There are several routes to getting back on track. Entrepreneurship, philanthropy, corporate programs and not-for-profit initiatives, to name a few. We know that meeting the global goals has always required innovative thinking. But today, more than ever, it also requires new alliances and radical collaboration.

The history of human progress is intertwined with the work of entrepreneurs – risk- takers who push the boundaries of the conventional. But in order to thrive, entrepreneurs need an enabling environment, a supportive ecosystem and an empowering culture.

Given the right context, entrepreneurs can trigger a powerful ripple of change. A single initiative can trigger another, and another still - to eventually create a chain reaction that has far-reaching effects.

Women impact entrepreneurs are significant drivers of this ripple effect. They spearhead businesses that achieve positive impact and are financially viable. And they effect change far beyond their immediate circles. For a start, their work directly benefits their families, employees, mentees and clients. And, slowly but surely, these communities in turn are empowered to become a force for good.

For the past 15 years, the Cartier Women’s Initiative has supported and uplifted women impact entrepreneurs to propel the ripple effect. Like-minded individuals and organizations have joined us. And positive change is percolating from impact-driven businesses, to communities, to society, and finally, to the world at large.

The strides that women impact entrepreneurs have made are already considerable. But with more people by their side, they can reach new heights. That is why the Cartier Women’s Initiative explores how to create and sustain the ripple effect ignited by women impact entrepreneurs. With our collective support, their actions can build up to a tide of change, making the world a better place for generations to come.

Speakers

Raya Papp, Founding Partner, SAGANA

Suzanne Biegel, Founder of Catalyst at Large and Co-Founder of the GenderSmart Investing Summit

Laura Huang, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Stefanie Thomas, Head of Investments at the Impact America Fund, Cartier Women’s Initiative Jury Member

The Association of European Development Finance Institutions’ (EDFI) annual Impact Conference aims to promote knowledge exchange and learning around the impacts of private investment on sustainable development in developing countries. European DFIs play an important role in promoting private investment in developing countries through their financing, risk sharing and supporting activities. The DFIs have decades of investment experience, working alongside co-investors and clients, and this provides an evidence base to help us understand how private investment can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, and how this impact should be monitored, estimated and evaluated. The sharing of lessons learned can inform DFIs, businesses and private investors that invest for impact in developing countries on how to be effective.

The EDFI Impact Conference, organised in partnership with the leading global affairs think tank ODI, will bring researchers together with interested experts and decision-makers from European DFIs, private investors, business, government and other stakeholders, to explore the evidence base, share lessons learned and to chart future directions for research and practice development. This year’s conference will explore impact on the SDGs with a focus on three themes:

1. climate finance impact and related developmental concerns (SDG 13);
2. catalytic effects of gender-smart investing (SDG 5); and
3. the harmonisation of impact management and reporting.

Speakers

Session: Linkages between climate finance and development impact

Moderator: San Bilal (ECDPM)

Presentation: Adaptation and Resilience Metrics - Amal-Lee Amin (CDC)

Presentation: The Just Transition - Isabelle Blanco (EBRD)

 Panellists: Ylva Lindberg (Norfund), Suzanne Biegel (Catalyst At Large/ GenderSmart)

Investors are increasingly utilising ESG data to inform investment decisions, but a lack of standardisation and communication with corporations is leading to confusion and limiting the acceleration of corporate sustainability initiatives. As the premier ESG online event, GreenFin 21 will convene an invitation-only audience from the sustainability, finance and investment communities to improve communication, align investor expectations with corporate needs and showcase leading practices and financial products.

Gender-Smart Investing Breakout Session

The opportunity to align climate finance and gender finance cuts across asset classes, from backing women entrepreneurs to understanding where gender balance in climate finance decreases risk and improves financial outcomes. A look inside the emerging models and strategies.

Speakers

Suzanne Biegel, Catalyst At Large/GenderSmart

Jackie VanderBrug, Bank of America

Najada Kumbuli, Visa Foundation

Eghosa Omoigui, Echo VC

Combining gender and climate considerations expands the opportunity landscape for relevant, dynamic and impactful investments. Join leaders from the GenderSmart investor and practitioner community to hear why this powerful combination is gaining traction and to learn how you can start deploying capital with these combined lenses.

Speakers

Laurie Spengler -  Director and Lead Expert, Impact Investing Institute

Suzanne Biegel - Founder, Catalyst at Large and Co-Founder, GenderSmart

Tim Radjy- Founder & Managing Partner, AlphaMundi

Julie Gorte- SVP for Sustainable Investing, Impax Asset Management LLC

Vikram Raju- Head of Impact Investing, Morgan Stanley

Watch the Event : https://youtu.be/SG53SWAdKcM

This is a private event for GIIN Members Only.

The GLI Knowledge Hub aims to transfer practitioners’ knowhow and enable GIIN members to mobilize and allocate capital with a gender lens. Building directly on the findings, resources, and success of the GIIN’s GLI Initiative and Working Group, the Knowledge Hub serves and connects all GIIN members, regardless of their prior level of engagement with GLI workstreams and working groups.

This GLI Knowledge Hub session focuses on gender lens investing in Sub-Saharan Africa, spotlighting gender-smart solutions and approaches that are active in the region and raising the bar on what good looks like . The event will involve topical conversations around better supporting women entrepreneurs, enhancing the capacity of first-time and diverse fund managers, increasing the quantum and depth of gender-smart capital being allocated and the role of innovative and alternative mechanisms like gender bonds.

It is high time women’s leadership and entrepreneurship are recognised and amplified in the fields of circular economy, climate technologies and the clean energy transition. The post-pandemic economic recovery measures represent a unique opportunity to harness women’s full potential to reshape industrial development towards environmentally sound production, consumption and waste management practices.

The event will feature and celebrate women entrepreneurs and their innovative products and projects that support more climate-neutral and circular industries. It will address how the public and private sectors can foster enabling environments for women to be agents for change towards more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future societies.

TOPIC

• The clean technology sector has a significant role to play in the green recovery from the global crisis and building back better, as it has potential for creating employment in a sustainable, resilient and inclusive manner. Women are already playing an important role in this green transition as innovators, founders as well as consumers. 

• However, cleantech businesses are characterized by significant up-front expenditures before revenue is generated; compared to the average startup, they need a longer time to become profitable since they operate often in a distorted market (e.g. energy sector). Hence, the cleantech sector needs significant support for early-stage business expenditures and activities, both for product development and manufacturing, as well as for attracting and keeping qualified personnel. 

• Adding to these general hurdles, women entrepreneurs in cleantech face additional challenges that are rooted in structural gender inequalities, which has not been so widely studied. A recent RAUN study mentored by UNIDO, identified some of the following challenges in terms of access to

  • seed/venture capital and private investment;

  • loans from banks and financial institutions;

  • networks; and

  • market opportunities such as exports and public procurement contracts.

Moderator

Stephan Sicars, Managing Director, Directorate of Environment and Energy, UNIDO

 Panelists

• Suzanne Biegel, Catalyst at Large and Co-Founder, GenderSmart Investing

• Maluisa Flores, Sustainability Manager, Esmeralda Corp

• Jaruwan Khammuang, CEO, Fang Thai Factory Ltd Partnership

• Vere Shaba, Founder & CEO, Greendesign

Gender inequalities are deep-rooted within our society and the economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis risk of further widening the gender gap. However, 2020 saw the steep increase of sustainable finance as an instrument to promote social development, including gender equality.

In this webinar, we will focus on the opportunities and challenges faced by Gender Lens Investing and Gender Bonds and potential impacts to promote female development and wellbeing.

Speakers

• Anna Zubets-Anderson, Vice President – Analyst, Moody’s ESG Solutions Group (Moderator)

• Marianna Fatti, ESG Analyst Financial Cluster, V.E

• Adriana Cruz Felix, Head of Sustainable Finance Research, V.E

• Suzanne Biegel, Co-Founder, Gender Smart Investments

• Gema Sacristan, Chief Investment Officer, IDB Invest

Sustainable finance has gained considerable traction in recent years. It has become one of the major mega trends in the financial industry. It is already influencing capital allocations globally, such as commitments from institutional investors to divest from fossil fuel companies and other “sin” sectors; ESG funds attracting record inflows in 2020; the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager writing a public letter to the business community stressing the potential financial impact of climate risk; and the European Union making moves to regulate the definition of sustainable financial products.

This future-focused event series featured three one-hour sessions, providing an in-depth look into some of the most important emerging themes that are shaping the transition to sustainable financial markets.

• Sustainable Investing Trends in 2021

• Nature-Based Infrastructure as an Asset Class

• Gender Lens Investing

Session 3: Gender Lens Investing

Sustainable investing has experienced impressive growth in recent years, reaching USD 30.7 trillion in assets under management in developed countries alone. At the same time, only a fraction of this amount, USD 7.7 billion, has gone into gender lens investing, a growing segment of sustainable investing that focuses on advancing gender equality. Achieving gender equality is essential for a prosperous and sustainable world, as it affects all aspects of sustainable development. In addition, gender diversity has a positive impact on financial performance. Companies with a gender-diverse workforce are likely to outperform their peers and increase their market valuations.

The session aims to answer the following questions:

• What is the business case for gender lens investing?

• What are the latest developments in the space?

• What is needed to scale up gender financing?

• How can we integrate gender considerations into all new sustainable finance instruments?

• How could a second generation of gender bonds look like?

Speakers

• Suzanne Biegel, Founder, Catalyst at Large

• Frederic Pinglot, Group Sustainability Performance Director, Schneider Electric

• Tim Radjy, Founder and Managing Partner, AlphaMundi Group

• David Uzsoki, Sustainable Finance Lead and Senior Advisor, IISD

Finance underpins our ambition for inclusive and gender-responsive climate action. To better address climate impacts and strengthen the resilience of countries and communities, we need to make climate finance more accessible, available, impactful and efficient. We also need to ensure that climate finance advances equality and social inclusion, recognising that this forms an essential part of achieving our wider climate objectives on both mitigation and adaptation.

While women and girls are disproportionately and differentially impacted by climate change, they are also critical leaders in addressing the challenges that climate change poses. They play an important role in promoting climate smart food production and enhancing food and nutrition security. Local civil society organisations, such as those led by women and girls, often have considerable experience with adapting and responding to climate change, but continue to face significant barriers in accessing climate finance and engaging in climate finance processes.

Co-hosted by the United Kingdom and Republic of Maldives, this side-event will shine a light on the important issue of gender equality within climate finance. It will be chaired by Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, UK International Champion on Adaptation & Resilience for COP26 & Minister for Business, Energy & Clean Growth, who will be joined by H.E. Ms. Zaha Waheed, Minister of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture, Republic of Maldives. The panel will also bring together local and national civil society actors, MDBs and finance experts to highlight the importance of climate finance that advances gender equality, mechanisms for addressing the barriers that women-led civil societies face when trying to access climate finance, and to share emerging best practice.

Panellists:

Angelique Pouponneau - Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles’ Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust

Esther Dassanou - Coordinator of Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), African Development Bank

Maite Smet - Coordinator of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), a consortium led by the Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres (FCAM).

Suzanne Biegel - Founder of Catalyst at Large and Co-Founder, GenderSmart

International Women’s Day live discussion, in collaboration with The Female Quotient

The 2020s are set to be transformational for women’s wealth but first, major challenges must be overcome. Here we explore our new report and the rising trends that will drive transformation in the coming decade and hear from thought leaders on the path ahead.

We focus in the discussion on why unleashing female entrepreneurship is an economic imperative for investors and for governments. We look at this multifaceted opportunity through the eyes of an economist, an entrepreneur, a gender lens investing specialist and a wealth management specialist and discuss how we can all contribute to double the numbers of female entrepreneurs by 2030 (The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2019).

Globally, in 2021, there are more women in leadership positions, across markets and sectors, than ever before; women’s wealth is accelerating; female entrepreneurs and female-led businesses are on the rise; and there is unprecedented wealth transfer between generations of women. Plus, COVID-19 has highlighted female resilience and power.

However, gaps in pay and funding – driven by limited access to networks; conscious and unconscious biases; disproportionate care responsibilities; plus disparities in education, healthcare, politics and legal rights, are stifling potential to significantly boost worldwide GDP. Additionally, the pandemic has had major impacts on gender equality progress.

As we look ahead to 2030, there is a need to recalibrate global systems and promote gender lens investing with a focus on parity, power and purpose.

Speakers

Paul Donovan, Chief economist, UBS Global Wealth Management, and author of recently published ‘Profit and Prejudice: The Luddites of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’

Vicki Saunders, Founder of SheEO, serial Entrepreneur, award-winning Mentor and UBS Global Visionary

Suzanne Biegel, Gender lens investing specialist, CEO of ‘Catalyst at Large’ and adviser to Wharton Business School

Mara Harvey, Head of Client Services, UBS Global Wealth Management and author of the ‘Smart Way to Start’ book series for children on money, equality and sustainability

In 2020, together with UN Women, we commissioned a study on the feasibility of issuing gender bonds in sub-Saharan Africa. We then held an initial webinar to disseminate the findings from the study and to elicit interest in the topic and to galvanise participants to consider the development of gender bonds standards to guide future gender bond issuances.

Together with UN Women and Lion’s Head Global Partners, we are now holding this technical workshop to take a deep-dive into the technical aspects of gender bonds transactions.

We are targeting DFIs, policymakers & regulators, capital market intermediaries and other financial sector players and gender lens investors.

Panellists

Gaia De Battista - Executive Director, Lion’s Head Global Partners

Robyn Oates - Finance Specialist, UN Women

Suzanne Biegel - Founder, Catalyst at Large and GenderSmart

Evan Bruner - Regional Manager for the Sustainable Finance Solutions Team Sustainalytics

Mary Njuguna - Senior Capital Markets Specialist, FSD Africa

Lizabeth Bronder - Senior Advisor, Innovative Finance, UN Women

Webinar Recording: https://youtu.be/v4WMuvwR1FA

Climate change and biodiversity loss, gender gaps, inequality and other systemic risks have traditionally been the concern of impact investors. But this year has underscored the need to invest in solutions to these systemic risks, especially at the intersection of gender, power and climate, for greater resilience. This session will examine how public and private investors and wealth owners should make purpose-led, inclusive commitments to investing in resilience.

Firestarter: Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact

• Jane Ambachtsheer, Global Head of Sustainability, BNP Paribas Asset Management

• Suzanne Biegel, Champion, Gender Smart Investing

• Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability Officer, Kering

Moderator: Bernice Lee, Executive Director, Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy, Chatham House

Suzanne will be participating in one of the Leaders Talks Promoting Sustainable Blue Economy with a Gender Lens in Asia at the Reykjavik Global Forum. The Reykjavik Global Forum is one of the very few platforms where hundreds of Women Leaders from all sectors, including politics, business, civil society, academia, the arts, and media, can Power, Together in 2020 to build back a more resilient and equal society. To ignite conversations and be inspired, we called distinguished speakers for our session, who can highlight how women are proactively contributing to promote sustainable blue economy in Asia and how the financial market backs up by fueling capital to accelerate their efforts.

The aim of this session is to shed light on active roles that women play in sustainable blue economy and to ask the participants how we can support and accelerate their efforts through providing resources they need and creating an enabling environment for them to excel.

Please join us for our 75-mins Leaders Talks session filled with the latest development and inspiration in promoting sustainable blue economy with a gender lens!  

Moderator
Dr. Miko Maekawa
Senior Research Fellow,
Ocean Policy Research Institute of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation

Speakers

• Ms. Susi Pudjiastuti Former Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia

• Ms. Aimee Gonzales
  Executive Director Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA)

• Dr. Momoko Kitada
  Associate Professor Maritime Education and Training / Maritime Energy Management, World Maritime University (WMU) Secretariat, WMU Women's Association (WMUWA)

• Ms. Suzanne Biegel
  The Founder of Catalyst at Large and Co-Founder of Gender Smart Investing

The UK Government’s Prosperity Fund ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programme, in collaboration with Suzanne Biegel (co-founder of the GenderSmart initiative) and Sagana Capital is delighted to deliver a webinar on “Opportunities for Integrating Gender and Climate Finance.”

The session will explore the fundamentals of gender-smart investing and its importance, the potential of integrating it with climate finance to drive mutually positive outcomes on both women and the planet and present case studies from around the world.

Speakers include:

• H.E Kara Owen- British High Commissioner to Singapore

• Wolfgang Hafenmayer - Sagana, Founder

• Suzanne Biegel - Catalyst At Large, Founder

• Gilles Pascual - ASEAN LCEP, Programme Director

  
  

Impact investing through a lens of racial, gender, and economic equity to create sustainable change.

Suzanne is speaking.

The panel will look at the business case for integrating gender considerations into energy companies and/or data supporting investing with a gender lens.

Suzanne is speaking on the panel. 

In partnership with UN Women and Lion’s Head Global Partners, this webinar will disseminate the findings from a study on the feasibility of issuing gender bonds in sub-Saharan Africa. This webinar seeks to elicit interest in the topic and to galvanise participants to consider the development of gender bonds standards to guide future gender bond issuances.

It will discuss the global gender bond market – the broad definition of a gender bond, the reference standards available, best practices and bonds issued to date & the viability of supporting a corporate gender bond issuance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Suzanne is a speaker.

This session we will explore the topic of applying a gender lens to impact investing, providing good examples of how in doing so, you are able to increase your investment opportunities. It will discuss how global shocks, like the current Coronavirus pandemic, unveil vulnerabilities of disadvantaged groups, but also expose great existing resilience in communities, which is worth investing in.

Suzanne is part of the speaker panel.

Gender lens investing has been gaining traction among institutional investors, with a growing number of pathways for public investing, such as gender bonds and funds. In this session, we will examine the leadership challenges and solutions needed to bridge the funding gap and build resilience. What are the different investment approaches? How can we raise awareness and redeploy capital more efficiently?

Suzanne will be a panelist in the session.

Through conversations with topic experts, this series explores how we can prepare for a more prosperous, just and sustainable future in a post-coronavirus world.

In this episode, we will be joined by Suzanne Biegel, Founder, Catalyst at Large for a conversation around gender lens investing and how can we up our game to ensure we use COVID-19 as an opportunity to advance equality.

AVPN Virtual Conference - Session Moderator

Building the Case for Gender Lens Investing Across Asia

Moderated by Suzanne Biegel and Raya Papp

Featuring:

Hyunjoo Je

Simba Marekera

Ayaka Matsuno

Natasha Shih

Gender Lens Investing (GLI) is key to the economic development of the region. In light of this, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation has supported and collaborated on a landscape report of gender-lens investment vehicles across Asia Pacific. This work was produced with Catalyst at Large and Sagana, and draws on data from 2019 from both Wharton Social Impact Initiative and Veris Wealth Partners.

This session will take a dive into the key findings of the report which spans both public and private markets vehicles with a gender lens mandate. With further insights from an expert panel of speakers, delegates will explore where capital is moving, into which structured vehicles, and the profile and approach of those vehicles.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding of gender lens investing vehicles in the public and private markets

• A knowledge about how to apply a gender lens to investments in a East and Southeast Asia context

• The opportunity to learn from practitioners at the forefront of GLI integration