‘Gender-Lens Investing’ to Promote Female Entrepreneurship

The idea of providing financial backing to specifically improve the lives of women and girls, while at the same time generating financial returns, is gaining traction in both emerging economies and the developed countries. According to think-tank Criterion Institute, the term ‘gender-lens investing’ represents this idea, and there is evidence to show that investing in women and girls carries both financial and social benefits.

Root Capital, a social investment fund that targets small agro-businesses in poor parts of Africa and Latin America, with one segment focused on women’s issues, has invested over $1 million in Musasa coffee cooperative in Rwanda. Root Capital is helping women in the region transform their small business ventures into part of a productive cooperative.

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Vikas is a staff writer for the Sustainable Development news and editorial section on Justmeans. He is an MBA with 20 years of managerial and entrepreneurial experience and global travel. He is the author of "The Power of Money" (Scholars, 2003), a book that presents a revolutionary monetary economic theory on poverty alleviation in the developing world. Vikas is also the official writer for an international social project for developing nations "Decisions for Life" run in collaboration between the ILO, the University of Amsterdam and the Indian Institute of Management.