The Working Group’s first major initiative was the launch of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Bond Fund (WE Fund). WE Fund aims to do for credit markets what gender lens investors did for equity markets and recruit another C-suite ally for gender equality - the CFO, charged with raising funding for companies. It has a multi-layered women’s empowerment impact strategy embedded and will invest in public companies that have a commitment to gender equality. WE Fund originated from a collaborative impact partnership between Artesian, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and Equileap to include a gender lens strategy in both the public and private markets for the benefit of women globally.
The mission of the Integrity Council is to raise the standard of ESG analysis in institutional public markets with respects to gender lens. We want to promote gender lens analysis as mainstream best practice and ensure that innovation in financial products continually push the industry’s edge. We are creating an expert-level advisory council composed of gender lens practitioners and thought-leaders across finance and ESG. Council advisors meet regularly to share insights, gather the latest industry perspectives, and co-create new models for embedding gender lens in the market at scale.
Some of our objectives for the Integrity Council include:
Artesian is a global alternative investment management firm specializing in debt, venture capital and impact investment strategies. It is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. It offers “last mile” financial models to unlock resources at the domestic level to reduce poverty and support local economic development.
Equileap is a research and analysis global leader in providing data and insights on gender equality in the corporate sector. It was the first to assess and rank thousands of companies across the world on gender equality based on 19 criteria.
Read about our impact initiatives in the news.
