From Oxfam - This paper shares Oxfam GB’s experience of developing an approach to measuring women’s empowerment over the course of five years, for use in its series of Effectiveness Reviews. Oxfam’s aim is for this to be an easy and practical guide which shares experience and lessons learned in order to support other evaluators and practitioners who seek to pin down this ‘hard-to-measure’ concept. The hope is that the reader will make use of the measurement tools presented in this paper as guiding instruments that can be adapted to their needs.

From Business Fights Poverty - GBV affects employees physical and mental health and well-being, leading to stress, anxiety, loss of self-esteem and motivation. Often women are forced to leave their jobs. It contributes to the gender pay gap and seriously affects women’s opportunities for advancement and career progression. Women usually bear the brunt of GBV, although others are at risk, including men and members of the LGBTQI community.

The costs of GBV are high, with estimates totalling $1.5 trillion, the equivalent of 2% of global GDP. The #MeToo movement has shown there is an unprecedented demand for change, including from employees and some business leaders across the world. Companies are beginning to innovate to tackle GBV. More firms must now follow.

Yet, many companies remain unclear on how to address the problem. That’s why we agreed to partner to better understand how businesses can most effectively address GBV. The Toolkit includes a 5-step framework to help companies comprehensively tackle violence and harassment at work: 1. PREVENT violence and harassment by identifying potential risks; 2. COMMIT to gender equality and diversity across the workplace; 3. PROTECT employees with supportive policies and procedures; 4. COLLABORATE AND CAMPAIGN beyond the immediate workplace; 5. BE ACCOUNTABLE and monitor action.

From Criterion Institute & UNICEF - The purpose of this tool is to equip investors to understand the risk their investments are exposed to as a result of gender-based violence. This tool enables investors to determine how their existing due diligence process can be used to determine a potential investment’s exposure to the political, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks of gender-based violence. This tool is one component of a broader global effort to ensure the right to live free of violence.

From GIIN - Resource library of different strategies to achieve gender impact.

From Spring Accelerator - Aimed at investors and other development practitioners, this toolkit highlights the potential of using finance to impact and empower adolescent girls and young women in emerging markets. The toolkit is based on the work of SPRING and four years of experience in running its accelerator for girls and young women impact ventures in East Africa and South Asia. This specific focus on gender and age-group in emerging markets represents a convergence of three recent movements in investment: gender lens investing, impact investing and investing in youth. As the context and background sections of this toolkit make clear, there is a wide variety of exciting investment opportunities in this space, across a range of sectors.

From Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) / Frontier Incubators - The Gender Lens Incubation and Acceleration Toolkit (GLIA Toolkit) is an instructional guide for incubators, accelerators, and other entrepreneurial support organizations operating in Southeast Asian countries with the aim of improving the various issues surrounding working women in Southeast Asia. The GLIA Toolkit was developed with the aim of building a gender smart entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southeast Asia by incorporating a gender perspective into the activities of entrepreneurs and surrounding stakeholders.

From Criterion Institute - Criterion Institute has created a tool that can be used by anyone looking to develop a gender lens investing strategy – from foundations, to women’s funds, to investors across asset classes. Following a standard investment cycle, this tool supports the design of an investment strategy with considerations for how gender dynamics might present risks and opportunities. It provides a framework to consider building a gender lens into new or existing strategies. This tool can be used to inform investment strategy or in diligence. Wherever you find yourself in your gender lens investing journey, we hope this tool helps expand imagination of what is possible in the field.

From MEDA - The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework is a practical manual and toolkit for assessing gender equality, and identifying, implementing and measuring gender equality mainstreaming strategies within companies. The framework builds upon the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment standard by mainstreaming gender across ESG criteria. This alignment with the ESG investment standard promotes adoption in an industry that is increasingly ESG-compliant.

Designed for organizations seeking financial and impact returns through investing or providing support to companies, the manual is applicable to a wide range of investors (e.g. private equity funds, government donors, foundations) and capacity builders (e.g. accelerators, technical assistance providers, NGOs).The ultimate aim of the framework is to transform companies to be more gender equitable while supporting business growth and impact.

From Equilo - collection of gender analysis frameworks and tools.

From SEAF - This measurement mechanism is demonstrates that SEAF portfolio companies can provide appropriate financial returns and measurable impact, including women being economically empowered through investment and development activities.

From ICRW - Learn how to better integrate gender into investment processes to make smarter investments that enhance returns, gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

From i2i Insights - Pakistan's startup ecosystem has rapidly developed in the past few years. Although currently experiencing an economic slowdown, the ecosystem’s stakeholders continue to demonstrate resilience and a forward-thinking approach.  

EMERGE (Evidence-based Measures of Empowerment for Research on Gender Equality) is a project focused on gender equality and empowerment measures to monitor and evaluate health programs and to track progress on UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: To Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Girls.

From International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA)- This is a factsheet created by IWDA on the value of care in the time of COVID-19. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated more than ever that care work, paid and unpaid, underpins economic and social life in all societies. It is critical to sustaining society’s wellbeing, supporting people to live meaningful and healthy lives.

From The Center for Financial Planning- This report presents articles from academics and practitioners. These articles outline recommendations and lessons learned based on their research and experience with the goal of diversifying the financial planning profession. Each article addresses a different stage and component of the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) journey.

From International Journal of Finance and Economics - This article examines the relationship between gender diversity, selected female attributes, and financial performance of FTSE 100 firms in the UK. This study finds a positive and significant relationship between gender diversity and firm performance. However, the results become highly significant and unequivocal when three or more females are appointed to the board compared to the appointment of two or less females. Further analysis reveals that post-appointment financial performance is positively related to female age, level of education and where female board members also hold executive director positions.

From Women Win. The Gender-Responsive Due Diligence (GRDD) Platform describes the process of adding a gender lens to human rights due diligence and offers practical resources and advice to help implement each step of the due diligence process. This platform consists of two core components:

1. Understanding GRDD

2. Implementing GRDD

The GRDD platform has primarily been designed and developed for multi-national enterprises and brands with global supply chains, in both products and services sectors. The platform is intended for any company that has started, or is going to start, implementing human rights due diligence and is keen to ensure this is done in a gender-responsive manner.

From IFC. As part of efforts to bring greater clarity on what the bond market can do to advance gender equality, IFC, in partnership with UN Women and the International Capital Market Association, developed Bonds to Bridge the Gender Gap: A Practitioner’s Guide to Using Sustainable Debt for Gender Equality. The guide provides a framework to the market on how sustainable debt instruments can be used to advance gender equality in both the public and private sectors.

The guide, which was developed with financial support from the Government of Japan, provides illustrative examples of gender-related activities and targets that potential issuers can consider. The publication will especially be helpful for arrangers, borrowers, underwriters, external reviewers, as well as new and existing bond issuers to take steps to integrate gender equality objectives into sustainable debt products.

The guide is also a resource for investors seeking to understand and support projects and strategies that are designed to advance gender equality.

From Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society. This paper offers insights and practical guidance for procurement professionals and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion advocates to build engagement and inspire action on supplier diversity and genderinclusive sourcing. Part of the Women4Business Toolkit for Action, it includes key steps for building engagement internally, with suppliers, and in external communications. The guide features case studies of best practices to deepen knowledge in the field, along with a set of talking points and key resources to strengthen the case for advancing supplier diversity and inclusion globally.

From the 2X Collaborative. A toolkit enabling investors to identify opportunities and mitigate risks in gender and climate finance. This Toolkit explains how investors and fund managers can identify and prioritise gender-smart climate investments, as well as related risks and opportunities. They can do so by applying a gender-smart lens to their climate finance qualified investments. Both direct investments and indirect investments in financial intermediaries (including a percentage of a financial institution’s on-lending facilities or a percentage of a fund manager’s portfolio) may qualify.