In 2017, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) created the Asia Women Impact Fund (AWIF). Our main hypothesis for starting the AWIF initiative was that investing in women can bring about positive change in the wellbeing of individuals while also having a positive social impact multiplier effect on individual women, their families, and communities. By investing in funds and fund managers that intentionally support women to advance their economic empowerment, we believe that we can ultimately contribute to improving gender equity and social wellbeing for women globally.
For any investment to qualify as an impact investment, it requires measurement of impact that goes beyond counting outputs. In 2023, we wanted to dive deeper to understand the impact outcomes to women as end beneficiaries. To this end, we partnered with Huber Social to conduct a social impact study for Sitara, which is invested in by Women’s World Banking Asset Management (an AWIF investee). Sitara is an affordable housing finance company which provides home and home equity loans to underserved and low-income households in urban and peri-urban communities across India. They have a particular focus on reaching women employed in the informal sector.
This report has started to unveil the positive outcomes for end beneficiaries and the impact that AWIF has had on women. We hope that this will serve as another important data point that continues to promote and substantiate the benefits of Gender Lens Investing (GLI) in Asia and beyond.
