Shifting from “why” to “how” in gender lens investing

On October 6, 2023, the Gender Investment and Innovation Program of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF), 2X Global, and Investing in Women co-organized “Gender Lens Investing: From ‘Why’ to ‘How,’” an official side event for the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in Person summit in Tokyo. The PRI in Person summit, which was held from October 3-5, 2023, is a premier global event that welcomed investment industry stakeholders and policymakers from around the world to Japan to discuss developments in the field of responsible investing and share best practices.
 
The side event co-organized by SPF welcomed more than 20 asset owners from Asia and around the world and featured a series of lectures and group discussions to deepen the participants’ understanding of gender lens investing (GLI), a strategy that integrates gender-based factors into investment decisions resulting in positive social outcomes in addition to financial returns. Throughout the workshop, the participants considered not only the benefits of integrating a gender lens into investing, but also shared recommendations for how to integrate these practices on the ground to bolster the community of GLI investors across Asia and around the world.

To kick off the event, representatives from SPF and 2X Global, the largest industry body for gender lens investing, gave opening remarks.

SPF Executive Director Itsu Adachi spoke on behalf of the foundation to welcome the participants to the event. He expressed his hope that the participants would find new ways to apply a gender lens to their work, including by promoting women to leadership positions, supporting women-led and women-owned businesses, and more. “By working together, it will be possible to unlock gender smart capital at scale and contribute to supporting more inclusive and gender equitable societies and sustainable futures,” he said.

Jessica Espinoza, CEO of 2X Global in her opening remarks noted that while investors in recent years are aware of the business case for bringing in a gender lens to their investments, the difficulty lies in finding ways to implement these strategies in practice. However, she argued that there is an opportunity to increase overall impact by seeking out intersections between gender and other areas of focus including ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) initiatives, climate, and healthcare.

Following the opening remarks, the event continued with a series of lectures given by 2X Global and SPF, as well as breakout sessions that encouraged the participants to apply the lecture content to their own experiences in investing.

Ayaka Matsuno, director of SPF’s Gender Investment and Innovation Program, gave one of the presentations, called “Our Journey in Developing an Impact Measurement and Management Framework,” which outlined the framework that her team prepared to measure the impact of SPF’s unique investment initiative. “We need to be true to our mission by measuring and managing the impact that our impact investments make” she explained.

Ms. Matsuno’s presentation was based on the report recently published by SPF entitled “In Preparation of Measuring Impact -Introduction-,” which inspired many participants who have struggled to set up such frameworks to measure their respective funds/financial vehicles.

Following the workshop portion of the event, the participants also engaged in a lively networking session. When looking back on the workshop, Makoto Miki, secretary general of the sustainability committee at the Japan Exchange Group Inc and one of the participants of the event, noted that gender diversity is generally understood to be an important issue. However, based on his experience working to analyze ESG investments by companies in Japan, he found that there is not yet enough information available, making these kinds of workshops important for sharing knowledge.

Lebo Mokgabudi, who works as an independent specialist trustee at Africa’s largest pension fund (Government Employees Pension Fund), also remarked that the workshop supplemented the topics covered at the PRI in Person summit by focusing on the social element of investing. She noted that it is important “to share more successful case studies so we can have evidence-based decision making and evidence-based discussions,” and she looked forward to taking back the practical advice to apply to her work in South Africa.