Value for Women Newsletter
Value For Women Ltd.
Global advisory firm driving business innovation and leadership to advance gender inclusion in emerging markets.
It has been a season of many firsts for the field of gender inclusion in business, and for us at Value for Women. At its annual summit in September, 2X Global announced the 2X Certification, a new certification mechanism designed to unlock gender-smart capital at scale. In 2018, the creation of the 2X Challenge criteria marked an important inflection point in the gender lens investing (GLI) sector. The criteria gave enterprises and investors alike a way to move beyond counting women reached, to assess gender inclusion across a business’ value chain. As 2X Global’s thought partner for their first brand-new Best in Class certification, it was even more special for us to be in the room as it was launched.
Meanwhile, Value For Women Ltd. is building a community of players committed to scaling gender inclusion for businesses in Mexico, as a first of many to come in other emerging markets globally. In September, we kicked off our first webinar with a community keen to drive inclusion in business in the region, even as we ready for many more activities. We released new publications on attracting and retaining women in field staff roles in the clean energy sector. And - we’re hiring!
Read on to know more!
Value for Women joined forces with Shortlist Futures and The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) for the ‘Women for Green Jobs’ (WFGJ) Program.
WFGJ was designed to foster gender equity within the clean energy industry. Our aim was to ensure that more women are accessing and succeeding in clean energy careers in Africa, specifically targeting job placements, career support, and employer-level interventions across sub-Saharan Africa.
What we learnt about women in field roles in clean energy
Women are underrepresented in field roles across the clean energy sector globally, and attracting and retaining women into these roles remains a significant challenge.
For example, distributed renewable energy (DRE), with its localised and field-based nature, provides unique opportunities for women in remote areas to participate in energy access initiatives as entrepreneurs, technicians, and field staff. However, workplace safety and security concerns are a key obstacle to women field staff entering and remaining in field roles.
And, women’s representation in the DRE workforce tends to be concentrated in the lower-skilled and thus lower-paid roles. Various sociocultural barriers significantly impact women’s participation in (especially) higher-skilled and higher-paying roles in the DRE sector and elsewhere. Yet these roles promise significant job growth with high earning potential, which women miss out on.
How can enterprises take action for change?
Our latest publications have some answers:
Use data to design and adapt field roles to attract, retain and support both men and women:
Value for Women conducted a first-of-its kind survey with 533 field staff across 10 distributed renewable energy (DRE) companies in 4 African countries. Check out our latest report with fresh insights on gendered differences in the experience of field staff, specifically focused on creating an attractive and supportive work environment.
Use our case studies for inspiration:
Find out how Deevabits Green Energy , a for-profit social enterprise in Kenya, developed a Gender Action Plan (GAP) to strengthen its anti-sexual harassment policy and protect all its employees, including field staff.
Learn more about how Kudura Power East Africa Ltd made small but purposeful efforts to enhance inclusion and successfully changed people’s views on women working in field-based and technical jobs.
With data from nearly 1,700 women-led companies and 600 investment funds, wX's Insights 2024 study, advised by Value For Women Ltd. , tracks the capital access gap faced by STEM women entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
There is a significant disparity in funding for companies founded or co- founded by women and men. Of the US$7.8 billion invested by venture capital in the region in 2022, only 0.6% was destined for women founders and co-founders.
Venture capital funds are crucial to women entrepreneurs for many reasons: they provide financing, networking opportunities, experience and strategic knowledge that is critical for growth.
We invite you to explore the details in our latest study in partnership with IDB Lab , Endeavor México and Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) . The study highlights the best practices of successful female STEMpreneurs in LAC who have raised capital, as well as the best practices of venture capital funds that have reported increased investment in women-led companies.
Our partnership with Aceli Africa is featured in Canada Forum for Impact Investment and Development (CAFIID)'s latest batch of GLI Case Studies!
Our work to date demonstrates the power of combining financial incentives alongside capacity building and right-sized gender advisory support to financial institutions.
Learn more about our 5-year strategic initiative, which aims to drive gender inclusion in agriculture through engagement with Aceli Africa’s network of agricultural lenders.
We’re building an exciting community centered around inclusion in business in Mexico!
We hosted an introductory webinar earlier this month.
We heard from Andrea Ojeda Valle from Amplifica Capital , Juanita Gonzalez from Dalus Capital and Salua García from @Symplifica - all first movers in integrating gender into the investment space - on how they are bringing a gender lens to their work.
We also learned what our participants are doing to integrate inclusion into their enterprises. Here’s a glimpse:
We have lots more up our sleeve to help organisations drive action for inclusion within businesses in the Mexican ecosystem.
Value For Women Ltd. is looking for a creative and skilled Creative Associate to join our team.
The Creative Associate will play a key role in advancing our mission by managing a broad spectrum of visual and digital content creation tasks. This role involves designing and implementing digital content and multimedia visualisations tailored to the organisation’s needs and serving a diverse group of internal and external stakeholders.
You will be able to work remotely from home, in a full-time equivalent role, managing your own time across time zones with a results-driven mindset.
We love working in tandem with changemakers and field-builders who are moving the needle on gender inclusion. In the past two months, we’ve had the pleasure of being at industry platforms focused on driving gender inclusion in business. Here’s a glimpse.
Asya Troychansky moderated a panel on gender lens investing at Latimpacto Impact Minds Conference in Mexico:
Aparajita Agrawal , Director - Development & Strategic Partnerships, attended and spoke at Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs 2024 Global Annual Conference in Bangkok. Aparajita joined Lynne Robertson , Charlotte Friedli, Ahmad Azuar Zainuddin and Trisna Wardhani to share insights from Value For Women Ltd. ’s partnership with Shell LIVEwire and participate in the session on applying global best practices to locally delivered and tailored SME support programmes. The panel and workshop explored what works and what the challenges are in making enterprise support truly fit for purpose.
We were thrilled to be at 2X Global 's Annual Member Summit in Nairobi.
It was special to be at the Summit, since it was also the launch of 2X’s Global new certification!
Value For Women Ltd. is 2X Global 's thought partner for the Best in Class Certification panel for gender-lens investing.
Beyond Capital Ventures was awarded the first-ever Best In Class Certification for venture capital firms. Congratulations!
In Nairobi, we had a wonderful discussion with Acumen and 20 portfolio companies with whom we have been in partnership for 5 years now. We reflected on, and heard participants' insights from our work together.
We'll be at the following events soon, do reach out to us if you'll be there!
Find us at:
Value For Women Ltd. is a global pioneer catalysing women’s participation and leadership in business, finance and investment in emerging markets. We are a woman-led social enterprise with a mission to equip leaders and institutions to make tangible changes for women’s equality and toward social inclusion. We design and deploy practical ways for investment, finance and business to advance gender inclusion while creating value, mitigating risk and driving innovation. We would love to hear from you and help you in your journey toward gender inclusion. You can write to us on [email protected] or visit us on www.v4w.org.
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