Why Gender Lens Investing is Key to Attaining the SDGs

By Carmen Correa, CEO of Professional Mujer.

e-MFP is happy to be an Outreach Associate of the GLI Discussion board Latam, organised by our member Professional Mujer. #GLIForumLatAm2025 is the primary occasion in Latin America solely centered on selling Gender Lens Investing as an efficient method to drive equality and financial growth within the area. In 2025, the GLI Discussion board Latam will discover how Gender Lens Investing can change into a robust catalyst to speed up the achievement of the Sustainable Growth Objectives (SDGs). On this visitor weblog, Professional Mujer’s CEO Carmen Correa talks about how we’re falling brief on progress to the SDGs, together with and particularly these referring to gender, and what the upcoming convention will provide for these working on this house.

We’re 5 years away from the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Growth Objectives (SDGs). But, at our present tempo, solely 15% of those targets will likely be achieved. That determine ought to concern us all—however extra importantly, it ought to transfer us to behave.

Because the CEO of Professional Mujer, a social enterprise that has been working to advance gender equality in Latin America for over 35 years, I’ve seen each the urgency of the challenges we face and the extraordinary alternative that lies in entrance of us by shifting how and the place we allocate capital.

We firmly consider that investing in ladies’s potential is not only about justice but additionally one of many smartest, only methods to speed up progress towards the SDGs. As an illustration, in Latin America, closing gender gaps in employment may enhance GDP per capita by as much as 20% (World Financial institution). Nevertheless, solely 6% of funding fund capital within the area goes to women-led companies. The financing hole for girls entrepreneurs presently stands at practically $100 billion. If we’re critical about reaching the SDGs, we are able to’t depart half the inhabitants behind.

That’s why we created the GLI Discussion board Latam—an area the place decision-makers, traders, and innovators can come collectively to rethink how we shift narratives, reimagine programs, and align capital with the longer term we wish to construct.

Since its first version in 2020, the Discussion board has grown right into a dynamic assembly level for the area’s gender lens investing (GLI) ecosystem. Annually, we carry collectively various voices throughout sectors—from finance and authorities to entrepreneurship and civil society—to maneuver from concepts to motion.

Our 2024 version in Buenos Aires welcomed over 900 contributors from 23 international locations, with greater than 160 audio system throughout 40 panels, workshops, and classes. However the true worth of the Discussion board isn’t within the numbers—it’s within the depth of the dialogue, the serendipitous hallway conversations, and the wealthy, cross-sector alternate that takes place in each nook of the venue.

On the 2024 GLI Discussion board, held in Buenos Aires, contributors didn’t simply come to speak—they got here to co-create. The Discussion board served as a robust studying platform the place concepts was actionable methods. The power within the room was underpinned by 5 key takeaways:

1. Act Regionally, Assume Systemically: There was broad consensus that translating international gender frameworks into native, context-specific motion is essential—particularly round coverage, entrepreneurship, and caregiving programs.

2. Unpack Biases: Conversations surfaced the invisible obstacles that girls face in accessing finance and management roles. Tackling unconscious bias—by way of product design, office coverage, and management growth—was a recurring theme.

3. Information is Energy: The shortage of sex-disaggregated information continues to impede progress. Constructing strong info programs is a precondition for focusing on assets successfully and avoiding “pink-washing.”

4. Collaboration is Non-Negotiable: From enterprise capitalists to civil servants, practically each speaker returned to at least one theme—no single actor can transfer the needle alone. The Discussion board made seen the rising alliances amongst funders, governments, and group leaders.

5. Tales Matter: Past frameworks and metrics, the Discussion board uplifted tales of girls breaking obstacles. These narratives don’t simply encourage—they form coverage and funding.

This emphasis on shared reflection and concrete motion makes the GLI Discussion board a distinctive house within the area—not only a convention, however a platform for shaping the way forward for gender-lens investing.

This yr’s version—set in Mexico Metropolis on the historic Hacienda de los Morales—will take this momentum ahead. With 2030 quick approaching, the Discussion board will likely be an area to mirror on what we’ve achieved, determine what stays to be performed, and alternate concepts throughout sectors and lived experiences.

The agenda will highlight:

• Inclusive financial development and the insurance policies wanted to maintain it

• Revolutionary approaches to capital entry for women-led companies

• Integrating gender equality into institutional priorities and funding frameworks

These themes are pressing—and grounded in actuality. Gender-based inequality continues to form entry, alternative, and outcomes throughout our societies. And but, even amid a world gender backlash, we double down. As a result of we all know investing in ladies doesn’t displace anybody. It strengthens everybody.

At Professional Mujer, we’ve seen this transformation firsthand. What started greater than three a long time in the past as a microfinance initiative is now a broad, systemic push to embed gender into capital flows, product design, and public coverage. By way of our Gender Information Lab, we work throughout sectors to carry a gender lens into decision-making. And thru the GLI Discussion board, we construct the coalitions wanted to show these concepts into actuality.

This sixth version presents a well timed alternative to convene a world, various group of changemakers dedicated to advancing gender equality in all sectors. To make sure broad entry, most classes will provide Spanish-English interpretation.

We invite you to hitch us on the GLI Discussion board Latam 2025 and be a part of a rising motion that’s placing gender equality on the coronary heart of financial transformation. The long run will not be one thing we look forward to—it’s one thing we construct. And we construct it collectively.

Carmen Correa: With over three a long time of expertise within the growth sector, Carmen has served because the CEO of Professional Mujer since 2022, driving the group’s mission to create alternatives for girls throughout Latin America. She first joined the group as Director of Partnerships in 2017. Subsequently, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, overseeing Professional Mujer’s transformative social impression packages in Latin America, together with initiatives to increase monetary inclusion, ship important well being and well-being providers, and empower ladies by way of skill-building initiatives.