Despite advances in gender equality, women remain at a disadvantage, suffering poorer health outcomes than men. This disparity is particularly stark in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), where women entrepreneurs and women’s economic empowerment initiatives lack sufficient investment.
To bridge this gap, the Center for Global Health and Development (CGHD), CRDF Global, US government agencies, and the Women’s Health and Empowerment Network (WHEN) hosted a closed-door roundtable to develop innovative financing mechanisms that improve women’s economic empowerment in LMICs. The roundtable included key partners such as G7 Development Finance Institutions, Invest International, women philanthropists, and private equity firms. Partners came together to develop a sustainably financed fund dedicated to women’s economic empowerment while also scaling up successful case studies that empower women in LMIC.
At the roundtable discussion, panelist identified innovative and sustainable financing case studies for women’s health and economic empowerment informed by science and technology. Private equity investors, philanthropist’s, development finance experts and venture capitalists began the structuring of the deployment of a technical assistance vertical to have end to end sustainable financed solution for the case studies presented.
The roundtable event also led to the mapping out and allocation of the roles of equity investors and philanthropists for the creation of the Fund. By identifying the role of each stakeholder in the ecosystem, CGHD will be able to better facilitate smaller working group meetings on specific verticals of the fund.
Some key announceables include:
– The design and the creation of a blended financed fund for women’s economic empowerment to address the financial gaps of the missing middle.
– The commitment of G7 government agencies, local governments from Africa and Asia, philanthropists, development finance experts, equity investors, and venture capitalist to contribute resources to ensure the success of the Women’s Economic Fund for Technology under development.
