"There are many ways in which investments can be made to address gender disparities and promote gender equity. Investors, managers, and businesses have various motivations and incentives when considering GLI. For this paper, we consider DAI’s work through the six “Gender Smart” lenses described below and discuss other frameworks and tools developed by GLI experts and investors."

"We assess the potential impact that closing this credit gap for women-owned SMEs can have on economic development, estimating the link between credit to SMEs and growth in income per capita. Our results suggest that closing the credit gap for women-owned SMEs in the BRICs and N-11 countries over the next few years could boost real income per capita growth rates in those countries by around 85bp on average. If the credit gap is closed by
2020, incomes per capita could be on average around 12% higher by 2030 across the BRICs and N-11, relative to our baseline scenario. Closing the credit gap for women-owned SMEs across the developing world as a whole could boost income per capita growth rates by over 110bp on average. While eliminating the whole gap is a tall order, the impact on growth could be dramatic.

"Written by Business for Social Responsibility with support from Women Deliver and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, this report aims to help unlock business opportunities that advance the health, rights, and well-being of women in global value chains. It highlights the benefits of investing in women along the value chain and provides a framework for action and practical guidance for companies to identify and strengthen value-chain investment opportunities that deliver positive returns to business, women, and society."

"Download this study to learn about:
- The experience of the United States, Europe and other countries in channeling more than $2.2 billion in gender lens investing.
- The gaps and opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean to attract international investors.
- Success stories of companies in Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Brazil that are leading this trend."

"IFC’s Banking on Women business partners with financial institutions who have built solid track records of financing SMEs. IFC provides a full range of debt, equity, and investment products to banks to on-lend to women entrepreneurs...In the following pages we offer a sample of the impact IFC’s Banking on Women business and our client banks are making in the lives of women, their families, and economies around the world."

"Banks in emerging markets are increasingly providing non-financial services to their SME clients, typically consisting of information sharing, training and consultancy. This study, published by IFC in partnership with the Austrian Government, is the first to explore reasons behind this trend, finding that banks' key motivations include attracting and retaining customers and strengthening portfolio quality. The report consists of an overview followed by case studies of three banks, namely namely Türk Ekonomi Bankasý (TEB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), and ICICI Bank."

"Using survey data on Macedonian firms that participated in USAID programs providing technical and financial assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and on firms that did not, we estimate the effectiveness of such assistance in increasing the growth of employment in the assisted firms. We control for selection bias in program participation and use both kernel and caliper propensity score matching to estimate the excess growth of employment in assisted firms. We find that assistance programs raised employment growth by 16-20 percentage points in the first year after assistance and by 26-30 points by the third year."

"For this study of Acumen's investments, an initial scan of 22 of Acumen's portfolio companies was conducted, and six of these companies, as well as one non-Acumen company, were selected for in-depth case studies. The case studies span multiple industries and geographies, and explore how these social enterprises are integrating gender into their management systems, operations, and most importantly, how they are engaging women as consumers, and where this engagement has helped improve business and social performance. The report also contains a new framework that outlines the ways in which gender can influence key business decisions. This framework has the potential to be applied broadly as a diagnostic tool to uncover short-, medium-, and long-term opportunities to more effectively integrate gender in ways that will support the business and social goals of these companies."

"Are women less likely to ask for help financing their businesses? This study investigates whether gender is a factor that impacts the propensity to ask for financing among nascent entrepreneurs. We also investigate if start-up helpers, who do not have an ownership share, have an impact on the likelihood of asking for financing, specifically between men and women. Our findings suggest that being female significantly decreases the probability of asking for financing and the presence of start-up helpers significantly increases the incidence of asking for financing in the nascent stage. In addition, among those who created new firms or were still in the start-up process, the number of start-up helpers exponentially increased the incidence of asking for financing among female founders. We use the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics II data, the largest, nationally representative, and longitudinal database on nascent entrepreneurs for the United States."

"Global evidence of a strong business case for investing in women and leveraging their potential as entrepreneurs is emerging. The 'Women Investing in Women' movement can play a significant role in addressing the systemic access to finance challenges that women entrepreneurs contend with. The report takes stock of the access to finance challenges experienced by women entrepreneurs in India and the resulting financing gap. It explores the potential of the 'Women Investing in Women' movement to address those challenges and enhance access to finance for women-led start-ups and small businesses. The core objective of the report is to identify a strategic roadmap for strengthening this movement in India to further the adoption of gender lens investing. This report will be a valuable resource for a range of ecosystem stakeholders including regulatory agencies and government policymakers, development agencies, foundations, private sector companies who aim to strengthen the women entrepreneurship ecosystem in India. It is expected to inform policy formulation and intervention design targeted at strengthening gender lens investing in India."