Publication database

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.

This report is based on the core hypothesis that heightened workforce participation by women can usher in the dual benefits of spurring India’s economic growth and strengthening socioeconomic empowerment of women. With this backdrop, the report contrasts the low and declining levels of women workforce participation in the country and highlights the complex interplay of socioeconomic barriers and challenges that contribute to this phenomenon. The report thereafter, deep dives into the specific challenges associated with lack of access to quality childcare and examines how convenient and affordable access to childcare can help women transition from unpaid labor to paid employment and in turn, socioeconomic empowerment. The report takes stock of the current state of the childcare ecosystem in India and attempts to leverage the latent market opportunity. The report concludes by articulating recommendations for implementing an integrated three-pronged approach that combines building the required policy, skilling and entrepreneurship ecosystems for childcare.
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 in the capacity of employers, incubators and accelerators. It is expected to inform policy formulation and intervention design targeted at strengthening the childcare ecosystem in India.

This document presents ENERGIA’s four-year journey to create and upscale womencentric energy enterprises that sell safe, reliable and affordable energy solutions to low-income consumers in underserved areas. As a learning document, it seeks to analyse the various strategies with which ENERGIA has worked in different contexts. It draws out common features of the most promising ones, as well as lessons from efforts that did not go so well, or even failed completely.

FutureWater’s ThirdEye was a SWFF-supported infrared flying sensors project that created a group of flying sensors operators equipped with tools to analyze near infrared imagery in order to help farmers to make better decisions concerning the use of their limited resources, such as water, seeds and fertilizers. This report analyses the results obtained by the monitoring and evaluation field intern who conducted an evaluation survey in July and August 2018 in Mozambique, after the project had been active there for 3 years.

The Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA), IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative, the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative and Business for Social Responsibility have invested in gender interventions on Ethiopian floriculture farms within the Empowering the Source program.

Together with our partner Fair & Sustainable Consulting, we conducted research to test that gender interventions in Ethiopian flower farms have lead to satisfied workers leading to improved performance of the business. This is the full report.

The report intends to provide companies with critical insights and practical guidance on how inclusive business can play a more significant role in making women’s economic empowerment a reality. It lists seven areas of action that have potential for significant long-term economic benefits for both businesses and the global economy. 

This compendium brings together 15 practical examples of how individual companies and/or multi-stakeholder initiatives are aiming to address human rights impacts and, at the same time, are showing great promise in delivering meaningful contributions to the SDGs. The report is organized around four issue areas, illustrating how they connect to the SDGs: forced labor, living wages, gender equality and land rights.

Digital bulk payments have the potential to connect millions of poor farmers to digital financial services. This report from CGAP and UNCDF recounts UNCDF's efforts to digitize payments to coffee farmers in Uganda, where just 29 percent of adults actively used mobile money in 2014. It shares lessons for donors, financial services providers and agricultural firms that are interested in digitizing agricultural value chains.

In 2015, ADB engaged Inclusive Business Sweden to prepare this sector study on IB models in the value chain of the textile and clothing industry in Asia, focusing on Bangladesh and Myanmar. The study—Project InTaCt (Inclusive Textiles and Clothing)—focused on mapping opportunities for developing IB models across supply chains in Asia as possible new and innovative investment opportunities for leading Swedish and other international and local companies in the sector.