Kore Global: Supporting DFIs to Advance their Gender Lens Investing Approach through Impact Management and Measurement
Kore Global is a women-owned and -led consulting firm providing gender equality and social inclusion support to funders, investors and the private sector, globally. Our services include research, strategy, monitoring, evaluation, learning and ongoing technical assistance for programmes, portfolios and funds. A Canadian benefit company based in Vancouver (with a presence in London), we take a feminist approach to providing our clients and partners with the tools they need to maximize the impact of their investments on the lives of the diverse groups they work with and serve. Kore Global has expertise in a broad range of thematic areas across the gender lens investing space, including research on private sector approaches to addressing care economy challenges, an evaluation of British International Investment’s women’s leadership and entrepreneurship portfolio, and gender and measurement support to Grand Challenges Canada innovators.
Evaluation of British International Investment using 2X entrepreneurship and leadership criteria
British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor with a mission to help solve the biggest global development challenges. BII invests to create more productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, enabling people in those regions to build better lives for themselves and their communities.
Between June 2023 and April 2024, Kore Global was commissioned by BII to conduct an evaluation to better understand the potential development impacts for women of investments meeting the 2X Challenge ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘leadership’ criteria (i.e., investments with gender-diverse ownership and/or leadership). The overall purpose of the evaluation was to generate robust evidence to inform refinements to BII’s approach to gender-smart investing.
Kore Global’s mixed-method approach utilised desk-based review and key informant interviews with 29 investees to answer the evaluation questions, exploring key themes through case studies, and producing a series of actionable recommendations for BII. These were shared in a series of four webinars.
Results and challenges
Kore Global’s evaluation surfaced 5 main learnings:
Gender-diverse ownership and leadership can foster gender-diverse and inclusive work environments.
Funds with gender-diverse ownership and/or leadership may be more intentional in their efforts to drive gender-related impact through their portfolio of investments.
Financial institutions with gender-diverse ownership and/or leadership have the potential to support development outcomes for women through gender-smart financial services.
Investments meeting both the 2X Entrepreneurship and Leadership Criteria may be a strong predictor of gender-related outcomes.
Five factors are linked to strong gender-related performance: senior-level buy-in, gender capacity and resources, a strong and explicit focus on gender equality, internal accountability mechanisms, and relationship with investees.
If you are interested in further details about the methodology behind this evaluation, including the Theory of Change Kore Global developed, or more information on evaluation key findings and recommendations, the report can be accessed here.
Lessons learned
One of the main limitations of the above evaluation, as well as a similar evaluation that Kore Global is currently conducting with Proparco, is that data on development impacts for women is often not collected by investees. While this limitation is less consequential for evaluations looking at the 2X Leadership and/or Entrepreneurship Criteria, it becomes much more material when assessing the development outcomes for women employees, women in supply chains, women consumers, and women in the wider community. Future evaluation commissioners are encouraged to include sufficient resources to enable in-country primary data collection.
For more information contact Rebecca Calder, Director & Co-Founder: rebecca@koreglobal.org or
Emily Boost, Director & Co-Founder: emily@koreglobal.org
September, 2024
This publication is made possible by CAFIID’s Gender Lens Investing Community of Practice
