“Invest in Women” is more than the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD). It’s a call to action that is critical to the achievement of any and every development agenda in existence today—from the Sustainable Development Goals to the Doha Programme of Action, from the Addis Ababa Action Agenda to the Paris Agreement.

Click Here to Directly Access UNCDF's Gender Strategy 2022-2025

What “Investing in Women” means in a practical sense involves capabilities around deploying gender-lensed investment tools in real economies to advance women’s economic empowerment, notably in the world’s most challenging geographies.

With a unique investment mandate and primary focus on the world’s 45 least developed countries, UNCDF supports precisely the kind of development finance that unlocks the development potential that women can provide in the economies they operate in and the sustainable development agenda as a whole.

Last year, UNCDF unveiled its Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025, which was intended to provide a transformative approach to promoting women’s economic empowerment and gender equality.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2024 and this year’s theme—“Invest in Women”—UNCDF presents a few of the tenets of its Gender Equality Strategy.

Investing in women-led and -owned SMEs and gender-responsive enterprises

A major priority for UNCDF is providing support to women-led and -owned SMEs through direct financing as well as technical and corporate capacity building. One of the major components for catalysing innovative gender-responsive investments for these SMEs is unlocking additional local public and private financing. Such investments will focus on women-led enterprises and gender- sensitive businesses large enough to have a transformative impact on the livelihoods of local women.

Additionally, as part of creating a conducive environment to increase investments for women-led and - owned businesses, technical support will be provided to government and financial institutions to establish gender-friendly policy and regulatory environment. UNCDF will continue to support central banks, local commercial banks and the private sector to enable the availability of women-friendly financial products along with rigorous technical support designed for women-led and - owned SMEs.

Promoting innovative financing mechanisms for women’s economic empowerment

UNCDF will continue to deploy scalable and innovative financing models to build women’s resilience and promote economic livelihoods. This will include partnership building with local partners, including governments, local banks, Fintech companies, women’s groups, and the private sector.

UNCDF will create new funds, financing mechanisms and investment vehicles, while continuing to build and replenish local funds dedicated to supporting women-led and -owned SMEs alongside responsive economic development. This will be further expanded as a self- sustaining model by using local resources to attract additional capital in support of women’s economic empowerment. The locally based model will allow last-mile women-led and - owned businesses to easily access required technical assistance as well as needed capital to grow their businesses.

Building on the experience and the support of partner governments, UNCDF will continue to support central banks and local commercial banks in the programme countries to establish structures and systems to provide regular financial and technical support to women-led and -owned SMEs.

Advancing gender equality through investments in inclusive cities

UNCDF through its IncluCity programme provides a comprehensive approach to city planners through technical assistance, capacity building, new tools and direct financing to address growing urban inequalities and economic exclusions. The program contributes to the commitments under SDGs 1, 5, 9, 10 and 11, with a particular focus on alleviating poverty among the most vulnerable populations. By providing capacity development and financing solutions, the IncluCity programme empowers cities to develop gender responsive and inclusive services, infrastructure, and economic opportunities in urban areas.

In partnership with female business leaders, UNCDF in partnership with UN-HABITAT and ellaImpacta launched the Women-led Cities initiative; a unique collaborative effort with city governments, notably female mayors, to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs and address gender inequality in urban centres. The long-term objective is to transform both urban centres where there is a high percentage of people living in underdeveloped areas, as well as informal settlements with low productivity and greater poverty.

Looking to the future, UNCDF plans to prioritize the construction of key public gender- responsive infrastructure projects, including safe transport and housing, easy access to water and sanitation, and inclusive economic opportunities.

Empowering women through inclusive digital economies

UNCDF promotes digital economies that leave no one behind. Looking to the future, UNCDF will leverage its experience in this area to train women on how to use innovative digital services in their daily lives that will empower them and enhance their ability to contribute equitably to, and benefit equitably from, the growth and prosperity of their countries.

From the gender perspective, this work will present itself through three critical workstreams: (i) leveraging technology and innovation, and partnering with the private sector to remove barriers preventing women from accessing services; (ii) supporting governments to create an inclusive digital policy environment as well as gender-intentional digital public infrastructure that strengthens gender- equality; and (iii) collaborating with public, private and civil society entities and organizations to ensure that women participate in the design of digital products and services.

Enhancing women’s resilience to shocks through climate and clean energy financing

Through its work on promoting climate change–resilient communities and local economies, UNCDF provides a standard and internationally recognized country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local government authorities in LDCs, and for the localization and achievement of the Paris Agreement commitments. UNCDF will strengthen its work on gender-responsive climate finance by identifying and addressing gender-specific barriers to climate finance as well as ensuring women’s participation in the design and implementation of climate action.