Dear Friend,

If there’s one thing that consumes us at 2X Global, it’s the question of action - specifically, the tangible actions that we can take to economically empower women and girls the world over.

Turning intention into action and policy into practice is the beating heart of our mission and nothing thrills us more than seeing the real-world impact of gender lens investing.

We get to see this in our work every day, as our members and partners find ways to close the gender gaps which restrict women’s access to finance, to advance products and services that improve women’s lives and to create and improve quality employment opportunities for women.

Last year in Italy at the G7 Summit, we launched the 2X Challenge 2024-2027 - the third edition of our challenge which has already mobilised US$33.6 billion in investments for women since 2018.

Over the past few months, we have started to see this commitment, by our range of public and private sector participating investors, come to fruition as the qualified investment reports have started rolling in.

If you have not as yet, take the opportunity to go over to 2xchallenge.org and browse through the qualified investments dashboard. The investments there showcase gender lens investments spanning the globe from Argentina to Uzbekistan, which are creating high quality employment for women, advancing women’s leadership, opening up microfinance for women-led MSMEs and contributing to the carbon transition. 

Of course, in order to truly make an impact, it helps to have a set of standards to measure the efficacy of your actions and the 2X Criteria helps our 2X Challenge participating investors assess how impactful these investments are in advancing women’s economic empowerment. The 2X Criteria remain a powerful, free public good which can be used by any investor to analyse their own investments.

For those who want to go further, 2X Certification is a pivotal tool for advancing gender equality which provides a clear framework for assessing companies and funds promoting gender-smart practices. 

We are in the process of expanding 2X Certification for financial institutions and gender bonds. We’re excited about these coming developments and the opportunity to help turn even more positive intentions into measurable, tangible actions and investments that make the world better for women and girls.

In Community,

2X Global Team