Pro Mujer launches the Gender Knowledge Lab

An area to position the gender approach in the business and investment world

Resilient, talented, innovative, and flexible. The benefits of incorporating inclusion and gender policies in organizations have been demonstrated by research and successful cases of global relevance. Within this framework, Pro Mujer, a pioneering social enterprise in promoting Latin American women entrepreneurs for 32 years through training, financing, and health services, inaugurates a consulting, dissemination, research, and diagnosis area aimed at incorporating the gender approach into the investment world, in public and private institutions, companies and civil organizations. The presentation took place on November 8 during the GLI LATAM 2022 Forum and was led by Natalia Wills, Global Manager of Representation and Gender at Pro Mujer, and Tomás González Bergez, Area Coordinator.

Implementing mechanisms that advance toward gender equality and forming diverse teams in companies and organizations represents an enormous opportunity for economic growth. As indicated by an ILO report, the presence of women in decision-making processes can increase business profitability, innovation, and talent attraction by up to 20%. Another study recently published in the Harvard Business Review shows that women appear to be more resilient leaders in the business world, both in current times and in the context of a pandemic, despite remaining underrepresented in senior positions, the existing salary gap, and the more significant workload of domestic work, in comparison with their male peers.

In order to guarantee changes that benefit women in their professional contexts and simultaneously serve to create more prosperous economies and more profitable companies, the gender approach must be a transversal lens to be incorporated into the financial world, public policies, initiatives of sustainability, and within organizations. Based on its extensive experience of working with Latin American women, Pro Mujer launched the Gender Knowledge Lab to offer applied research services, creation and dissemination of knowledge, education, training, and personalized consultancies around the incorporation of the gender approach for the investment world and for both public and private entities, with or without profit; in their areas of work, policies, teams, strategies and products, and services.

Pro Mujer is a leading social enterprise in creating mechanisms to close gaps, as evidenced by its recent incorporation into the 2X Collaborative network of organizations, which seek to promote Gender-Lens Investing around the world. Willing to share the unique knowledge that emerges from more than three decades of work, the Gender Knowledge Lab has two open-access platforms for consolidating, generating and accessing gender data. One is the ILU TOOLBOX, developed in conjunction with Deetken Impact thanks to the support of USAID. It is a toolbox available to all companies interested in harnessing the potential of gender equality to improve their competitive position and work environment.

The other platform is the Gender Platform, created together with Acrux Partners, with the support of USAID, which consists of a dynamic and agile open-source platform for actors in the financial and corporate sectors seeking to promote investment with a gender perspective. Thus, it provides institutions and companies with the necessary resources to develop corporate policies, design products, and invest with a gender perspective. This knowledge hub includes a map to track investments, a self-assessment to help users identify where their companies can significantly impact gender equity, and an interactive library with more than 100 tools.

Seeking to project the gender approach in all areas of organizations, the Gender Knowledge Lab provides various services and initiatives:

• The diagnosis of gender and diversity consists of a self-assessment and an evaluation guided by experts to create improvement routes. With notable impact, it has been held in more than 15 financial, corporate, and entrepreneurial institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• The training includes comprehensive workshops on gender, inclusion, diversity, and organizational culture change for management and non-management areas. Seven hundred people have already participated.
• The consultancy consists of a comprehensive technical assistance service adjusted to the needs of each entity. It aims to support the institution in developing solutions that comply with international regulations and trends (UN Sustainable Development Goals and environmental, social, and governance criteria). It also focuses on strengthening female leadership, promoting equality in the workplace and developing products and services that benefit women and girls, offering resources to prevent and respond to possible harassment, sexism, and gender-based violence. Practices to incorporate this approach in the design of communication and marketing oriented to the customer base will also be transmitted.
• The creation of knowledge and its transmission through research, reports, specialized mapping, and sector analysis, including two open platforms for the consolidation and accessibility of gender data and working groups and communities of practice.
• Holding top-level events, such as the GLI LATAM 2022 Forum that will take place from November 7 to 10 in Antigua, Guatemala, is a fundamental part of the Gender Knowledge Lab since it has the participation of the most significant references and experts in the world of investment, entrepreneurship and advancement for inclusion and diversity.

The Gender Knowledge Lab team is composed of Natalia Wills Gil, Global Manager of Representation and Gender at Pro Mujer; Carol Pinzón, Coordinator of Gender, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and the Area Coordinator, Tomás González Bergez, an expert in development and integration issues in Latin America. It is, in short, a space that combines the unique experience of Pro Mujer in the territory with the latest trends in academic knowledge to produce substantial effects on the functioning of organizations

To find out more about the GLI Forum 2022, check the days, topics, and times of all the discussion tables: https://gliforumlatam.com

To learn more about Pro Mujer: https://promujer.org