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Unique consortium of Pro Mujer, Sweef Capital and Equilo selected to support DFC to deliver on ambitious commitments to gender equity in development finance

1 December, 2022

Press

Pro Mujer, Sweef Capital and Equilo are partnering with the U.S International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to implement the 2X Women’s Initiative Technical Assistance Program (the 2X TA Program). This Program aims to strengthen the effectiveness of DFC’s investments in reaching women and closing the gap in access to resources. The Consortium will actively work with existing DFC clients, with a focus on financial institutions, to improve gender equity and responsiveness of their operations.

The 2X TA Program highlights DFC’s commitment to supporting women’s meaningful access to finance. The unique consortium formed by Pro Mujer, Sweef Capital and Equilo combines extensive experience across target markets, leading market-oriented tools and data to provide tailored, practitioner oriented tools and capability enhancement to institutions.

“We are delighted to have been selected as part of this extremely promising project. An institution like DFC investing in gender training and technical assistance for its portfolio organizations makes it clear that many actors are determined to be change-makers and promote gender equality around the world,” said Carmen Correa, CEO of Pro Mujer. “We are excited to work alongside forward-thinking institutions, such as Sweef Capital, Equilo, DFC and its portfolio to generate systemic change and support each other to continue to be catalytic agents for gender equality at the global level. Pro Mujer is proud to provide technical assistance for this initiative through our Gender Knowledge Lab, a targeted area within the organization created to share what we have learned from our 32 years of experience working in Latin America with investors and private, public, and civil society organizations”, she added.

Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen, Vice President of the Office of Development Policy for DFC noted that, “We are excited to partner with Pro Mujer, SWEEF Capital and Equilo on the 2X Technical Assistance Program. DFC considers gender equity and financial inclusion to be critical to our investment approach. This Program will support financial institution clients in strengthening gender inclusivity within the organization and across investment portfolios, increasing reach to women, supporting their meaningful participation in economic life, and maximizing long-term, sustainable impact on economic security and other outcomes.”

“We’re ecstatic to partner with DFC, Equilo, and Pro Mujer on this exciting initiative. We understand the power of the Sweef Capital Gender ROITM business oriented tool. We’ve been doing this for some time and seen the results through our own portfolio. That experience has demonstrated the potential to inform and deepen gender-inclusive practices in very practical ways that help create value. We’re excited to be able to share that with a broader cross-section of financial institutions and partners”, Jennifer Buckley, Founder and Managing Director of Sweef Capital said. She added, “We believe collaborations that are more than the sum of the parts will help us all move faster. We’re fortunate to share that orientation with Pro Mujer and Equilo and everyone benefits from the additional depth and experience.”

“Equilo is thrilled to collaborate as the tool partner with this technically powerful consortium to support DFC and its clients to increase and systematic the creation of value and impact. We look forward to working with DFC and its clients to demonstrate the power and efficiency of data analytics tools to drive fit-for-purpose technical service offerings and action plans that respond to opportunities and risks, while deepening our learning through intelligent impact measurement and monitoring,” said Jessica Menon, CEO of Equilo.

This impactful partnership was announced during the GLI Forum LatAm 2022, an event organized by Pro Mujer to position gender lens investing as an effective mechanism to increase equality and create thriving and inclusive economies in Latin America.

About DFC

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) finances solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. Working together with businesses, DFC mobilizes private capital to invest in projects that create jobs and opportunity in emerging markets, including building critical infrastructure, expanding access to telecommunications, and providing small business financing for women entrepreneurs. Launched in 2019, DFC helps to advance America’s foreign policy by developing projects and providing technical assistance which create economic stability, protect sovereignty, and ensure transparency. DFC investments and technical assistance programs adhere to the highest global business standards.

The 2X Women’s Initiative (2X) is DFC’s flagship initiative launched in 2018 to address the unique challenges women face globally and unlock the multi-trillion-dollar investment opportunity that they represent. Through 2X, DFC invests in projects that demonstrate women’s capacity as entrepreneurs, leaders, employees, and consumers of goods and services to drive change where DFC operates. To date the program has supported almost 200 projects and committed over $8 billion toward advancing women’s economic empowerment, DFC is a founding member of the 2X Challenge and recently inaugurated 2X Collaborative.

About Pro Mujer

Pro Mujer is a social enterprise that has worked for more than 30 years to provide women in Latin America with services and tools to help them reach their full potential, improve their living conditions, and become agents of change in their communities. The organization uses a holistic and comprehensive model to expand women’s access to health services, increase their financial inclusion, and provide them with training opportunities.

Pro Mujer is a pioneer in promoting and raising awareness about gender-lens investing as an effective mechanism to close gender gaps and boost productivity in Latin America. The organization’s work is closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contributes tangible results to eight SDGs:

1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11 y 16.

More information is available at www.promujer.org

About Sweef Capital

Sweef Capital is a Singapore-based impact investment firm investing in the potential of women and the future of Southeast Asia. As a private equity firm, Sweef Capital focuses on investing equity and quasi-equity capital in growth-stage companies, primarily in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, where its experienced investment professionals are deeply rooted. The team strives to maintain an ethical and responsible business practice in the selection and management of their investments.

The firm’s investment practice is very much relationship centred and value creation oriented which instill confidence in investee companies and leverages established channels to drive strong deal flow. Sweef Capital targets investments in growth markets including education, healthcare, food systems and climate resilience, sectors which are experiencing strong and growing demand.

For more about Sweef Capital, see sweefcapital.com

About Equilo

Equilo is a gender equality data analytics as a service platform with a suite of tools that harness the power of market-level and organizational-level data to produce instant and actionable insights for data-driven decision-making and action planning.

Equilo is a first-to-market intelligently automated gender analysis and action planning tool and the 2X Collaborative tool partner for assessment, analytics, and impact measurement of the gender lens investment global industry standards.

More information is available at www.equilo.io