New 2X Certification Mechanism to Enhance Transparency, Credibility & Impact in Gender Lens Investing

On the occasion of the G7 Summit on 27 June 2022, the 2X Collaborative announced the launch of a co-creation process to develop an independent 2X Certification Mechanism for the investment industry.

The 2X initiative was launched at the G7 Summit in 2018 as a joint commitment by the world’s development finance institutions (DFIs) to move more capital with a gender lens and crowd in private sector investors. Under the 2X Challenge 2018-2020, the DFIs invested and mobilized over $11 billion under the 2X Criteria, significantly surpassing the original US$ 3 billion target, and subsequently announced a new $15 billion target at the G7 Summit in 2021 for the period 2021-2022.

The 2X Collaborative is a global industry body for gender lens investing (GLI) convening the full spectrum of investors, capital providers and mobilizers to increase the volume and impact of capital flowing towards gender-smart businesses.

The 2X Investment Framework has quickly become a global industry standard for GLI, adopted by investors and companies around the world and has been harmonized and aligned with other standard setting initiatives and frameworks, such as the IRIS+ framework of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). The wide adoption of the 2X Criteria has led to growing demand for verification and assurance of 2X-aligned strategies and products.

“With the rise in gender-lens investors, vehicles and products, we see significant demand among investors and investee companies for an independent universally available 2X Certification mechanism to move beyond self-assessments and increase transparency on what good, better and best-in-class looks like in GLI”, says Jessica Espinoza, CEO of the 2X Collaborative.

The 2X Certification mechanism, supported by the G7, will be developed in collaboration with the wider industry and partners in a co-creation process. It will build on major standard setting trends in the broader ESG, impact investing and sustainability space as well as leverage innovative data solutions like Equilo and groundbreaking new tools for thematic deep-dives such as s Criterion’s  GBVH assessment tool.

The 2X Certification mechanism aims to create more transparency, credibility and ultimately impact in the global field of GLI by providing a clear benchmarking framework with different levels of ambition and third-party assurance around the 2X Investment Framework. The demand for it comes from a range of target audiences including companies, funds, financial institutions and institutional investors as well as for instruments and products like gender bonds and sustainability-linked loans.

2X Certification will be a powerful lever to unlock gender-smart capital at scale and deliver on the 2X Collaborative’s goal of increasing the volume and impact of GLI across asset classes, sectors and geographies globally.

Source: European Investment Bank