The announcement came at the close of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Italy, with the official communique affirming support from among the grouping’s development and multilateral finance institutions:
This will be the third edition of the 2X Challenge, which was first launched at the G7 Summit 2018 in Canada, as a commitment from the G7 development finance institutions (DFIs) to mobilise US$3 bn in gender lens investments between 2018 to 2020.
The first Challenge significantly surpassed that target, raising more than US$11 bn. A new target of US$15 bn was set at the G7 Summit 2021 in the United Kingdom and was also subsequently surpassed with US$16.3 bn raised between 2021 to 2022. As of 2024, more than US$33.6 bn in gender lens investments have been mobilised under the 2X Challenge.
The 2X Challenge 2024-2027 marks the first time that private investors will be a part of the initiative, which has expanded to include the full spectrum of capital providers.
Seven private sector participants have already committed to the 2X Challenge - they are: Deetken Impact, the Global Innovation Fund, I&P Investisseurs & Partenaires, Developing World Markets (DWM), Advance Global Capital, Global Gender-Smart Fund (GGSF), run by Innpact and Sarona Asset Management.
A range of DFIs and MDBs have pledged their support for the 2X Challenge 2024-2027. They are:
- Asian Development Bank
- British International Investment (United Kingdom)
- Belgian Investment Company for Developing countries (Belgium)
- CDP Development Finance (Italy)
- DEG - Deutsche Investitions- Und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (Germany)
- U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (United States)
- European Investment Bank - EIB
- FinDev Canada (Canada)
- Finnfund (Finland)
- FMO Entrepreneurial Development Bank (Netherlands)
- International Finance Corporation
- Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Denmark)
- Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Japan)
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (Japan)
- Norfund (Norway)
- Development Bank of Austria - OeEB (Austria)
- Proparco (France) and;
- Swedfund (Sweden)
- Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM)
Under the 2X Challenge, investments are qualified using the 2X Criteria, the framework which underpins the Challenge and which has become widely used as the global industry standard for GLI. Participating investors submit their qualified gender lens investments through the Challenge platform, powered by Equilo.
The Case for Investing in Women
- If women and men were to simply participate equally as entrepreneurs, global GDP could rise by 3-6%, boosting the world economy by US $2.5-5 trillion.
- The European Investment Bank estimates that greater gender diversity in the workforce could lead to a potential increase of 26% of annual global GDP and US $160 trillion of human capital wealth, and could enhance business performance by 15%.
- Over 10 years of investing, companies with a female founder performed 63% better than those with all-male founding teams.
- In a study of Russell 1000 companies, Glenmede Investment Management found that firms with greater gender diversity (defined as: female CEO or Chair; greater than 20% women on the board; and greater than 25% women in management) outperformed with greater return and less risk.