📣 Out Now! SDC Empower! Podcast Episode 13 🎧

The Power of Gender Lens Investing: Shifting Capital to Close the Gender Gap 💼✨

In the face of worsening gender disparities, investing in girls and women emerges as a vital strategy. Join us as we delve into the transformative power of gender lens investing with Jessica Espinoza, CEO of 2X Global. From entrepreneurship to supply chain practices, Jessica Espinoza sheds light on the potential of gender lens investing to drive both financial returns💰 and social impact🌍. Envision a future where increasing amounts of capital within the expansive financial system are redirected towards advancing gender equality. This shift has already begun. This episode explores how we can accelerate it together🤝.

👉 Listen to it here

To see pictures of our guest Jessica Espinoza spearheading the promotion of gender lens investing internationally, watch the short video on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And don’t forget to like and share it with your network. 

Do you have a new podcast topic idea? We look forward to recieving your suggestions: miranda.fiedler@eda.admin.ch  

All episodes can be found on spotify and google podcast.

Happy Listening! 🎧

Brought to you by the Peace, Governance and Equality Section (PGE) & the Economy and Education Section (E+E)

Listen to episode 12 of the SDC ‘Empower!’ Podcast, featuring inspiring and insightful stories on how to promote women’s economic empowerment

As part of SDC’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Campaign, the Empower! Podcast released a new episode on GBV prevention.

Economic deprivation and economic exclusion of women is connected to gender-based violence (GBV). In this episode, Rana Al-Motairi and Reine Musharbash from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) explain how they use women's economic empowerment as an entry point to engage men and boys in the prevention and reduction of GBV in refugee camps and the wider society in Jordan. Paired with economic interventions, gender discussion groups encourage a shift towards more equitable power relations within the households. Moreover, in the so-called engaging men in accountable practice interventions, men are challenged to rethink their belief systems, guided by the voices of women in their community.

To see pictures of our guests and the IRC projects discussed in the episode, watch the short video on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or X. And don’t forget to like and share it with your network. 

All episodes can be found on spotify and google podcast.

Happy Listening!

Brought to you by the Peace, Governance and Equality Section (PGE) & the Economy and Education Section (E+E)

Listen to episode 11 of the ‘Empower!’ podcast, featuring inspiring and insightful stories on how to promote women’s economic empowerment

Refugees, especially women, are often excluded from financial services because they are regarded as too high-risk and "unbankable". In this episode, Bdour Al-Hyari from the Jordanian Microfund for Women (MFW) tells us how they successfully developed holistic financial products according to the needs of Syrian women refugees. To more effectively make use of MFW’s loans, the beneficiaries can pair them with diverse capacity-building and training offers. The programme allowed to build trust in refugees within financial institutions and strengthened the business case for their financial inclusion. MFW empowers Syrian and Jordanian women to become entrepreneurs and improve their livelihoods.

All episodes can be found on spotify and google podcast.

If you like the episode, you’re more than welcome to share our post on LinkedIn or X.

Happy Listening!

Brought to you by the Peace, Governance and Equality Section (PGE) & the Economy and Education Section (E+E)

Lorsque son mari est tombé malade, cette mère de famille a contracté un microcrédit et est devenue entrepreneuse en savon artisanal, employant dix personnes. Elle peut maintenant envoyer ses enfants à l'université. Elle fait partie d'un programme de développement économique local soutenu par DDC à Koutiala, au Mali. Dans cet épisode, vous entendrez Hamet Cissé, ancien Chargé de Programme Développement Rural et Point Focal Genre au Mali. Les principaux piliers du programme sont les produits de microfinance pour accroître l'inclusion financière des femmes et le soutien à la formalisation des entreprises dirigées par des femmes. De plus, dans le cadre de la stratégie de genre, des comités de pilotage au niveau communal comprenant les conseillers municipaux et conseillères municipales ainsi que les femmes, les jeunes et les personnes en situation de handicap sont créés afin d'intégrer leurs besoins dans la planification du développement.

*English translation* Connecting economic and political empowerment in Mali - The success story of a woman entrepreneur

When her husband fell ill, this mother took out a microcredit and became an artisanal soap entrepreneur with ten employees and can now send her children to university. She is part of a local economic development program supported by DDC in Koutiala, Mali. In this episode, you will hear from Hamet Cissé, who used to be a Rural Development Program Officer and Gender Focal Point in Mali. Important pillars of the program are microfinance products to increase women's financial inclusion and support for the formalization of women-led businesses. Moreover, as part of the gender strategy, steering committees at commune level that include municipal counselors as well as women, youth, and people with disabilities are created to ensure their needs are incorporated in development planning.

All episodes can be found on spotify and google podcast.

Happy Listening!

Brought to you by the Peace, Governance and Equality Section (PGE) & the Economy and Education Section (E+E)

Returning survivors of human trafficking in Bangladesh are faced with stigmatization and discrimination by their families and communities. In this episode, Dipta Rakshit from Winrock International talks about the hardships of returned trafficking survivors and how the project Ashshash supports them in rebuilding their lives. As part of the project's holistic approach, trafficking survivors access skills and entrepreneurship training to enter the job market or start their own company – taking their destiny back into their own hands.

All episodes can be found on spotify and google podcast. 

Happy Listening!

Brought to you by the Peace, Governance and Equality Section & the Economy and Education Section

Podcast Empower! – New episode on how weaving empowers women and preserves cultural heritage in Myanmar

In this episode, Nathalie Paarlberg talks about Turquoise Mountain and the work they do with women weavers in Myanmar. Myanmar has a long artisanal tradition of weaving, and Turquoise Mountain ensures that the weavings are spread throughout the world. The organization not only helps female weavers earn an income, but also encourages them to pass on an ancient tradition with special fabrics like silk to the next generation, preserving one of Myanmar's cultural assets. 

Find all podcasts >> here

IED (now part of E+E) and FCHR thematic units have engaged on a workstream to provide SDC staff with practical guidance on        

i) how to plan and implement IED projects in fragile contexts, taking into account the particular challenges of fragile contexts and 

ii) how IED projects can go beyond the minimalist approach of doing no harm (working in conflict/ fragility) by explicitly contributing to reduce fragility (working on conflict/fragility).

Link to the guidance sheet

This practical guidance sheet should be used as additional practical tool together with the slide deck and FAQ published on the shareweb (links below): 

Slide Deck: Inclusive economic development (IED) in fragile contexts 

FAQ: IED in fragile contexts Slide Deck

Take a look at the new page and sources on Gender Lens Investing (GLI). 

Since SDG 5 on gender equality and women's empowerment is one of the most underfinanced Sustainable Development Goals, the SDC seeks to further strengthen its profile on gender lens investing by promoting innovative approaches in gender financing.

Two new episodes are out now:

Ep. 6: Gender Transformative Approach: changing attitudes towards women's role and responsbilities

Ep. 7: Artisanal embroidery - empowering refugee women one stich at a time

Find the podcasts >> here

Listen to the stories of our colleagues on how they advance Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in their IED projects and programmes, in this ongoing podcast-series. 

Find the podcasts >> here

Ep. 5: Privilege & prjeudice: How to address them for a more just society and women entrepreneurship

Ep. 4: Impact, leadership and business support to women in Colombia

Ep. 3: Using ancestral and scientific knowledge to empower rural women in Peru for sustainable tourism.
Ep. 2: Better boxes for fruit vendors - a solution that is improving women economic empowerment!

Ep. 1: How to ensure gender equality in call for proposal formulation and selection

Listen to your colleagues’ stories on how they advance Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in their IED projects and programmes, in this ongoing podcast-series. 

Find the podcasts >> here

Ep. 1: How to ensure gender equality in call for proposal formulation and selection

Ep. 2: Better boxes for fruit vendors - a solution that is improving women economic empowerment!

Ep. 3: Using ancestral and scientific knowledge to empower rural women in Peru for sustainable tourism.

Ep. 4: Impact, leadership and business support to women in Colombia

The SDC e+i and gender networks launch the learning journey “WEE Learn”. In the next few weeks we would like to deepen our exchanges on WEE. Please join us for the Webinar on the Business Case for WEE

Date: Thursday 12 December 2019 at 14:00-15:00 Swiss time (convert to your time zone).

To the SDC, Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) is beyond ticking of a box. Plenty of studies and annual financial reports of gender diverse companies give proof that it is also a business case. Women can be economically empowered as entrepreneurs, as clients, as managers and as employees. Would you like to better understand the business case for strengthening women as entrepreneurs or for improving their working conditions as employees?

Then please join us for this webinar to learn about SDC’s existing guidance on WEE and to hear about concrete experiences showcasing the business case for WEE in Guatemala and Uganda, both benefiting from support by SDC’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme:

Joseph Nkandu, Executive Director of the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE) in Uganda, will share how women’s empowerment alongside men’s has contributed to increase productivity and income in the Ugandan coffee sector as well as profitability of his company NUCAFE.

Rachel Murphy, Strategy and Innovation Coordinator at ALTERNA, a Social Entrepreneur Accelerator, will provide insight how a targeted programme helped female entrepreneurs in Guatemala overcoming biases when pitching their business idea and thereby ensuring more funding for their enterprises

Nathalie Wyser Vizcarra, Senior Policy Advisor Financial Inclusion at the SDC in Bern, Switzerland, will provide an input on SDC’s perspectives on the business case for WEE and its existing guidance on WEE. 

Selina Häny, Gender Equality Policy Advisor at SDC in Bern, Switzerland, will be the webinar host and facilitate the discussions.