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I find these discussions extremely interesting and want to expand on Maggie's comment.
On one hand, it is indeed necessary for energy companies -ESCO's or technology distributions co's- to understand that diversity in the work force has a positive financial dividend (Catalyst, 2011). Investing in women is the financially smart thing to do.
However, the questions posted here go beyond these actors. In fact, in order to address the role of DFI's and the support they can lend to women entrepreneurship in the energy sector it is necessary to also aknowledge a series of stereotypes that shape the financial world. For example, although there is empiric evidence (from micro-loans experiences) that women repay their loans at higher rates this knowledge does not automatically translate into increasing women's access to financial products.
As such, women have to face a series of limitations when asking for funding, including: (i) they may not have the necessary assets to their names to support heir request, (ii) they may be intimidated by the legal language and procedures of the banks -or traditioanlly may prefer deflecting to family loans-, (iii) they may be confronted with gender steretypes of bank clerks -through dismissive language as a response to a perception of "lack of technical knowledge" for conducting business with the bank.
DFI's can gain much from sensitizing their own staff and requesting the institutions they fund to do the same. For example, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) requests its implementing entities to have or work towards the development and implementation of a gender policy as one of the requisites for accessing the fund. In additon the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), in their second finance round have called for countries putting forward their investment plans to address gender considerations in their plans and facilitated connections with gender experts withing the regional development banks to support the process.
The AfDB could borrow from the abovementioned experiences and examine the extent to which agencies accessing its funding can be requested to invest in capacity building and development of financial products designed to specifically target women and men entrepreneurs in the energy sector.
As for the final question, I believe it is absolutely necessary to ensure strong research of existing experiences for involving women entrepreneurs in the energy sector. This research should focus both on success and not-so-successful experiences, to ensure lessons can be extracted from both types of experiences. This may be particularly important for demonstrating not only if or how women entrepreneurs can be successful, but also which are the institucional frameworks or enabling environments that allow DFI's to succesfully invest in women and men entrepreneurs in the energy sector.
I find these discussions
Submitted by Ana Rojas on Tue, 15/11/2016 - 11:38 Permalink
I find these discussions extremely interesting and want to expand on Maggie's comment.
On one hand, it is indeed necessary for energy companies -ESCO's or technology distributions co's- to understand that diversity in the work force has a positive financial dividend (Catalyst, 2011). Investing in women is the financially smart thing to do.
However, the questions posted here go beyond these actors. In fact, in order to address the role of DFI's and the support they can lend to women entrepreneurship in the energy sector it is necessary to also aknowledge a series of stereotypes that shape the financial world. For example, although there is empiric evidence (from micro-loans experiences) that women repay their loans at higher rates this knowledge does not automatically translate into increasing women's access to financial products.
As such, women have to face a series of limitations when asking for funding, including: (i) they may not have the necessary assets to their names to support heir request, (ii) they may be intimidated by the legal language and procedures of the banks -or traditioanlly may prefer deflecting to family loans-, (iii) they may be confronted with gender steretypes of bank clerks -through dismissive language as a response to a perception of "lack of technical knowledge" for conducting business with the bank.
DFI's can gain much from sensitizing their own staff and requesting the institutions they fund to do the same. For example, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) requests its implementing entities to have or work towards the development and implementation of a gender policy as one of the requisites for accessing the fund. In additon the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), in their second finance round have called for countries putting forward their investment plans to address gender considerations in their plans and facilitated connections with gender experts withing the regional development banks to support the process.
The AfDB could borrow from the abovementioned experiences and examine the extent to which agencies accessing its funding can be requested to invest in capacity building and development of financial products designed to specifically target women and men entrepreneurs in the energy sector.
As for the final question, I believe it is absolutely necessary to ensure strong research of existing experiences for involving women entrepreneurs in the energy sector. This research should focus both on success and not-so-successful experiences, to ensure lessons can be extracted from both types of experiences. This may be particularly important for demonstrating not only if or how women entrepreneurs can be successful, but also which are the institucional frameworks or enabling environments that allow DFI's to succesfully invest in women and men entrepreneurs in the energy sector.