Gender

In August 2024, MIGA guaranteed its first Green Loan principle compliant loan from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC Bank, and Crédit Agricole CIB to Banco do Brasil (BdB).

The loan's proceeds will bolster micro-, small- and medium enterprise farmers employing conservation agriculture. Conservation agriculture involves farming practices that promote zero tillage, permanent soil cover and crop rotation which improve soil health, improve resource efficiencies, enhance biodiversity,and increase resilience to climate change. A pivotal component of the project is its commitment to gender and racial equality, encapsulated in the Gender Action Plan (GAP). The GAP includes a pilot program targeting women in Quilombo communities—communities of African descent who have faced significant barriers to financial inclusion, including challenges in securing land title. 

This initiative aligns with the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030, which emphasizes the importance of expanding economic opportunities by addressing intersectional challenges.

In FY23, MIGA, working with a long-standing client, ProCredit Holding of Germany, signed its first gender flagged project in an active conflict area-Ukraine.

The commitment of JSc ProCredit Ukraine, ProCredit Holding’s Ukraine subsidiary, to gender equality was evidenced by the subsidiary’s willingness to build gender capacity under the extremely difficult circumstances of the Russian Federation’s invasion of the country. ProCredit Ukraine has implemented a new gender training program for its staff to build gender knowledge. MIGA and ProCredit Holding also agreed to implement the same gender training in several other subsidiaries in Eastern Europe.^[1]

^[1]These subsidiaries are Albania, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, and Serbia. Kosovo is also on the World Bank’s list of fragile and conflict-affected situations, but it is on the list for “institutional and social fragility” rather than “conflict” as in the case of Ukraine. ​

In FY23, MIGA agreed on gender actions with Banco de Comercio Exterior de Colombia S.A. (Bancóldex), a state-owned business and export development bank in Colombia.

Bancóldex aims to support access to finance for women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Colombia by, for example, focusing on improving management information systems to collect data, providing gender training for Bancóldex’s teams and partner financial intermediaries, as well as developing new products and services targeted to the women’s segment of the MSMEs market.

To support this work, MIGA is working to arrange a technical assistance grant to Bancóldex, funded by MIGA’s Fund for Advancing Sustainability Trust Fund (FASTF). It is noteworthy that Claudia María González Arteaga, Bancóldex’s chief financial officer, was the recipient of MIGA’s annual Gender Leadership Award in FY23 for supporting Bancóldex’s operations in addressing gender disparities and supporting women-owned businesses in Colombia.

In FY22, MIGA issued guarantees to support Agencia Financiera de Desarrollo (AFD), a state-owned second-floor development bank in Paraguay, in addressing the need of women-owned enterprises.

AFD aims to set the foundation for increasing financing to women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Banking on Women advisory team, in partnership with MIGA, provided technical assistance to AFD. The advisory program included gender intelligence training for all AFD staff and select AFD client banks and undertook a gender diagnostic to identify AFD’s strengths and areas of opportunity to develop a sustainable gender program. Further, IFC facilitated co-creation workshops to help AFD design a gender value proposition and product.

MIGA’s two guarantees in support of two loans from JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. of the United States to Fondo MiVivienda (FMV), a government institution, aim at promoting inclusive homeownership, by supporting access to mortgages for women and low-income and vulnerable populations.^[1]

Of the lending made possible through the new MIGA-supported loan facility, FMV committed to target at least 50 percent to provide mortgages to women. In addition, FMV agreed to continue to build its capacity to serve women and other vulnerable groups by undertaking a housing market opportunity analysis and designing a new or updated financial product or service targeted at women and/or vulnerable groups. Further, FMV will develop home energy efficiency training materials tailored to women homeowners and residents.

^[1] It is important to note that FMV has reached near parity in its lending to women and men. As a result, FMV and MIGA agreed to focus on the lowest income segments of the female population and other vulnerable populations (for example, people with disabilities, migrants, and Indigenous people).

In FY24, MIGA issued a guarantee to Condor KGL Limited, a subsidiary of Kasada Hospitality Fund LP (Kasada) of Mauritius, for its equity investment into Condor KGL Rwanda Limited in Rwanda.

Kasada’s investment consists of the acquisition of the Umubano Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda, and its future conversion to a 138-key Mövenpick hotel. The tourism and hospitality sector is an important driver of Rwanda’s growth, being the country’s top foreign exchange earner and a major contributor to employment. The project will lead to job creation with up to 170 employees to be permanently hired as hotel staff and up to 100 temporary jobs to be created during the renovation and construction phases. Kasada will establish a target for 50% of management personnel at the hotel to be women, and will implement Accor's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) program to support women's advancement in the management pipeline.

This initiative contributes to the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030 by promoting women's leadership in the hospitality sector, contributing to gender equality and economic empowerment.

In FY24, MIGA issued a guarantee to Konexa Power Holdings PCC of Mauritius for its equity and quasi-equity investments in Konexa Solar 1 Ltd, a Commercial and Industrial (C&I) electrification project, in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The project is expected to deliver an average of 20.5 GWh annually from new renewable energy sources in Kaduna State, in Northern Nigeria. As part of the project, Konexa has agreed to several gender interventions, relating to women as employees and leaders, allowing women to benefit from direct employment and leadership opportunities. Konexa will develop a strategy, informed by a gender audit, to attract, retain, and promote women and increase the share of women in senior management.

By taking steps to identify and address gender gaps in leadership and employment, the project offers strong potential to support female participation in the energy sector. This will contribute to the World Bank Group's strategic objectives (WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030) of fostering women's leadership and economic participation, which are critical for sustainable development and poverty reduction in Nigeria.

In FY24, MIGA issued guarantees covering investments by Sonatel SA of Senegal to Orange Guinée SA, a telecom subsidiary in Guinea, and Orange Finances Mobiles Guinée SA, a mobile money subsidiary in Guinea, in the form of equity and retained earnings.

The Projects are aligned with the World Bank country engagement strategy for Guinea by supporting the development and use of digital financial technology to maximize access to job opportunities, decentralize service delivery, including health and education services, and enable better engagement of citizens. The client agreed to increase the number of digital centers for women in rural areas, focus on growing the underserved market segment of women and women-owned microenterprises for microfinance services, as well as undertake targeted interventions to increase women's and underserved groups’ access to mobile phones, mobile money, and greater broadband connectivity.

These initiatives are in line with the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030, which emphasizes the importance of digital inclusion and economic opportunities for women. By addressing the digital divide, this project empowers women and enhances their participation in the digital economy

In addition, within the project enterprise, the client will take steps, such as assessments, training and set targets, to improve the recruitment, retention and promotion of women.