Gender equality is a key piece of the global prosperity puzzle. Women make up almost half of the world's population and therefore half of its potential. Yet the inequalities they face are deep and persistent, slowing progress towards the gender equality targets set out in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
There are 2.4 billion women in the world who are denied equal economic rights. This is despite evidence showing that the business case for gender equality is strong. In fact, it is estimated that a “gender dividend” of $172 trillion could be achieved if the lifetime earnings gap between women and men were closed. Despite progress, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and other global challenges are disproportionately impacting women and even reversing progress on women’s rights. If we want to achieve the SDGs by 2030, we need to close this gap through comprehensive investments and policy reforms that put gender equality at the center.
MEDA's Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework
Mennonite Economic Development Association (MEDA) is at the forefront of gender-focused business solutions to advance gender equality and women's empowerment. We're advancing women's agricultural value chains in Myanmar, Jordan and Ghana, and launching innovative business services models for women in Pakistan, Libya and Ethiopia. These programs consistently prove that whenever women are given the opportunity, they generate strong economic benefits for their communities through sound business acumen.
In 2018, MEDA launched the Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework as a tool for investors, companies and capacity building institutions to advance gender equality and women's empowerment while improving business impact and growth. The framework builds on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment criteria and mainstreams gender equality across these criteria.
The GEM Framework is aligned with the criteria of the 2X Challenge and examines how women benefit and participate across the entire enterprise operation – as entrepreneurs and business owners, as managers, directors, employees, suppliers and customers. GEM is specific to the impact proposition of companies and investment funds, providing direction but also flexibility in implementation to better serve business needs. The framework takes a broad perspective on gender, providing fund managers and investment professionals with the knowledge they need to increase the level of gender equality mainstreaming – from simply considering women to recognizing gender as a value creator.
Innovation in Gender Mainstreaming
To date, the GEM framework has been applied in over 40 organizations. Investors and companies have learned that they are more likely to use a gender lens when it positively impacts business performance. Through client feedback and training experiences, MEDA has synthesized insights and brought innovations to GEM in 2022. The toolkit now includes diversity, equity, and inclusion perspectives, modifications to meet the specific needs of different regions, and multiple languages, facilitating adoption around the world.
The updated GEM Framework links sustainability and climate change mitigation with gender equality efforts. On Earth Day 2023, MEDA launched the updated Framework, recognizing the important role women play in environmental and climate efforts. It includes additional questions and scoring criteria, promoting conservation while encouraging practices that avoid, reduce or mitigate pollution and climate impacts. The six-step framework also provides guidance to companies to avoid, reduce and/or mitigate environmental and climate-related risks from a gender perspective.
Continued growth and impact
In 2023, MEDA's research team engaged with GEM clients through a survey to ensure continuous improvement. The study included 10 leading companies of different sectors and sizes across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Their feedback on the GEM process was overwhelmingly positive.
Respondents reported improved knowledge about the positive impacts of gender mainstreaming and gender equality in the workplace. Respondents found the tool easy to use and provided a deeper understanding of the relationship between gender equality and business performance, which is reflected in the changes observed across organizations. The GEM Framework's Net Promoter Score was +70 on a scale of -100 to +100, indicating satisfaction with the tool and associated support.
The tool sparked healthy conversations about the role of women in the workplace, leading to a restructuring of approaches to managing the area across the organization. First, many participants noted that the implementation of GEM forced them to have complex conversations about the composition of their board of directors, senior management teams, and other key staff positions. Several others recognized the need to revamp HR policies and pay more attention to specific issues such as proactive hiring policies targeting women and marginalized groups, improving pay equity, increasing employee satisfaction, preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, and maternity leave benefits.
Second, the GEM framework delivered business benefits by changing the perspective of marketing to female customers. One respondent noted that the GEM review caused the organization to reflect on sales pitches and uncover how they may have inadvertently excluded female customers. It also prompted the hiring of more female sales staff to increase the number of female clients.
While more work is needed to link changes in revenue to the GEM framework, all survey respondents reported an increase in revenue and net profit between the time the GEM framework was implemented and the time the survey was conducted. Many attribute this to the changes made by GEM. Hiring of both men and women has also increased, with a larger increase in female employees. The increase in headcount and performance is due to improved HR policies and better teamwork across departments, as well as lower overall turnover. Some respondents attributed the increased performance to the hiring of new staff leading to a larger female customer base.
As we look towards 2030, we hope that the updated GEM framework and MEDA research findings will be a useful resource and stepping stone for investors, businesses and capacity builders towards impactful and sustainable growth with gender equality as a driver.
MEDA's updated GEM framework is available for download here.
