Mainstreaming gender-smart investing to accelerate the transformation of food systems under a changing climate

Abstract

This white paper makes a proposition with potentially far-reaching consequences: that using a gender-smart approach when investing in food systems can increase risk-adjusted financial returns, while also improving climate-change mitigation and adaptation outcomes. It examines this idea within the context of three food value chains, showing in each how gender-smart approaches have helped improve financial returns while also making a positive environmental or social impact. It also builds on the data and research generated by investors and ecosystem-builders that illustrates this nexus between gender and climate change within food systems. By highlighting promising early examples, this white paper intends to demonstrate that there is good reason for more such investments and interventions in the future.