Ilu Women’s Empowerment Program
Advancing Gender Smart
Investing & Business Practices
in Latin America & the Caribbean
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer, joint venture partners in the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, have launched a program to further advance gender equality and gender smart business practices in Latin America and the Caribbean. This program is made possible by USAID under the White House-led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative to advance women’s economic empowerment and gender equality.
About the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
Deetken Impact launched the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund in 2016, and three years later formed a partnership with Pro Mujer, a social enterprise empowering women in Latin America, to collaboratively manage the fund as a joint venture and deepen its emphasis on gender.
The target fund size is $35 million, with $27 million already committed. After successfully closing the first fundraising round from catalytic investors, Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer are now completing a final round to raise another $8 million.
The Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
The Ilu Fund’s investment strategy places strong emphasis on women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship. Portfolio investments include financial institutions that provide integrated and thoughtfully designed services for low-income women, including access to healthcare, educational loans, financial services, and technical assistance, as well as gender-smart investments in renewable energy, affordable housing and social enterprise.
Some of our recent milestones
DFC Financing
The United States International Development Finance Corporation (formerly OPIC) committed $10 million of senior debt financing to Ilu Fund in May 2020. This investment will advance DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative, which has catalyzed more than $1 billion in capital to empower women in developing countries around the world.
Private Sector Financing
There are currently over 70 private sector investors in the Ilu Fund’s including foundations, family offices, credit unions and individuals. Deetken Impact places emphasis on bringing women investors into the fund, as women typically make up a small proportion of investors in private market securities. Among the Fund’s individual investors, over 40% are women.
Gender Smart Investment Management
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer are implementing gender smart practices across the Fund’s investment management and governance functions. Thorough a structured gender data collection process, we aim to identify areas of strength and weakness in a company’s business practices, understand and shape gender-smart business objectives, and evaluate progress over time. This process also informs our investment decisions.
Million Already Committed
Private Sector Investors
%
Investors Are Women
Make an Impact with your Investment
You can help advance gender smart practices throughout Latin American & the Caribbean
Ilu Women’s Empowerment Program
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer have partnered with USAID under the White House-led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative to advance women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. W-GDP is the first whole-of-government approach to women’s economic empowerment. Through this partnership, we’ve launched a program to advance gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean through three main components:
- Incremental Capital
- Technical Assistance
- Knowledge Dissemination and Advocacy
Additional capital towards women’s empowerment post COVID-19
The economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have been considerable, and have made many countries in the region vulnerable to economic backsliding. As companies continue to weather these shocks and prepare for the recovery, the need for capital continues to grow.
Through blended finance capital that will include a first-loss tranche and added security for investors, we will expand the Ilu Fund by $5 million, provide much needed funding to new and existing portfolio companies in the region, and assist in the regional economic recovery.
Learn more about our approach and some of the companies where we invest here.
Gender Smart Technical Assistance
The Ilu Fund team will assist companies in strengthening their gender smart business practices through a tailored acceleration and engagement program. Our goal is to improve their business performance, help them attract more capital from Gender Lens Investing (GLI) and non-GLI investors, and advance gender equality and opportunities for women in the communities where they operate.
The customized program will focus on areas of opportunity relevant to the pandemic and post-pandemic context, and it will align with one or more of the Ilu Fund’s gender lenses, which include:
- Women in ownership, leadership, and governance;
- Products and services that improve the lives of women and girls, diversity of products, and equity in product marketing & design;
- Workplace equity in staffing, management, retention, career progression, and workplace environment; and
- Gender-informed information systems including gender disaggregated data and analysis.
Knowledge Dissemination and Advocacy to Expand the GLI Ecosystem
In addition to directly supporting companies to become gender leaders, we’ll support broader adoption of gender smart business practices through demonstration of the business case, communication of practical advice and strategies to drive change, and sharing outcomes with an open source toolkit, regional workshops, events, and case studies.
In parallel, we’ll contribute to the growth of the Gender Lens Investing ecosystem through a series of investor education events , highlighting the fact that investing in women is a smart investment strategy that reduces portfolio risk and enhances portfolio return. Because women are key drivers of economic prosperity and equality, taking gender criteria into account when making investment decisions amplifies the impact of investment on poverty reduction, economic growth and business performance.
Stay in Touch
All resources will be published on this website as they are developed.
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Deetken Impact
Suite 500 – 210 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5Y 3W2
+1 (604) 731-4424 ext. 110
impact@deetken.com
Pro Mujer
1129 Northern Blvd #404 Manhasset,
NY 11030New York, New York 10038
+1 (646) 626-7000
communications@promujer.org
The information provided on this website is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.
This website is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of INVEST implemented by DAI and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.