Imfino News

Washington, D.C. (August 27, 2018) - SEAF, the emerging market impact investing firm, has announced the launch of its proprietary Gender Equality Scorecard (“GES”), which will be a vital tool to support the promotion and achievement of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in SEAF’s global investments. The GES is initially being piloted in SEAF’s investments in Southeast Asia and it is expected to be used eventually across SEAF’s worldwide, impact investing platform.

Jennifer Buckley, SEAF Senior Managing Director, stated, “SEAF’s Gender Equality Scorecard is launched with the conviction that those firms that realize internal gender equality in terms of compensation, leadership and other factors are superior financial performers and powerful drivers of women’s economic empowerment. In this way, SEAF sees enormous potential in using the GES to create shared value for women, investors and entrepreneurs.”

SEAF’s Gender Equality Scorecard will assess potential and existing SEAF investees on gender equality, scoring across six key gender equality vectors: pay equity, leadership and governance, workforce participation, benefits and professional development, workplace environment, and women-powered value chains. These assessments will identify opportunities to improve gender equality and hence guide SEAF’s critical post-investment value creation work.

The Scorecard was born out of SEAF’s current gender lens investing initiative, the SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund. This Fund was launched in partnership with the Investing in Women (“IW”) initiative of the Australian government and focuses on women-led/owned businesses in Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. The Criterion Institute, the gender lens investing think tank and an IW partner, has played a critical role in GES’ development.

“SEAF’s Gender Equality Scorecard represents an exciting and innovative development to advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the impact investing space,” explained Joy Anderson, President and Founder, Criterion Institute. “We are delighted to partner with SEAF and look forward to the GES’ continued development and influence.”

Bob Webster, SEAF Managing Director, said, “The Gender Equality Scorecard is the next key step in our gender lens investing journey and we look forward to working with our partners, including future stakeholders such as asset managers and academic institutions, in assessing its validity and improving it over time. After its pilot use in the SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund, its use will be expanded to SEAF’s next generation of gender lens investing initiatives, which are currently under development.”

About SEAF

SEAF is an emerging market private equity fund manager targeting both financial returns and significant social impact by providing capital, capacity building, and a global network to support a business’ expansion. As an impact investor, the firm is particularly focused on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment, sustainable agribusiness, equal access to health care and education, renewable energy and smart products and services, financial and technological inclusion, and displaced and migrant lens investing. Since 1989, SEAF has invested in over 400 companies in 29 countries. For more about SEAF, see www.seaf.com. For more information on SEAF’s gender lens investing, please contact Jennifer Buckley at jbuckley@seaf.com.