The first ever ranking of the transparency of development finance institutions (DFIs) highlights a startling lack of public disclosure. The inaugural edition of the DFI Transparency Index examines the transparency of 30 DFI operations, with combined assets of $2 trillion. It reveals that across the board DFIs are insufficiently transparent.
The political support for investing in women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has never been higher. Especially in light of the disparate impacts from COVID-19 on women and girls, there has been a loud chorus of voices on the need to invest in WEE. The critical question, though, is whether the political rhetoric is matched by effective, catalytic investments that are significantly advancing women and girls’ equality and giving them the meaningful ability to participate in, and benefit from, economic opportunities and prosperity?
In this roundtable event we are pleased to launch our new Improving funding transparency for women’s economic empowerment report. Our presentation synthesises our work from the last two years, extrapolating findings from across the three focus countries to unpack the current state of transparency in funding for women’s economic empowerment. We identify the key data limitations, including our ability to understand the impact of funding, and provide recommendations for funders to improve the reporting and publication of information to these areas. The roundtable, which took place on 15 December 2022, provided an opportunity for specialists in the field to give feedback on our findings and discuss future actions.
To mark the launch of our report Improving Funding Transparency for Women’s Economic Empowerment, this blog examines why the publication of results data is vital to understand impact and advance gender equality.
Our regular newsletter featuring details of our upcoming roundtable discussion on improving the transparency of funding for women’s economic empowerment, news of the launch of our DFI Transparency Index, plus new pieces on the transparency challenge facing the 2X Challenge and insights on funding for women’s groups.
Following our recent research tracking funding for women’s empowerment collectives (WECs) in Kenya, Nigeria and Bangladesh, this blog focuses on women’s groups with WECs elements. Dorcas Mutheu discusses what our research tells us about how these groups are funded and how reporting can be improved for better tracking of funding and impact.
