Blended Finance and the Gender-Energy Nexus

The report finds that gender-responsive climate blended finance is scarce, with only 22% of climate deals in Convergence's database meeting the criteria. In the energy sector, gender focus is more prevalent in off-grid projects (28%) than on-grid projects (11%), largely due to the domestic nature of off-grid energy needs. The document highlights the role of concessional capital, technical assistance (TA), and performance-based incentives in driving gender outcomes. It provides case studies of vehicles like the Green Guarantee Company and Catalyst Fund to illustrate how blended finance can support women-led enterprises and increase female labor participation in technical roles. Key recommendations include deploying TA alongside financial incentives and utilizing equity to influence gender policies at early stages.

• Gender-responsive climate blended finance is significantly underrepresented compared to the broader blended finance market; only 22% of climate transactions in Convergence’s Historical Deals Database (HDD) were gender-responsive, whereas 31% of all blended finance deals overall were gender-responsive.
• Within the energy sector, gender-responsiveness is more common in off-grid renewable energy projects (28%) than in on-grid projects (11%), as off-grid solutions often align with household energy needs where women are primary beneficiaries.
• The energy sector faces structural gender gaps, with women holding less than 11% of leadership roles in renewables and representing only 32% of total jobs in the sector globally.
• Public investors, particularly Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), are the primary drivers of gender-responsive climate finance, while private sector participation remains lower.
• Concessional debt or equity is the most common blended finance archetype in gender-responsive climate deals, used in 86% of transactions, while technical assistance (TA) funds are used in 39% to help investees integrate gender into operations.
• The 'Clean Impact Bond' (CIB) by Sistema.bio demonstrates that gender and health co-benefits can be monetized, using a 'Quality Hour' metric to price the time freed up for women through clean cooking technologies at $1 per hour.
• Equity, especially at the pre-seed and seed stages, is identified as a more powerful instrument for mainstreaming gender than debt because it allows investors to influence company policies and standards from the beginning.
• A significant challenge in the market is the 'counting heads' approach, where practitioners focus on superficial metrics (e.g., number of women employed) rather than long-term transformative outcomes like women's empowerment.

APA

Bery, A., Ivory, R., Sawant, I., Weinstein-Wright, I., Wallock, W., Byrd, R., Olutoke, J., & Wang, Y. (2024). Blended Finance and the Gender-Energy Nexus. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CC-Facility_Learning-Hub_Stocktaking-Report.pdf

Chicago

Bery, Ayesha, Robin Ivory, Ishwari Sawant, Ilsa Weinstein-Wright, William Wallock, Rosaly Byrd, Jide Olutoke, and Yihan Wang. Blended Finance and the Gender-Energy Nexus. Climate Policy Initiative, 2024. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CC-Facility_Learning-Hub_Stocktaking-Report.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{bery2024blended, author = {Bery, Ayesha and Ivory, Robin and Sawant, Ishwari and Weinstein-Wright, Ilsa and Wallock, William and Byrd, Rosaly and Olutoke, Jide and Wang, Yihan}, title = {{Blended Finance and the Gender-Energy Nexus}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CC-Facility_Learning-Hub_Stocktaking-Report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }