Gender Assessment EcoEnterprises Partners IV

The report assesses gender disparities in Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru to inform the EcoEnterprises Partners IV investment strategy. It identifies systemic barriers—including financial exclusion, limited land rights, and climate vulnerability—that disproportionately affect rural, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant women. The document details a 'gender-lens' investment approach, utilizing a proprietary toolbox of 32 tools and alignment with the 2X Challenge to promote women's leadership and economic empowerment in MSMEs and sustainable agriculture.

• Guatemala exhibits the highest levels of gender and human development inequality among the analyzed countries, characterized by the lowest Gender Development Index (GDI) and highest Gender Inequality Index (GII) scores.
• Costa Rica demonstrates the strongest performance in gender equality and human development, with a very high HDI of 0.806 and the lowest GII of 0.232.
• Women-led MSMEs in the region face significant credit constraints, with those in the Dominican Republic receiving 30% less credit than those managed by men.
• Financial inclusion gaps are severe in El Salvador, where only 23% of women have a financial institution account compared to 41% of men.
• Women's participation in the agricultural workforce across the target countries is low, ranging from 18% to 25%, despite agriculture's high employment share in nations like Guatemala (30%) and Peru (27%).
• Land ownership is a critical barrier for rural women; in Peru, only 7 out of every 100 titled hectares are in women's names.
• Climate change disproportionately affects women in rural areas due to limited access to adaptation resources and their primary role in managing household resources like water and food.
• Intersectional discrimination creates extreme vulnerabilities for Indigenous and Afro-descendant women, such as maternal mortality rates in Ecuador and Peru being up to three times higher for Afro-descendant women than for non-Afro women.
• EcoEnterprises Fund employs a 'gender-lens' investment strategy, which includes a proprietary toolbox of 32 tools to guide SMEs from analysis to the implementation of Gender Action Plans (GAPs).
• The fund aligns with the 2X Challenge global initiative, with its previous fund (Partners III) reaching over 90% of capital commitments aligned with these criteria.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2026). Gender Assessment EcoEnterprises Partners IV. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp302-gender-assessment.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Gender Assessment EcoEnterprises Partners IV. 2026. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp302-gender-assessment.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Gender Assessment EcoEnterprises Partners IV |date=25 March 2026 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp302-gender-assessment.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2026gender, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Gender Assessment EcoEnterprises Partners IV}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp302-gender-assessment.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }