Gender-based violence affects more than 1 in 3 women worldwide and has deep and lasting impacts across our families, communities, and the economy. From #MeToo and #TimesUp to the March4Justice,
this moment has highlighted like never before the need for action and responsibility across all political, legal, and economic structures to deliver justice and safety. That includes our financial systems. Against this backdrop, Criterion has made a long-term commitment to demonstrating that finance can be usedto address gender-based violence.
This focus on a single issue area, albeit one with complex intersections with other issues, enables us to go deep in a content area and model new interventions. The depth enhances the impact potential, while uncovering a broad set of insights that capture the imagination of the whole movement. Decades of field building has taught us that we create systems change more effectively not by focusing on a small set of wins, but by opening a wide range of possibilities that invite people to imagine what they can create.
The structure is straightforward: 1) Engage asset holders in an advocacy campaign to challenge their investment managers to align their portfolios with an intention to prevent gender-based violence; and 2) partner with gender-based violence organizations to determine where systems of finance have the greatest potential to play a role in preventing and responding to gender-based violence.We see a future where the power of the financial system, as standard practice, complements and support other strategies to prevent, reduce, and ultimately end gender-based violence.
