A few years ago, Criterion launched a ten-year strategic plan, which solidified our commitment to direct the power of the financial system to be a positive force against systemic injustice. This is part two of a five-part series on the core pillars of our 2020-2030 strategic plan. Each episode will give our listeners an inside look at how these pillars came into focus for Criterion, why it’s so important for us to do this work now and over the long-term, key partners who are working with us, and highlights of our impact to-date.
This week, our host Joy Anderson talks about “Unleashing the Power of Policy,” the pillar of our work that deals with government partners and supports them in utilizing their existing social policies to raise the bar for innovative finance initiatives. First, Joy will talk through the history of our work in this space and how we expand the imagination of governments to see that they can use their power and influence to improve gender and other social outcomes in both public and private finance. Then she will discuss a common misperception that a lot of innovative finance programs have taken on – that women-led businesses need to be de-risked. Finally, Joy ponders the need for a translation function within donor agencies to facilitate coordination between innovative finance and the departments working on gender and other social policies.
Episode Highlights:
Relevant Links:
The Blueprints demonstrate how a variety of social change organizations can design strategies that use systems of finance as tools to create positive social change.
These roadmaps lay out insights for how finance can be used to address gender-based violence in a range of sectors, asset classes, geographies, and investor types.
The TOOLKIT is designed to support your journey as you explore how finance can be used as a tool to create social change.
1K Churches was launched in 2012 to galvanize a movement in the faith-based community and engage US churches to invest in the local economy.
These gender-based violence due diligence tools analyze existing due diligence categories – including political, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks – and show how they can be affected by gender-based violence.
Gender-based violence is ubiquitous. More than 1 in 3 women worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence, and millions of men, boys, and gender-diverse individuals are affected by physical, sexual, and emotional abuse daily.