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Noreen Oloya
Impact & ESG Specialist
Emerging Markets Energy Transition Infrastructure
Mirova Kenya
Zineb El Jamali1
Investment Manager
Emerging Markets Energy Transition Infrastructure
With the participation of
Christiane Würdemann
Head of Emerging Markets Energy Transition (EMET)
Mirova
Rim Azirar
Head of Investments – EMET
Mirova
01. Business Case
Gender-lens investing can enhance risk‑adjusted returns, open underfinanced women-led and women-serving markets, and support more stable, inclusive growth.
02. Approach
Mirova’s EMET team systematically integrates gender into sector- and country-specific analysis across the clean energy value chain, informed by on-the-ground presence.
03. Process
Applying the 2X Criteria2 and a dedicated gender Technical Assistance facility, the EMET team embeds Gender Action Plans, metrics and governance commitments throughout the investment cycle.
04. Case study
SunCulture3 illustrates how a gender-informed agri‑solar model can increase women’s incomes, reduce unpaid labor, and strengthen ESG performance while scaling commercially.
05. Conclusion
Gender-smart climate finance can be a strategic lever for accessing high-impact opportunities and improving portfolio resilience in emerging markets4.
Integrating gender equality into investment decisions is increasingly recognised as a driver of financial performance, portfolio resilience and innovation — particularly in emerging markets where demographic growth, climate vulnerability, and structural inequalities intersect.
Within Mirova’s Emerging Markets Energy Transition (EMET) strategy, gender is therefore not treated as a separate social objective, but as a core component of how value is created and risks are managed in energy transition infrastructure investing.
The business case for gender lens investing can be understood through three complementary dimensions: value creation for investors, growth and competitiveness for businesses, and more balanced economic development at the macro level.
A growing body of evidence shows that companies with more diverse leadership and inclusive governance structures tend to deliver stronger financial performance. Research from institutions such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) highlights correlations between gender diversity, improved decision making, better risk management, and more resilient governance5. In markets where volatility and capital constraints are common, these advantages can materially support long-term performance6. At the organisational level, companies that invest in gender equality typically benefit from higher employee engagement and lower turnover - two drivers of productivity that are especially critical in technical and field-based sectors. Inclusive workplace policies, from parental leave to robust anti-harassment mechanisms, also contribute to stronger talent retention and smoother project continuity7.
Despite strong fundamentals and repayment records8, women-owned and women-led SMEs9 in emerging markets continue to face significant financing gaps10. Gender lens investing can help address this structural under-allocation of capital while opening access to markets where demand remains largely unmet.
As women’s economic influence grows — both as entrepreneurs, consumers and financial decision makers — new opportunities emerge across sectors such as energy, mobility, digital services, and financial inclusion. Investing with a gender lens can therefore support the growth and competitiveness of companies that are often overlooked, while expanding addressable markets.
In many of the countries where Mirova’s EMET team operates, women’s participation in the economy remains shaped by structural barriers including unequal access to quality employment, finance, technology and essential services. Investments that address these barriers while advancing energy access and climate resilience can therefore unlock gains both for companies and for the broader economy11.
Mirova’s EMET strategy is focused on clean energy and related sectors in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Through the different vintages of our strategy, we have targeted opportunities where gender, climate, and development outcomes are closely intertwined: these include sectors such as solar home systems, commercial and industrial solar, solar-powered telecoms, agri-solar, electric mobility (e-mobility), and financial inclusion.
A key point of differentiation is the combination of thematic focus with local presence. Our EMET team works on the ground, alongside companies and stakeholders, to understand how gender norms, labor markets, and community dynamics shape both risks and opportunities.
Rather than applying a uniform template, we adapt our expectations, engagement, and support to each context. This approach allows us to include gender in the analysis of our business models across sectors and throughout the whole value chain, guiding how we support portfolio companies.
For example, in solar home systems and solar-powered telecoms, we look closely at who is selling, servicing, and using products at the last mile. Women often play a central role as sales agents, community focal points, and household decision‑makers; therefore, we work with companies to strengthen women’s participation in distribution networks, to improve outreach to female customers, and to reinforce policies and procedures that prevent gender-based violence and sexual harassment in field operations.
In commercial & industrial solar and agri-solar, we pay particular attention to women’s access to technical, operational, and supervisory roles, and to how products and services reach women end-users, including smallholder farmers. This includes assessing recruitment and promotion practices, training opportunities and workplace conditions for women, as well as examining how financing models, marketing strategies and after‑sales support reflect women’s needs and constraints.
As our strategy has since expanded into e‑mobility and financial inclusion, we extend the same discipline. For e‑mobility, we review how women participate as employees, fleet operators and service providers, and how mobility solutions respond to women’s safety, affordability, and accessibility concerns.
Across all these sectors, the common denominator is that gender is built into the core of our investment and engagement model. We use our local presence to ground decisions in real operating conditions, and we focus on concrete levers that can simultaneously enhance commercial performance, strengthen climate impact, and deliver better outcomes for women
Within Mirova’s Emerging Markets Energy Transition strategy, gender considerations are embedded into every stage of the investment lifecycle. We apply the 2X Challenge criteria as a foundational filter in sourcing, due diligence and monitoring to ensure that investments contribute to women’s leadership, economic participation and equitable governance. Investees report annually on key gender metrics such as leadership representation, workforce composition, pay parity and progress against gender-related milestones.
Did you know?
What is the 2X Challenge?
The 2X Challenge is a global initiative launched by G7 Development Finance Institutions in 2018 to mobilise capital for women’s economic empowerment in emerging markets. It has already catalysed more than USD 33 billion.
The initiative is anchored in the 2X Criteria, encompassing compliance with the Basic 2X ESG and minimum Governance & Accountability criteria, alongside alignment with at least one of the 2X quantitative thresholds used to qualify investments as “gender-smart”:
This approach is reinforced by a dedicated gender Technical Assistance (TA) program. With support from Swedfund, an investor in the fourth vintage of our EMET strategy, a gender TA Facility was established to strengthen gender activities and outcomes in portfolio companies. A specialised TA provider works directly with investees through a 4-part program:
GAP implementation is a core expectation. We require active investees, particularly those with identified areas for improvement, to develop a GAP, track progress of implementation regularly, and link qualitative impact to concrete governance and operational milestones in leadership, workforce, procurement, and product design. As of end 2025, around 30% of investees in the fourth vintage already had a GAP at the time of initial investment, and it has been strongly recommended that the remainder adopt and implement one as an Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) action. Leveraging the gender-focused TA as a core capability, the strategy works with external consultants to translate gender insights into operational improvements that are directly relevant to each business model.
We are also explicit about the main challenges: promoting women into leadership in male‑dominated renewable energy sectors and obtaining robust, sex‑disaggregated data across geographies. To address these, we encourage companies to work with external partners on technical training and mentorship programs for women, and we prioritise strong alignment with top leadership — integrating gender targets into strategy, governance, and KPIs12, with visible advocacy from the C‑suite13 and boards to secure accountability and sustained commitment.
Did you know?
What is a Gender Action Plan?
A Gender Action Plan (GAP) is a practical, time‑bound roadmap that translates the findings of a gender assessment into concrete, monitorable actions at company level. In Mirova’s EMET strategy, GAPs are a core engagement tool used to strengthen governance, operations, and business performance, while improving outcomes for women across the value chain.
Typically embedded as a recommendation within an Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP), a GAP sets out priority actions, responsibilities and milestones aligned with the company’s business model, sector dynamics and local context. GAPs are tracked over time and form part of Mirova’s ongoing dialogue with investees.
What actions can a GAP support in practice?
Depending on sector and maturity, a GAP may support targeted measures such as:
In energy transition infrastructure, GAPs often focus on increasing women’s representation in operational and supervisory roles, formalising inclusive HR and safety practices, and ensuring that products and services effectively reach and benefit women customers. Progress is linked to clearly defined governance and operational milestones agreed with the investor.
SunCulture illustrates how a gender lens can sharpen both commercial performance and development impact in agri-solar
Mirova has supported SunCulture through the third and fourth vintages of its EMET strategy, as part of a syndicated facility designed to help the company scale across sub-Saharan Africa. SunCulture designs and deploys solar-powered irrigation systems for smallholder farmers who are often off‑grid or under-served by traditional infrastructure. By replacing manual water collection or diesel pumps with efficient solar pumps and using a Pay-As-You-Grow consumer finance model that aligns repayments with farm cashflows, the company enables farmers to invest with limited upfront capital, increase yields and incomes, and reduce dependence on increasingly unpredictable rainfall.
Gender is central to SunCulture’s impact story. The company currently serves over 60,000 smallholder farmers, 33% of whom are women. Access to affordable solar irrigation allows these women farmers to move into higher-value crops, boost productivity, and diversify income sources, contributing to poverty reduction and food security.
A particularly important effect concerns unpaid care and domestic work. In many communities, the physically demanding task of fetching and carrying water is traditionally performed by women and girls. By automating this work, SunCulture’s solar pumps free up an estimated 13 hours of labor per week per woman. This time can be redirected to productive activities, community engagement or rest, addressing a structural barrier to women’s economic participation that is rarely captured in financial metrics.
SunCulture has studied these dynamics to better understand the specific challenges facing women and has put in place a gender strategy that is currently being implemented. In 2025, the company had close to 1,300 direct employees, 33% of whom were women, a notable achievement in a technically oriented, male-dominated sector. Mirova is working with SunCulture through an Environmental and Social Action Plan to further strengthen ESG governance and practices, including gender, health and safety and supply chain management.
By deliberately tracking who benefits from its products and who is employed within its workforce, SunCulture demonstrates how gender insights can inform product design, distribution and customer engagement, ultimately supporting stronger business performance, greater climate resilience and more inclusive economic outcomes. This is a core focus for the support provided to SunCulture through Mirova’s gender TA program.
Source: Mirova and SunCulture, as of end December 2025. The company mentioned above is shown for illustrative purpose only. This mention should not be considered as a recommendation or a solicitation to buy or sell.
Integrating gender equality into investment decisions can unlock underserved markets, improve customer acquisition and retention, strengthen governance, risk management, and operational resilience, and boost employee engagement, retention and productivity, while deepening and sustaining climate and development outcomes.
EMET’s experience across vintages suggests that gender-lens investing can help investors access high-impact exposure in emerging markets, where women play a key role. For professional investors, this approach may offer a practical way to align capital with both climate and gender objectives and support the transition to a low-carbon economy that aims to be more inclusive, productive, and resilient.
1 External advisor, based in Morocco.
2 Refer to page 3 for an explanation of the 2X Criteria.
3 The company mentioned above is shown for illustrative purpose only. This mention should not be considered as a recommendation or a solicitation to buy or sell.
4 Target performance is not an indication of future performance. Investments in Private Assets are subject to risks, including the risk of capital loss and the risk of liquidity.
5 International Finance Corporation (IFC) - Women on Boards and in Business Leadership. Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) - Women on Boards and Beyond.
6 Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) - Is Gender Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey.
7 Catalyst - Why diversity and inclusion matter.
8 IFC & Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women: A Decade of Innovation, Investment, and Impact.
9 Small and Medium Enterprises.
10 World Bank Group - MSME Finance Gap: Assessment of the Shortfalls and Opportunities in Financing Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Markets.
11 UN Women - Facts and figures: Economic empowerment
12 Key Performance Indicators.
13 The term C-suite (or C-level) refers to the highest executive positions within an organization.
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