Investing at the nexus of gender and nature presents a significant opportunity for development finance institutions (DFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs) seeking both financial returns and development impacts, especially as momentum builds around scaling finance to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Women are indispensable agents of change in advancing positive outcomes for nature and biodiversity, leading sustainability efforts across sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, finance, and energy. For example, as primary cultivators of staple crops and custodians of agrobiodiversity, women play vital roles in sustaining food systems, managing water and forests, and preserving traditional ecological knowledge. At the same time, it is critical to ensure that benefits derived from nature and ecosystem services are shared and accessed equitably, including by women.
In a rapidly evolving nature finance landscape, with major updates to approaches for tracking nature finance from MDBs released as recently as COP30, this action brief invites DFIs, MDBs, and impact investors to identify entry points to embed a dual nature-gender lens into their investment processes and operations. These incremental opportunities are informed by insights gathered through interviews conducted with key ecosystem actors, including DFIs, MDBs, standard-setting bodies, and impact investors.
This report was developed with support from FinDev Canada and Global Affairs Canada.