Challenge
One in three women globally has been subjected to violence against women (VAW) in their lifetime since the age of 15, and women still frequently lack equal access to economic resources. This inequality affects not only the individuals who experience it but also undermines economic stability and security at the national level.
Solution
An activity that incorporated VAW in assessing investment risk was awarded under the USAID-funded INVEST mechanism to increase women’s economic empowerment by developing tools to help investors consider women when assessing investment risk.
In close collaboration with USAID, Making Cents International supported Milliman in building a convincing case to incorporate VAW considerations into risk assessments for political risk insurance, a type of insurance designed to protect investors from financial loss due to political events.
The activity equipped investors, political risk insurance providers, and development finance institutions with open-source tools and resources to understand how VAW impacts investment risk and accurately price or mitigate these risks. Making Cents provided expertise in VAW prevention to inform the development of the business case and open-source tools. This expertise included providing access to data and research around VAW, contributing to the development of tools and methodologies, and facilitating the testing and dissemination of tools among the international development community.
Ultimately, the activity aimed to elevate VAW as a critical issue for investors and influence capital markets to incorporate women-centered strategies at scale. As investors increasingly consider VAW to be an investment risk, this will encourage governments and government agencies to see VAW prevention as a key issue in achieving economic growth.