Acting for greater equality

Reducing inequalities is essential for sustainable development. In accordance with the commitments made by the French government and AFD Group, Proparco has placed this objective at the heart of its strategy by mobilising the private sector around more equal and inclusive societal initiatives.

Combating inequality is a major objective of France's development policy, as enshrined in the law of 4 August 2021. As part of AFD Group's commitments, Proparco works to reduce social, economic and regional inequalities, as well as fighting gender inequality.

Working towards gender equality

The private sector plays a key role in reducing gender inequalities by promoting professional opportunities and female entrepreneurship, and improving access to essential goods and services for women and girls. In phase with France's feminist diplomacy strategy and the objectives of AFD Group, Proparco helps the businesses it supports to identify and prevent gender inequality, both in-house and among their customers.

Guaranteeing the access of women and girls to essential goods and services strengthens their physical empowerment, improves their safety and well-being, and is a key lever for reducing gender inequalities. The role of a development finance institution like Proparco is to finance or invest in businesses that offer products and services dedicated to, or specifically focusing on women.

Project focus – A 100% electric bus network in Senegal

Proparco has granted a loan to help set up the first 100% electric bus network in sub-Saharan Africa in Dakar. Gender issues were fully integrated into project design to meet the specific needs of women. For example, adjustments were made to ensure safe access to stations and their vicinity (pedestrian safety and traffic management, accessibility, lighting, etc.).

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The professional integration and economic empowerment of women are key focuses for reducing gender inequality. Proparco's aim is to increase women's economic empowerment by investing in businesses that promote their entry into the labour market and their career advancement.

Project focus – With Proparco, gender equality is in fashion in Bangladesh's clothing industry

Proparco is funding a programme (HERHealth) that improves health education and the day-to-day lives of female employees at Bangladeshi textile manufacturer Ananta Huaxiang. The aim is to support quality jobs for women by raising awareness around the various health issues that affect them (contraception, maternity, nutrition, disease prevention, healthy lifestyle, etc.).

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By enabling women to participate in economic activity, entrepreneurship is an essential lever for economic empowerment and decision-making. Proparco supports female entrepreneurship by allocating funds to financial institutions targeting and supporting businesses (microbusinessses and SMEs) owned or run by women.

Project focus - Microfinance empowering Indian women

Proparco has provided Indian microfinance institution Annapurna with a US$15 million line of credit to help it grow its portfolio of loans granted to very poor women in rural areas. With a nationwide presence, Annapurna works with 2.3 million customers, 99% of whom are women.

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The 2X Challenge to support the socio-economic empowerment of women

In 2018, the development finance institutions of the G7 countries – which include Proparco – launched the 2X Challenge. It aims to get the private sector to contribute to the development of women as entrepreneurs, business leaders and employees, and ensure that they can have equitable access to goods and services.

The financiers' approach is twofold: factoring in the risk of maintaining or reinforcing gender inequalities in the projects they finance, and consciously increasing the share of financing that benefits female entrepreneurs, employees and investors.

29 approved projects were aligned with the 2X Challenge in 2024 for a total amount of €682.2 million

The 2X Challenge eligibility criteria cover six categories: female entrepreneurship, female leadership, female employment, women in the supply chain, consumer goods and services for women, and the intermediated financing “gender’ portfolio”.

Proparco's objective for 2023-2025 is to qualify €1.9 billion worth of financing for the 2X Challenge.

More information about the 2X Challenge

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“Show me the impact!” - Findings and insights from DFI gender portfolio evaluations

A risk-based approach to combating gender inequality

Proparco has developed a risk-based approach to ensure that the businesses it supports comply with international standards, particularly in terms of gender equality. This encourages them to incorporate gender equality commitments into their internal policies.

In 2023, Proparco devised a dedicated approach to preventing gender-based violence (GBV) to improve how it is assesed, prevented, monitoring, reporting and management in financing and investment projects.

Guidance note: Preventing and addressing Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH)

Gender-based technical support

Thanks to the non-financial support it provides, Proparco meets the needs of its clients – both businesses or financial institutions – by mobilising expertise to assess internal practices, design gender-specific action plans or develop “product” offerings that promote financial inclusion or access to services for women.

Project focus - In Tunisia, Enda is giving a boost to female entrepreneurship

In addition to financing – which has enabled 82,000 women to benefit from microloans – Proparco has helped Tunisian microfinance institution Enda Tamweel to develop internal processes to support female empowerment: the deployment of a ‘gender strategy’, studies on women's access to financial services and financial education programmes for women.

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Helping to reduce social, economic and territorial inequalities

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered the sharpest increase in inequality in three decades. Inequality within countries has increased to such an extent that it has become the main component of global inequality. By 2030, more than 600 million people, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, are expected to still be living in extreme poverty.

As a provider of jobs and essential goods and services, the private sector has a crucial role to play in reducing socio-economic and regional inequalities by investing more in health, education, energy and microfinance and targeting vulnerable communities.

+30% of Proparco's financing helps to reduce inequalities (2023-2024)

Over the 2023-24 period, over 30% of Proparco's financing (in number) will contribute to reducing inequalities and promoting inclusion. Two-thirds of this financing enhances access to an essential good or service, and nearly half to microloans.

This financing helps to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 10 (SDG10): “Reducing inequality within and among countries”.

Project focus - Supporting women's access to affordable housing in the Dominican Republic

Proparco and Banco BHD have signed a €50 million financing agreement to help more than 700 low- and middle-income Dominican women buy their first home for less than 5 million Dominican pesos. This programme is in phase with the Dominican government policy of promoting access to decent housing for the most vulnerable households.

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The ‘Equality & Inclusion’ approach

Proparco seeks to ensure that everyone, particularly poor or marginalised populations, can participate in and access the benefits and opportunities generated by its financing.

The inclusion of poor or marginalised populations – and more specifically, targeting populations from the Bottom 40 (B40 – representing the bottom 40% of household incomes in a given country) – is the selected means of action for reducing inequalities within countries. Funding is therefore analysed according to three criteria that determine whether it contributes to:

Providing access to essential goods and services for poor or marginalised populations
Developing virtuous agriculture value chains that include smallholder farmers
Financing companies operating in disadvantaged regions (at country level)

Project focus - Improving food security and yields in rural African communities

In nine African countries (Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia), Proparco is supporting the work of One Acre Fund through a US$10 million loan. This programme strengthens food security in rural communities by giving farmers access to training and quality inputs.

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