Deadline: 30-May-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

IFC seeks to procure a firm to research the business case for gender-lens investing for private equity (PE)and venture capital (VC)funds in emerging markets. Gender-lens investing, the use of gender as a category of analysis in investment decision making, is relatively small, but the market for integrating gender into the investment selection process is growing in both size and sophistication. Women are heavily under-represented when it comes to PE fund managers, angel and VC investors, and as fund investees. Yet, we also know that financial performance of companies is correlated to gender diversity. Limited representation of women may be hurting fund performance portfolios. PE/VC funds play a critical role in enterprise growth, job creation, innovation, and financial security and can play a catalytic role in closing economic participation gaps between men and women. The research will support IFC efforts to close gender gaps in access to jobs and assets.

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