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You are cordially invited to the upcoming launch event of the SME Gender Growth Acceleration (SG2X) Playbook: a gender-smart investment toolkit for fund managers and SMEs operating in Africa. The SG2X Playbook is the culmination of an 18-month project conducted through USAID’s Women Economic Empowerment Fund that will be hosted on the 2XCollaborative platform.
Event Details:
● DATE: Thursday, September 22, 2022
● TIME: 9-10:30 a.m. EST; 4-5:30 p.m. EAT
Starting in November 2020, USAID partnered with RENEW and a consortium of leading gender lens investing (GLI) initiatives, including members of the 2X Challenge, to support the creation of GLI success stories in Africa.
The USAID SG2X Playbook project represents the first of three phases. The first phase focused on the creation of, and initial training on, various components of the Playbook with SMEs operating in Rwanda and Uganda. The second and third phases, beyond the scope of the USAID project, will focus on widespread adoption and implementation from a variety of SME portfolios, verification of impact and results, and refinement of the Playbook as needed.
The long-term expected impact of this project is that the SG2X Playbook will help move the concept of GLI from an impact investment screening, policy, and monitoring and evaluation practice for gender-focused investors, to a mainstream strategy for investors to use to unlock SME portfolio growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. The SG2X Playbook seeks to improve SME performance by using gender-smart practices as a key business growth strategy alongside other SME growth best practices, thereby ultimately contributing towards USAID’s women’s economic empowerment objectives:
● Women Prospering in the Workforce: Women prospering in the workforce as companies adopt gender-smart policies and provide better jobs and equal access to leadership roles and opportunities.
● Women Succeeding as Entrepreneurs: Women prospering as entrepreneurs and attracting more financing as they effectively execute on their investment plans.
● Women Enabled in the Economy: Women enabled to become entrepreneurs, executives, and managers and prosper in the economy by reducing or removing structural barriers for women.
How is the SG2X Playbook different from other tools? The SG2X Playbook seeks to build on existing resources and provide a systematic and replicable approach in the form of a “Playbook” designed to help grow SMEs into gender-smart success stories that deliver competitive financial and impact results and demand attention from larger private sector investors. In summary, the SG2X Playbook outlines a fund manager’s investment game plan, including gender-smart policies, tools, trainings, and best practices to maximize portfolio results.
We hope you can join us on Thursday, September 22, 2022, to take part in the discussion and learn more about the SG2X Playbook. Be sure to REGISTER here to secure your spot.
