Value proposition

Empowering women economically is not only the right thing to do — it’s the smart thing to do.

Investing in Women, an initiative by the Australian Government, focuses on accelerating women’s economic empowerment across Southeast Asia. By fostering equitable opportunities within the private sector, it aims to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth in targeted countries. Our objective is to support women to thrive in the workplace and succeed in business.
IW continues the ambitious agenda of advancing women’s economic empowerment through:
• Workplace Gender Equality – We support Business Coalitions that work with influential businesses on shifting workplace cultures, practices, and policy barriers to achieve workplace gender equality, with member companies together employing more than one million people;
• Enabling Policy Reforms – We work with credible local institutions to strengthen the evidence base and drive collective action needed to influence and inform policy reform that support women’s equal economic participation, particularly related to the care economy;
• Campaigns and Communities of Practice – We support locally driven campaigns in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam that highlight positive examples of gender equality to strengthen public support for women’s economic participation. Through fostering a community of gender equality advocates, IW will continuously build evidence that supports the broader adoption of progressive attitudes and behaviours; and
• Gender Lens Investing – We work to increase investment in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that disproportionately benefit women in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. We do so by increasing capital providers’ demand for Gender Lens Investing strategies and products, catalysing the supply of financial instruments available to small businesses owned or led by women, and investing in the growth of SMEs that support women through a ‘fund of funds’ strategy.

In collaboration with corporations and business leaders, policymakers and implementers, capital providers, entrepreneurs

Partnerships, Advocacy, Gender Equality, Capacity Building, Policy Influence, Government Relations, Women Empowerment, Gender Lens Investing, Impact Investments, Workplace Gender Equality, Influencing Gender Norms, Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation, Blended Finance, and Women's Economic Empowerment