The Gender Bonds Toolkit focuses on designing and issuing gender bonds in Africa to promote gender equality. The toolkit provides guidance for issuers and investors, focusing on transparency and effective reporting. The toolkit recommends four categories of gender-focused projects: education and training, health and well-being, leadership, and entrepreneurship. The report covers the entire issuance process, from groundwork and project evaluation to frameworks and monitoring.

A key recommendation from the report is for issuers to prioritise gender equality within their organisational strategy and establish a Gender Bond Working Group (GBG). The GBG’s role is to conduct groundwork for gender bonds, ensure the availability of adequate gender-disaggregated data, manage the proceeds transparently and report effectively.

The report points out key barriers to gender bond issuances, primarily the lack of reliable gender-disaggregated data. The report calls for gender metrics to be included in an issuer’s pre-issuance external review as well as for gender impact to be a part of annual reporting guidelines.

The report highlights the importance of gender-focused external reviews. Such reviews ensure that issuers identify relevant challenges for their bond issuances and that projects meet the appropriate standards. The report also recommends selecting the relevant key performance indicators (KPIs), such as specific, material, measurable, transparent, and verifiable ones. These KPIs should be aligned with appropriate sustainability and business strategies to produce meaningful impact.

Overall, the Gender Bonds Toolkit advocates for the inclusion of gender in financing frameworks and highlights the necessity of transparent and effective reporting for gender bonds. The toolkit provides a valuable resource for anyone interested in designing and issuing gender bonds with the aim of promoting gender equality.