This case study explores how Access Bank integrates the UN Principles for Responsible Banking into its operations, advancing green finance, financial inclusion, and gender equality. It highlights the bank’s green bond issuances, ESG frameworks, and stakeholder engagement, offering investors insight into sustainable finance practices within emerging markets.

This publication is part of the Gender Benchmark series by the World Benchmarking Alliance. It serves as a practical tool for investors to assess and engage companies on their performance in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment across value chains, supporting stewardship and responsible investment practices.

The 2022 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage report by the ILO, Walk Free, and IOM estimates that 49.6 million people are in modern slavery of which 27.6 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriage. The report highlights worsening trends linked to crises such as COVID-19, conflict, and climate change, and urges coordinated global action toward SDG Target 8.7.

This report summarises how asset owners integrate diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) into organisational policies, investment management and stewardship. Drawing on interviews with 21 organisations, it highlights varying maturity levels, regulatory developments, data challenges and best practices shaping DE&I implementation across the pensions and investment industry.

New research on Australia’s ASX 300 companies finds that diversity within board committees, particularly in terms of gender, independence, and professional background, leads to smarter and more efficient investment decisions. The study shows that diverse committees make more disciplined and forward-looking choices, linking inclusion directly to better financial performance and long-term value creation.

This CGAP technical guide outlines how lenders can apply gender-intentional approaches to credit scoring to expand women’s access to finance without increasing portfolio risk. Using data from AB Bank Zambia and TymeBank South Africa, it demonstrates practical methods for integrating gender analysis, adjusting scorecards, and improving lending outcomes for women.

The report analyses the growth and practices of gender lens investing (GLI) across asset classes. It highlights how institutional investors and impact funds integrate gender equality goals into investment strategies, identifies challenges such as limited data and standardisation, and provides guidance to deepen GLI’s contribution to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality.

This report by Roots of Impact (2024) reviews eight years of experience implementing Impact-Linked Finance (ILF), a structuring approach that rewards measurable social or environmental outcomes by linking financial terms to impact performance. It outlines ILF’s evolution, design principles, effectiveness benchmarks, and opportunities to scale through collaboration and new impact-linked instruments.

The report by Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) evaluates how engagement by external asset managers has affected investee companies from 2017–2022. Using causal inference analysis across over 26,000 engagements, it finds positive links between engagement and improvements in corporate value, governance, decarbonisation, and diversity.

This report presents an updated “Doughnut” framework, tracking 35 social and ecological indicators from 2000–2022. Findings show only modest progress on reducing deprivation, while ecological overshoot has worsened, with wealthier nations driving most impacts. The study highlights stark inequalities and calls for regenerative, distributive economic approaches.

This report examines how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are being adopted in venture capital. It outlines current practices, challenges, and industry-specific considerations, and highlights the need for tailored guidance, collaboration, and early-stage engagement to advance responsible investment across the venture capital ecosystem.

This benchmark series provides an annual analysis of board diversity across ASX300 companies. It tracks representation beyond gender, covering areas such as cultural background, skills, age, tenure, and independence. The series offers longitudinal insights to assess diversity trends and board composition in the Australian corporate sector.

This benchmark series, produced by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, reports on employer gender pay gaps across Australia’s private sector. It provides comparative insights into pay disparity trends by industry, employer size, and remuneration levels, supporting ongoing evaluation and improvement of workplace gender equality practices.

This benchmark series tracks annual progress in women's representation in executive leadership roles across the ASX300. It provides a consistent and comparative overview of gender diversity trends, highlights structural barriers, and evaluates corporate efforts towards achieving gender balance in leadership.

Chief Executive Women (CEW) is an Australian organisation uniting over 1,200 senior women leaders across sectors to advance gender equity. CEW offers leadership programs, scholarships, and conducts research to support women's progression into executive roles. Its members collectively oversee more than 1.3 million employees and $749 billion in revenue.

This report outlines how embedding just transition principles in climate strategies supports equitable decarbonisation. It presents trends, case studies, and a UNDP framework guiding countries to integrate socio-economic considerations into their Nationally Determined Contributions and Long-Term Strategies, promoting inclusive, sustainable development in line with the Paris Agreement.