WOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: HOW GENDER

WOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES:HOW GENDER INTEGRATION CAN BOOSTENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTYINTRODUCTIONIn 2001, Acumen pioneered the ideaof patient, long-term capital to investin and scale entrepreneurial solutions to poverty. Acumen’s approachmerges the efficiency of marketbased solutions and the social impactfocus of traditional philanthropy.Patient capital has an appetite for riskthat allows Acumen to seek out andinvest in game-changing businessmodels that are creating meaningfulchange in the lives of the poor in thedeveloping world.While Acumen regularly collects dataon each of its portfolio companies toconfirm that they are effectivelyserving low-income customers, it hasnever systematically looked at itscompanies—including their customers and their employees—througha gender lens. Women are significantbeneficiaries of Acumen’s work,however, and are emerging as adriving force as low-income consumers, participants in the labor market,and leaders and innovators.Indeed, women represent today’smost powerful consumer group—making up a market whose growthpotential is greater than that of Chinaand India’s combined.1 Women arealso disproportionately representedamong the over 2 billion people livingon less than 2.00 a day, and still havelower education levels, worse healthoutcomes, fewer economic opportunities, and higher exposure to violencethan men.2 For social enterprisesthat seek financial viability alignedto social impact goals, a femalecustomer and employee base represent an enormous untapped opportunity to optimize for both.This reports is the first time thatAcumen has endeavored to apply agender lens to its portfolio. In collaboration with the International Centerfor Research on Women (ICRW) andthe Cartier Charitable Foundation,this report offers the first in-depthexamination of how gender factorsinto the strategies, operations andimpact of Acumen’s companies.For this study, an initial scan of 22 ofAcumen’s portfolio companies wasconducted, and six of these companies, as well as one non-Acumencompany, were selected for in-depthcase studies. The case studies spanmultiple industries and geographies,and explore how these social enterprises are integrating gender into theirmanagement systems, operations,and most importantly, how they areengaging women as consumers, andwhere this engagement has helpedimprove business and social performance. The report also contains anew framework that outlines theways in which gender can influencekey business decisions. This framework has the potential to be appliedbroadly as a diagnostic tool touncover short-, medium-, andlong-term opportunities to moreeffectively integrate gender in waysthat will support the business andsocial goals of these companies.Acumen does not view genderintegration as an end in itself.Rather, it has partnered with ICRWto understand how a gender lenscan help to optimize businessmodels—from design, production,marketing and sales to workplacestructures and systems—to buildbetter businesses and improve thelives of low-income customers.Across the Acumen portfolio, thereare patterns that have emerged thatmay be broadly indicative of whatone would find across the socialenterprise sector: There are significant opportunitiesfor market expansion through focuson female consumers.Silverstein, M.J. & Sayre, K.(2009). The Female Economy. Harvard BusinessReview, September 2009. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2009/09/the-female-economy2 2 per day is the accepted estimate of moderate poverty.The World Bank Group. (2015). Poverty Overview. Retrieved from 18AcumenWOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: HOW GENDER INTEGRATION CAN BOOST ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY

Women are significantly underrepresented at the senior management and board level, which couldslow progress in broader efforts tointegrate gender. These gaps oftenreflect a limited pipeline of womenin entry- and mid-level roles. It willtake time to address these gaps ascompanies invest in hiring, trainingand leadership development.It is important to note that thesample size in this study was smalland qualitative research methodswere used in order to provide a morein-depth perspective. This approachrevealed insights on gender integration from the perspectives of thesecompanies, their employees, andtheir customers. The use of thisqualitative methodology does notpresent definitive conclusions butuncovers the potential impact ofgender integration across these andother social enterprises as an initialstep, and can hopefully light the pathfor further research.GENDER DATA FROMACUMEN’S PORTFOLIOIntegrating women’s preferences andperspectives into a company’s ethosand value chain begins with thehighest levels of leadership. Researchshows that ventures with women ontheir founding teams are considerably more likely to have reportedpositive revenues.3 Only one of theenterprises sampled is owned bywomen, and five are jointly ownedby women and men. Women madeup less than 40% of the managementstaff in 17 companies. One exceptionwas the agriculture sector, wherewomen represented up to 50% ofmanagement positions. This isencouraging, especially since thereOf the 22 companies first analyzed, 17kept track of the gender of customers,14 explicitly targeted women ascustomers, and nine reported thatwomen accounted for more than 50%of their customers. However, the factthat nearly one fourth of the sampledenterprises did not even keep track ofthe gender of customers shows thatmore emphasis is needed on marketresearch, to better understand whothe customer is and what theirpreferences are.FIGURE 1: PERCENTAGE OF CUSTOMERS/CLIENTS SERVED OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS WHOWERE WOMEN10Number of Companies Companies have the potential toincrease productivity throughimproved engagement of femaleemployees and investments incapacity building for women.864200%1 – 9%10 - 24%25 - 39%40 - 49%Management positions50% Don't KnowNon-management positions10Roberts, P.W. & Peters, S. (2014). The Impact of Entrepreneurship Database Program: 2013 Year-End Data Summary. Social Enterprise @ Goizueta. Retrievedfrom /documents/2013 End Summary Final Final.pdfNumber of Companies35WOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: HOW GENDER INTEGRATION CAN BOOST ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY0Acumen9

ESSDESIGNCommunityand ctsesurGendFIGURE 2: OPTIMIZING IMPACT THROUGH GENDER INTEGRATIONSOCIAL IMPACTSfor CustomersIMPROVEDPRODUCT/SERVICEMARKETINGBUSINESS IMPACTSfor CompanySALES10Number of CompaniesGENDER LENS8INCREASED PROFITS RECYCLED BACK TO INVESTORS AND COMPANYINVESTORS64200%1OF– 9%10 - 24% AND25 - 39%40 - 49%50% EMPLOYEES Don't KnowFIGURE 3: PERCENTAGEMANAGEMENTNON-MANAGEMENTWHOARE WOMEN*Management positionsNon-management positionsNumber of Companies10500%1 - 9%10 - 24%25 - 39%40 - 49%50% Don't Knowhas been considerable attentionon gender-focused research andprogramming in agricultural valuechains to increase productivity.One of the CEOs interviewed forthis study pointed to the fact thatthe lack of women in leadershipand management positions in thesecompanies likely reflects a constraintin accessing more diverse personnel,not a conscious choice for the company, as there may be fewer qualifiedwomen than men for these roles.Based on this data, Acumen’s investees are in line with private sectorcompanies as a whole in the developing world, where, according to asurvey by the International LaborOrganization, women comprise justover 20% of CEOs. This was somewhatsurprising because women typicallyhave better representation in socialenterprises: according to a studyconducted by the EntrepreneurDatabase Program, half of thecompanies sampled have at leastone woman in the founding team.4The Entrepreneur Database sampleincluded 821 companies workingacross the education, agriculture,health, environment, energy, andinformation/communication technologies sectors, of which 112 werenonprofits. Moving forward, Acumenaims to collect a more robust datasetof information on how its companiesare engaging women. Building offof the data collected and resultingconceptual model, the report delvesdeeper into seven companies.*Reflects data from 20 Acumen investeesToiletWaterumber of respondents1501131021005043234Ibid.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL FORGENDER INTEGRATION INSOCIAL ENTERPRISESThanks to more and more investorsrecognizing the benefits of integratingwomen across the value chain—suchas increased sales and profitabilityand enhanced equity—“gender-lensinvesting” is fast becoming a newcategory within the impact investingsector. This means more investorsthan ever are seeking investmentopportunities in companies wheregender has been integrated, whetherinto business operations, employment practices, customer base, orthrough the types of products andservices offered.Layering a gender lens on a socialenterprise’s business model illuminates how gender integration canproduce products and services thatamplify business outcomes forthe company and social outcomesfor customers, and how genderequitable companies enhanceemployee/supplier impacts andcommunity and institutionalimpacts. For the seven in-depthcase studies, companies wereanalyzed across the following fivebusiness model components:1) Design: To what extent does theproduct or service considerwomen’s needs and desiresand engage women in thedesign process (as designersor consumers)?TV celebrity Wilbroda and Equity Bank promote BURN stoves2) Production: How are femaleand male employees incorporated across all levels of theproduction process?3) Marketing: How well does thecompany understand how womenand men are and could better beusing its products or services?Does the company take this intoconsideration when marketing towomen customers?4) Sales: Does the company employfemale sales agents? With regard tothe actual sales transaction, doesthe company sell products orservices at times and locations thatare convenient for women consumers and include financing mechanisms that enable the product orservice to be affordable andaccessible for female customers?5) Equitable systems and structures:Does the company create anenabling environment to effectivelyengage female and male employeesto create, produce, market, and sellproducts and services that targetand reach the powerful femalecustomer base?WOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: HOW GENDER INTEGRATION CAN BOOST ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTYWhen considering the social andbusiness impact of integratinggender into the business modelacross the five elements listedabove, the following levels of impactwere examined: Social impact at the customerlevel: Integrating gender throughout the business model andengaging both women and menthroughout the enterprise valuechain have the potential toincrease customers’ perceivedvalue of products/services, aswell as their adoption and use.Innovations that contribute toenhancing women’s quality of lifeor narrowing gender inequalities,can greatly impact their lives.For instance, since women typicallyfetch water in many of the regionswhere Acumen invests, innovationsthat increase access to clean watercan meaningfully improve the livesof women by saving time andproviding health benefits. Indirectly,innovations that increase timeavailable, savings, or access toother resources for women havethe potential to enable women toamplify social benefits throughthe use of these resources.Acumen11

Business impact at the companylevel: When gender is integratedthroughout a company’s businessmodel, products and services willbe more aligned to customers’preferences, potentially leading toimproved sales, increased customerloyalty, and improved access totalent. For example, female distributors and sales agents may be able toposition companies to better servefemale markets and increase sales.5Due to strong relationships of trust,women customers may be morelikely to purchase new, innovativeproducts or services from anotherwoman, and to go to her withquestions regarding use andmaintenance.6 Using genderintegration to better design, market,and sell relevant products/servicesis likely to enable social enterprisesto tap into an underserved market,not only gaining new customers,but also retaining them. In addition,by incorporating inclusive systemsand structures that create anenabling environment for bothfemale and male employees,enterprises can have increasedaccess to talent, employee retention,brand reputation, and a widercustomer base. Social and economic impacts atthe employee / supplier level: Inaddition to impacts at the customer and company level, socialenterprises have the ability tocreate enormous social andeconomic impacts for their employees and suppliers. While employment opportunities are importantfor both men and women, thereare large gender gaps in employment across the developing world,making employment opportunitiescritical for women’s advancement.7But even when women are engagedin the labor force, vast wage gapsexist. A World Bank study foundthat men earn between 8% and48% more than women, withdiscrepancies most pronounced inSouth Asia and Sub-SaharanAfrica.8 Because of the inequalitieswomen face in labor forceparticipation and income generation, the ability to gain theseopportunities and resources hasvast potential for economicadvancement and empowermentfor women. At-work trainingopportunities and engagementin non-traditional roles has thepotential to increase women’saccess to new and higher-levelpositions and to increase theirleadership and decision-makingskills. Having increased incomeand increased control over howincome will be spent also giveswomen increased purchasingpower. This can be particularlyimportant for social enterprisesthat target women as their keyaudience. These empoweredwomen may now be more likelyto purchase the social enterprises’products and services and usethem to amplify social impacts.The case studies reflect the uniqueopportunities each enterprise has tointegrate gender at the levels appropriate to its way of doing business.Because businesses have diversestructures, each varies in how it canaddress gender at each level of theframework. As a set, the case studiesprovide a window into the multipleopportunities, challenges, andpositive results businesses mayexperience as they embark on aneffort to introduce gender-integrationstrategies for the first time or to taketheir existing practices to the nextlevel of development.Elborgh-Wortek, K., Newiak, M., Kochhar, K., Fabrizio, S., Kpodar, K., et al. (2013). Women, Work, and the Economy: Macroeconomic Gains from GenderEquality. IMF Staff Discussion Note. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved from 310.pdf6Puzzolo, E., Stanistreet, D., Pope, D., Bruce, N. & Rehfuess, E. (2013). Factors Influencing the Large-Scale Uptake by Households of Cleaner and More EfficientHousehold Energy Technologies. London: EPPIMCentre, Social Science Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved fromhttp://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid 3426Clancy, J., Winther, T., Matinga, M., & Oparaocha, S. (2012). Gender Equity in Access to and Benefits from Modern Energy and Improved Energy Technologies.World Development Report Background Paper. Netherlands: ETC/ENERGIA. Retrieved from and-energy/wdr norad l Labour Organization. (2012). Global Employment Trends for Women. Geneva: ILO. Retrieved from s/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms 195447.pdf8Ñopo, H., Daza, N., & Ramos, J. (2011). Gender Earnings Gaps in the World. World Development Report 2012 Gender Equality and Development: Background Paper.Washington, DC: Retrieved from le/10986/9114/WDR2012M0017.pdf?sequence 1512AcumenWOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: HOW GENDER INTEGRATION CAN BOOST ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY

GUARDIANTHIS CASE STUDY HIGHLIGHTS: DESIGN OF THE PRODUCT/SERVICE SALES AND DISTRIBUTIONFamily whose lives have been improved by a GUARDIAN loanHalf of India’s population still defecateoutdoors and do not have access tobasic sanitation.9 The slow progresson sanitation has been hampered bya lack of affordable water products forthe poor and inadequate investmentsin behavioral change and awarenessprograms.10 While India spends about 26 billion annually on programs toimprove nutrition and create jobs,they spend less than 400 million onimproving sanitation—a ratio ofmore than 60 to 1.11 Women areespecially disadvantaged by a lack ofwater, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)solutions. They are responsible forspending hours collecting water andcan also face security risks when theygo out in the open to defecate. Waterand sanitation solutions have tremendous potential to improve women’slives, but only if women can affordto buy them.GUARDIANGramalaya Urban and RuralDevelopment Initiatives and Network(GUARDIAN) tackles the sanitationproblem in India by providing91011affordable sanitation loans andproducts to low-income clients in theTiruchirappalli district in South India.GUARDIAN is among a small numberof microfinance institutions globallythat are engaged in micro-lending tohouseholds solely to support thepurchase of water and sanitationassets. These assets include connections to municipal water suppliesand toilet construction. GUARDIANaims to enhance not only thequantity and the quality of affordablesanitation loans and products, butalso to influence behavioral changein the household through access toinformation and public awareness.GUARDIAN’s loans enable womento have access to affordable, highquality water and sanitation solutionsthat save time, improve health, andprovide safety and dignity. Thecompany takes into account women’sneeds when designing its loan scheme,resulting in high customer satisfaction. They also engage women insales and distribution roles to reachmore consumers, especially women.GENDER INTEGRATIONACROSS THE BUSINESSMODELDESIGN OF THE PRODUCT/SERVICEGUARDIAN believes female clients aremore motivated to buy sanitationloans than male clients because theymanage the household finances andare responsible for the householdchores including water, cooking, andchildcare. Indeed, several femaleclients that were interviewed forthis report listed access to waterand sanitation as one of their threemain priorities in life. The companyalso believes that women are moreresponsible in paying back their loansthan men.As such, GUARDIAN offers a uniquesanitation loan scheme specificallytargeted to female clients, and hastaken positive steps to acknowledgeand consider women’s specificsanitation and financial needs inthe design of its services. After eightyears of implementation,UNICEF. (2015). Eliminate Open Defecation. Retrieved from tionUNICEF & WHO. (2015). 25 Years Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update on MDG Assessment. Geneva, Switzerland: UNICEF & WHO.Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water 2015 Update .pdfIbid.WOMEN AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: HOW GENDER INTEGRATION CAN BOOST ENTREPRENEURIAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTYAcumen13

After joining GUARDIAN,I feel I have a personalprestige, I have gainedconfidence, I canstand on my own,go everywhere aloneand make decisionson my own.- FEMALE LOAN OFFICERGUARDIAN customer stands proudlyoutside her home

IMPACTS OF GUARDIAN’S GENDER-INTEGRATIONGUARDIAN’s repayment rates arehigher than 99%. Female clientsinterviewed particularly valuedGUARDIAN’s’s loan requirementsthat take into account women’spreferences, which may also lead tohigh customer satisfaction: Female clients liked the group loanscheme with their neighbors, incontrast to individual loans. Femaleclients said that they were motivated to engage in the loan becausethey could share the risk and thebenefits with their neighbors. Given their time poverty andmobility limitations, female clientsliked the option of doorstep collection and monthly installments.Some female clients also liked thepracticality of having the optionto have neighbors pay back theirmonthly instalments if theycouldn’t do so in person. Female clients liked the lowinterest rates compared to otherfinancial institutions, especiallygiven their limited capital andmonthly income. Finally, female clients appreciatedthat little documentation isrequired to obtain a loan, whichmakes the process smoothand easy.High customer satisfaction may alsolead to increased sales and higheradoption and usage of the loan andwater products. The majority offemale clients said they had builtBUSINESS BOTTOM LINE: Increased sales: by targeting women’s financial needs and preferences High repayment rates: more than 99% of female clients are accountable and haverepaid the loan on timeSOCIAL BOTTOM LINE: More poor women reached: through affordable sanitation loans, female clients atthe bottom of the pyramid have access to water and sanitation services Behavior change in the household: women educate their family members andencourage changes in sanitation practices, which in turn benefits the health andnutrition of their families, and particularly their childrentheir toilets and water connectionswithin the first two months afterreceiving the loan. Moreover, in arecent rapid assessmen

CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN For nearly 40 years, ICRW has been the premier applied research institute focused on women and girls. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with regional offices in South Asia and Africa, ICRW provides evidence-based research to inform programs and policies that he