Unlocking Billions: How to Grow a Gender Smart Movement with Jessica Espinoza

In this hopeful and empowering episode of “Be & Think in the House of Trust”, Servane sits down with Jessica Espinoza, CEO of 2X Global, to delve deep into the transformative world of gender-smart investing. Jessica unravels the essence of leveraging capital for gender equality and the profound impact it has on societies and economies worldwide.

With billions already mobilized in gender-smart investments, she sheds light on the successful strategies and practical models that have been pivotal in this journey.

Jessica takes us through her story, detailing the driving forces behind her commitment to social impact and gender-smart initiatives.

  • Discover inspiring stories of communities of practice that have led to tangible, scalable solutions.
  • Get valuable insights on engaging traditional financial institutions and how to encourage a shift from planning and perfection to participation and learning.
  • Reclaim the power of peer influence and community support in making gender-smart investing mainstream.

Don’t miss this episode if you want to be a part of the movement towards a more inclusive and equitable investment landscape.

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Transcript
Servane Mouazan:

Welcome to this new episode of the House of Trust.

Servane Mouazan:

My name is Servan Moisen, and I'm inviting you to

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explore and think about the mental

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models and conditions that help you all

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impact leaders. You people who love to invest

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in positive social and environmental change,

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to collaborate and do more great, positive

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work. My guest today is Jessica

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Espinosa, CEO of 2 X Global,

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a global membership and field building

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organization for investors, capital

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providers and intermediaries working in public and

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private markets across both developed

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and emerging economies. And they are

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unlocking gender smart capital at scale. And

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to date, they have accounted for billions of dollars in

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gender smart investments deployed in

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the past couple of years. So settle in

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and discover with Jessica what gender smart

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investing really means, why it

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matters, and how you are connected to

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these two.

Servane Mouazan:

Jessica, hello and thank you for taking a moment to

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reflect with me today on your thoughts and

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inspiration.

Jessica Espinoza:

Hi, Servane Really excited to be here today.

Servane Mouazan:

So let's start with a bang. Can you tell us

Servane Mouazan:

who you are, but in five words?

Servane Mouazan:

If you have five words to describe yourself.

Jessica Espinoza:

Oh, my God. Five words?

Jessica Espinoza:

Um, yeah, maybe, uh, I, ah,

Jessica Espinoza:

unlock Gendersmart capital at scale.

Jessica Espinoza:

Does that count as five words?

Servane Mouazan:

Oh, I like it. Because you keep still a bit of mystery

Servane Mouazan:

about who you are behind this role.

Servane Mouazan:

And if you have another five words, tell more

Servane Mouazan:

about who you are.

Jessica Espinoza:

Um, okay, maybe let me do

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it like five mini bullets. So,

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one, driven by social impact. I think

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that characterizes me. Ah, second,

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collaborative. Ah, and always looking for new

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partnerships and ways to collaborate with others.

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Third, innovative. Um, over the last

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years, I've spearheaded a lot of, um,

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innovative initiatives together with others.

Jessica Espinoza:

So innovation is something that's really important to me.

Jessica Espinoza:

Curious. I'm really curious about your podcast

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and the conversation today. So I like

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surprises, and I'm just a very curious person who

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loves to learn. And then fifth, I would say kind

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of a global citizen. I really feel home

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all over the world. I've lived in different countries and places,

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and I love collaboration across

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countries, globally.

Servane Mouazan:

Wow. So, curiosity, collaboration, partnership,

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innovation, global,

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um, women of the world. Tell me, Jessica,

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you unlock gender smart capital at scale.

Servane Mouazan:

What does this mean? Really?

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah, it's an excellent question. Ah, and I think kind

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of what it means has also evolved over the last

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years. So it all started for us with

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the 2 X challenge, which we collectively launched at

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the G seven summit in 2018. And

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back at that time, it was a group, um, of development finance

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institutions of the g seven countries, colleagues who came

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together and mobilized their leadership to get on

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stage and make a joint capital

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commitment. And so at the time for us, it was

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really, um, this desire

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to shift more capital towards gender

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equality and more investment projects

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that benefit women in emerging markets.

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And unfortunately, not that much has

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changed if we look at the big picture numbers. So we still know

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that only a tiny fraction of capital

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and finance goes to women

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founded and led companies around the world.

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Our initial intention was really to change that. So we came

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together, we made this bold capital commitment of,

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uh, $3 billion in three years. At

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that time, everybody thought completely crazy,

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super ambitious. And we ended those three

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years in the middle of a pandemic in

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2020, uh, with over 11

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billion mobilized and deployed. And

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so it was really this moment where we showed,

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this is possible, this is working, and we can do it.

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And so during that time, we had to define

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what we actually mean by gender smart investing, because

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there was kind of a definition that criterion

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shaped way back when, which is to

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add gender analysis into

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financial analysis and the way we make investment

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decisions. But there wasn't kind of a

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framework that investors could use clear criteria

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beyond looking, for example, at companies

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founded or owned by women. So we expanded

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it further. We really wanted to look at the full business value

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chain to make sure that nobody had an

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excuse, ah, not to do it, right, because

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otherwise you can say, oh, I'm not investing in startups,

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so, um, I'm not doing anything. So it was really important

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for us to have a framework that can be widely

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adopted by all types of actors. And so we

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define the two x criteria as one, entrepreneurship.

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So we do look at ownership and

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whether the company is founded by women. But

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then secondly, we also look at leadership. So looking at

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the share of women in senior management and on the

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board of directors, or if it's a fund, on the investment

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committee, then third, quality, uh,

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employment. So, looking at the share of women

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in the workforce, but also policies and

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practices and how they promote or hinder gender

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equality. And the fourth one, products

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and services and how they are

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designed to enhance the well being of women and

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girls or to promote their, um, economic

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participation. And so

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those criteria which were codified and harmonized

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without a standard setters, quickly became a global industry standard

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of gender lens investing. And that's kind of what we mean

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by it. But I think your question goes

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much deeper, like, what does it actually mean and what are we

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doing? And so, um, I'm happy to also share in this

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conversation a bit more about what we do, more

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specifically at two x global, and how this has

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evolved into this global membership and field building

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organization that works across a number of

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different strategic priorities.

Servane Mouazan:

I just pick up on the two

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phrases that are coming up here. There's the

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gender lens investing and

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gender smart investing. I

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mean, it's part of that evolution. I'm aware of

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that. But what is the actual difference here? Because

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these two phrases are popping here and there.

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Maybe people might want to know more about

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that.

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah, I think it's not, uh, consistently

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applied. I think I use

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it often interchangeably. Um,

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initially, everybody talked about gender lens

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investing, looking at investment through the

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lens of gender and

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making smarter decisions. But then as the

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community realized, okay, this is actually really smart

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investing. There's a business case, there's an

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impact case, and it is just silly to

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ignore 50% of the population

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in our investment decisions. And so if we apply a

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gender lens, it's actually smart. And so,

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uh, especially gender smart. Uh, as an

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organization who merged with two x

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to become what is today two x global, coined the

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term gender smart investing, which really put the

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emphasis on it's also smart to do. It's

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not only the right thing, it's also the smart thing to do it.

Jessica Espinoza:

Uh, I think in practice, sometimes gender smart

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investing is used more broadly

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by also more commercial investors to

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signal that it's kind of a mainstreaming approach,

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that they make their investments gender smart.

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Whereas gender lens is sometimes perceived as

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being even more intentional. You're leading with

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gender. It's like much more deliberate

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and focused, for example, in a fund's

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investment thesis. But I think

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largely it's used often

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interchangeably.

Servane Mouazan:

M so what I'm hearing as well is that the

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gender smart is also an objective, so

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the investors themselves can qualify who they

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are by just adding the gender smart

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and owning and being and embodying that

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behavior.

Jessica Espinoza:

Right, exactly.

Servane Mouazan:

So let's pause for a second because you are gender smart,

Servane Mouazan:

obviously, throughout. What is it

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in your own story that makes you

Servane Mouazan:

want to do this work, to be gender

Servane Mouazan:

smart outside the five words that

Servane Mouazan:

you said earlier. But let's dig deeper.

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah, so it's a very long story. Let me try

Jessica Espinoza:

to keep it relatively brief. When I

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started my career, and it was already back

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then when I graduated from high school and was thinking about

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my future, I really noticed this

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dichotomy between the social sector that

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was doing good and the business sector that

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presumably was doing bad, but was kind of cool to

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be in the business sector. And I never understood

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where that was coming from because I thought back

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then, if you really want to change the world, you need both

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sides. You need the social sector, and you also need the

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business community to really promote change at

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scale. And so I consciously decided to

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study international business,

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but to apply a social impact

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lens to everything I was doing in that

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space. And at the time, it was

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kind of the early days of microfinance.

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And, uh, it was when the Nobel Peace

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Prize was awarded to Mohammed Eunice.

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And so I became really interested

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in social business. And I

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started relatively spontaneously. I

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decided the first job that I would take would be in a social

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business, to know, understand how

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it works in practice, to be on the ground and to gain that

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skill set. And so that's what I did before. I

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then went back into a more corporate setting,

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and I then started

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working in microfinance as well. Across,

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uh, especially Africa and Latin America, lived and worked in different

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countries. And it really struck me that

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on the one hand, microfinance was positioned as

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a tool to, um, reach a number of

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social goals, but also to empower

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women. But in reality,

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there was like this disconnect between the narrative

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of empowering women and what was actually happening

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on the ground, which was often men were the

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decision makers, women were the quote unquote

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beneficiaries. But also their needs

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weren't really taken into account holistically. It

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was somebody else who was designing the products and services for

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them and was kind of saying, this is what women

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need, rather than really hearing and

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having women participate. And there was also this

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disconnect between micro businesses and

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larger businesses, kind of SME type of

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businesses. And I always wondered why it

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is that women could get small

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money, for example, for seeds, um,

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to start grow a small business. But as

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soon as she had ambitions to grow it, capital

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was nowhere to be seen. And so I became

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increasingly interested in that. In my

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personal journey, I faced a lot of kind of

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gender bias, not only myself, but I also noticed

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structural gender issues in the different countries

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where I worked. And so I became increasingly

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interested in how to connect all of these

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dots. Where is this coming from? It's not

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smart business. So why

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is this happening? And I think that's

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been accompanying me throughout my career.

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I then moved on, uh, to, um, work for

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the procredit banking group, and I was member of the

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management board of the procredit bank in Nicaragua, which

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was an amazing. Again, you know, I

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thought, wow, now I'm in a position where I can really

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affect change at scale because m know

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one of the key decision makers in that bank. But at

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that time, I realized as well that actually a

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lot of influence is coming from your investors and

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from the board of directors. And so that's when I

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increasingly became interested in an investment

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side and the impact that I could have at an

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even greater scale if I moved into an investor

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role. So I became an investor, joined, uh,

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de G, the german development finance institution.

Jessica Espinoza:

And that's also what then led to launching the Twix

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challenge and getting more involved in this. But

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it's kind of been accompanying me from the beginning

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and I've evolved my career in different

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ways to pursue the same objective, but,

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uh, in different ways.

Servane Mouazan:

What a wonderful story. And I can see all the

Servane Mouazan:

mechanism and the reflection behind this story as well,

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and how to gain more influence,

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again, more power as

Servane Mouazan:

well. So now that you

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are steering that two x global,

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do you have stories that illustrate the

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power that these members, uh,

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you all together have and how

Servane Mouazan:

these help shift things on the ground?

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah, there are definitely a lot of stories, maybe

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to start with. One, uh, something that has

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always been at the core of what we do are our

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communities of practice. So we have, for example, communities

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of practice focusing on the nexus of gender and

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climate finance, the care economy,

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Jedi, broader justice, equity, diversity and

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inclusion. And they are very practical. So

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these, uh, are practitioners coming together,

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identifying shared challenges and

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then working on concrete solutions, collaborating on

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investment projects, and also, for example,

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jointly developing toolkits. And

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one of those, uh, early toolkits that was really,

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really successful is our gender smart climate

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finance toolkit, which was launched at

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cop 26, uh, so a couple of years ago

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now, um, where I, uh, was

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in Glasgow, together with women entrepreneurs

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from around the world to launch this toolkit and to

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really put an emphasis on the fact that

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women around the world are really at the front

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lines of driving climate action. But, uh, are often

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ignored from climate discussions, don't have that

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seat at the climate decision making table. And

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so it was an amazing opportunity at cop to have

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that shared stage with the women entrepreneurs to launch the

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toolkit. And the toolkit was

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developed by our members together.

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So we have different case studies from different

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members, uh, different expertise,

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and it, uh, consists of, uh, a set

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of twelve sector guidance. So whether you're in

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water or transportation or banking, you find

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something about genuine climate and how it's relevant

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for you. And I think that's really,

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I love this story because it was in the early days, we

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were a tiny organization still, but with the

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power of our members, we were able to create something

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that was a true co creation and

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that received a lot of recognition at the

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cop stage. And then subsequently,

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every time another cop came up, uh,

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annually, we were able to show progress and

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case studies and add to that

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toolkit to make it really relevant for

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practitioners.

Servane Mouazan:

I love this story because you highlight some key

Servane Mouazan:

principles here, the power of partnerships, the power of

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finding a platform where you can also have

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more echo and more resonance and more maybe

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spotlights and where people

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can't really say no. I mean, they want to be part

Servane Mouazan:

of that. Can they?

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah, I think that's very true. Exactly. And then

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that attracts others, right? And then, um, others come

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and say, hey, really love what you did on climate. Can

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we do something like that on the care economy? How can we get

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involved? And I think it also

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reduces the barrier to get started because

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there are many people out there in different types of

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roles and jobs who really want to make a difference

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and who are excited about this opportunity. But

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it's kind of hard to be a change agent on

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your own, especially, um, if you

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perhaps not necessarily don't internally

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have the mandate to drive these agendas. Um, but you still

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want to get inspired and make a difference. And so I think

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by joining these kind of networks and peer groups,

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it's really powerful to be part of the

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change and to get inspired about how

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to take the first steps and just move towards

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action.

Servane Mouazan:

So I love that, that mandate to be a change

Servane Mouazan:

agent. And actually you have all the resources at

Servane Mouazan:

hand to, um, bring

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people into that circle or into that dance

Servane Mouazan:

of gender smart investing or

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contributing to this movement. So

Servane Mouazan:

imagine lastly, financial institutions still

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traditional or an organization, financial

Servane Mouazan:

organization that are still

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entrenched in their own ways. What are the

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steps that you might want to,

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or that you are using? Maybe to influence and

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convince them to pay attention, not just

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attention, but also direct their capital to your aim

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when they're not the people who would

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want to have a mandate, but maybe they're not that

Servane Mouazan:

aware still. I'm sure there are still some people like

Servane Mouazan:

that.

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah, definitely.

Servane Mouazan:

What's your plan for them?

Jessica Espinoza:

There's a different plan for different audiences.

Jessica Espinoza:

So even among this audience that you describe,

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um, there are a lot of nuances and there's

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quite great diversity. Um, but we

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see that different things convince

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different people. So for some people, it's really

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important to understand the business case. And

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it might be the case, for example, if they have to convince their

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board or their broader organization

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and stakeholders, and if they're very commercially driven,

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it's really important to explain the business case.

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So what we find really helpful is to have, we

Jessica Espinoza:

have a number of fact sheets and

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different talking points and so on about how to make

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that business case in your particular

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sector. Asset class, geography, um,

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wherever you are situated, and

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then the other thing that almost always

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works is to have peers

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who have done it, because you sometimes

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can't imagine that something can actually work

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until you see somebody like you doing it.

Jessica Espinoza:

And so we also, um, seek to bring

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peers together and to facilitate a lot of

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peer learning and getting inspired by what

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others do. So in your scenario, if, for

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example, a big commercial bank comes to us and

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says, not really sure if we should get

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involved, but kind of curious, I would immediately

Jessica Espinoza:

send them to my colleague Borja,

Jessica Espinoza:

who's with a city social finance,

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and then city is perceived as a

Jessica Espinoza:

peer and can show how they do it

Jessica Espinoza:

and what's convincing about it and

Jessica Espinoza:

what's in it for them. Another way

Jessica Espinoza:

to get them excited is to have

Jessica Espinoza:

them join a network like two x Global, or

Jessica Espinoza:

if it's an individual, I would also point them to women

Jessica Espinoza:

in social finance, to one of these networks

Jessica Espinoza:

where they can, again, get inspired by others,

Jessica Espinoza:

be part of a community, and just

Jessica Espinoza:

take steps. Uh, often we

Jessica Espinoza:

have people approach us who feel that before

Jessica Espinoza:

the organization can become a member or can position

Jessica Espinoza:

itself in the space of gender smart investing,

Jessica Espinoza:

they have to have the perfect plan. They

Jessica Espinoza:

think about getting lawyers on board and

Jessica Espinoza:

strategists and consultants and

Jessica Espinoza:

developing a big master plan, and maybe in

Jessica Espinoza:

two or five years down the road, they can

Jessica Espinoza:

join us. And that's exactly what we don't advise to do,

Jessica Espinoza:

because, uh, we can't really afford as a

Jessica Espinoza:

community to repeat the same mistakes that others have

Jessica Espinoza:

already made. Right. There's so much learning, and so we

Jessica Espinoza:

really encourage these organizations to join. It doesn't

Jessica Espinoza:

matter if you're early on your journey, but you can learn from

Jessica Espinoza:

others and avoid the pitfalls

Jessica Espinoza:

and kind of leapfrog

Jessica Espinoza:

to, uh, the insights that we have today on

Jessica Espinoza:

many of these challenges.

Servane Mouazan:

That's wonderful what you say, because I'm imagining this kind

Servane Mouazan:

of advice can be transferable in other parts of our life.

Servane Mouazan:

Don't wait to have the perfect plan or the perfect

Servane Mouazan:

business case to get going. Just do that

Servane Mouazan:

incrementally. Enjoy the power of

Servane Mouazan:

partnership, of Trust, building of

Servane Mouazan:

connections, and of learning. If

Servane Mouazan:

anyone's still got impostor syndrome after that, this

Servane Mouazan:

is impossible, because it's just a real invitation

Servane Mouazan:

to come in, to join in and, uh, learn

Servane Mouazan:

together. Oh, thank you so much. I wonder, what

Servane Mouazan:

more do you think or feel or want to

Servane Mouazan:

say? Jessica.

Jessica Espinoza:

Yeah. So there are, um, several

Jessica Espinoza:

annual recurrent events that I would encourage people to

Jessica Espinoza:

join. One is the future of Impact Summit,

Jessica Espinoza:

which I'm organizing in my personal capacity with my

Jessica Espinoza:

social venture, Shoko and the future of impact

Jessica Espinoza:

Summit happens every year and brings together impact

Jessica Espinoza:

driven entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem

Jessica Espinoza:

players to connect, learn and inspire action towards

Jessica Espinoza:

the sdgs. It's really a space for

Jessica Espinoza:

innovation, very candid, courageous conversations

Jessica Espinoza:

and we always see that new actions are coming out of

Jessica Espinoza:

this. There are also a number of

Jessica Espinoza:

events, uh, every year that we organize

Jessica Espinoza:

at 2 X or in collaboration, also with other

Jessica Espinoza:

partners. And so, um, you can find more about

Jessica Espinoza:

that on our website, in our newsletter. And it would be

Jessica Espinoza:

really amazing to see many of the listeners, uh,

Jessica Espinoza:

meet them on these occasions and continue the

Jessica Espinoza:

conversation.

Servane Mouazan:

Wonderful. We will put all this in the show notes. Thank you

Servane Mouazan:

so much Jessica, for your contribution,

Servane Mouazan:

explanation and all your example

Servane Mouazan:

of how this movement is growing and evolving.

Servane Mouazan:

Thank you so much.

Jessica Espinoza:

Thank you so much for having me.

Servane Mouazan:

So that's it for today. Thank you all for listening to

Servane Mouazan:

this exploration on gender smart investing

Servane Mouazan:

in the House of Trust today with Jessica Espinosa from

Servane Mouazan:

two X Global now you know what to

Servane Mouazan:

do. You can subscribe now to these podcasts on your favorite

Servane Mouazan:

platform to make sure you don't miss the next

Servane Mouazan:

episode. You can comment, review and share

Servane Mouazan:

it to bring more people into the discussion

Servane Mouazan:

and for more insights, resources and

Servane Mouazan:

opportunities. And even if you want to develop a

Servane Mouazan:

thinking environment for yourself and your team to design

Servane Mouazan:

new, courageous and relevant projects or

Servane Mouazan:

reflect on your ways of collaborating,

Servane Mouazan:

well, you head to my website, servanemouazan.co.uk and you

Servane Mouazan:

subscribe to my regular updates. You'll have all the information

Servane Mouazan:

you need. Keep connecting, keep thinking.

Servane Mouazan:

Bye.

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