Financial Innovation to Support Women-Led Businesses: Mexico’s First Gender Bond and the Role of National Development Banks
Gender bonds are social bonds with a gender focus, representing a promising financing vehicle for institutions committed to addressing and reducing gender inequality by improving womens access to financing, leadership positions, and equality in labor markets. This document summarizes the main characteristics of Mexicos first gender bond, issued by the Trust Funds for Rural Development (Fideicomisos Instituidos en Relación a la Agricultura, or FIRA) with the aim of expanding the resources available to finance projects led by women in rural areas. This bond also represented the first to be issued by a national development bank (NDB) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This document thus also highlights the potential of this financing instrument and the opportunities it offers to NDBs to mobilize private sector resources to expand the financing frontier for women while fostering best practices to serve them. This potential is particularly relevant considering that women entrepreneurs in LAC remain underserved by financial institutions and gender gaps prevail in access to finance and financial inclusion.