EIB Group rolls out new gender plan with €30 billion track record behind it

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has unveiled its third Gender Action Plan, covering 2026–2030 and setting out a fresh push to advance women’s economic empowerment in Europe and beyond, the bank announced. The launch comes ahead of International Women’s Day and against a backdrop of what the EIB describes as uneven and, in some places, retreating progress on gender equality worldwide.

The plan builds on a track record the EIB Group says speaks for itself. Over the past five years, the Group more than doubled its financing for gender equality to over €30 billion, including €2.5 billion specifically invested in women’s health and €13 billion channelled through the European Investment Fund into women-led funds and leadership programmes. Sixty percent of EIB operations promoting gender equality also contributed to climate action — a figure the bank highlights as evidence that gender and climate resilience are deeply connected challenges, not separate agendas.

“At a time when others are stepping back, we are even more determined to stay the course,” said EIB Group President Nadia Calviño, framing gender equality as both a core European value and a driver of stronger economic growth. The new plan focuses on three broad areas: expanding women’s access to finance, jobs and leadership; investing in inclusive infrastructure and health services; and embedding gender rights across all EIB Group operations.

To make those commitments concrete, the Group plans to increase advisory support fivefold, roll out new digital tools to help clients integrate gender considerations into project design, and issue Sustainability Awareness Bonds with explicit gender equality objectives to pull more private capital toward inclusive growth. Flagship programmes like SheInvest, the Women Climate Leaders Network and the InvestEU Gender Finance Lab will continue to anchor the work on the ground.

The plan also signals a broader call to action — urging governments, development organisations, philanthropies and the private sector to join the EIB Group in driving systemic change, at a moment when the political momentum behind gender equality in many parts of the world is far from guaranteed.