Supporting gender equality on every continent: the EU Bank at European Development Days #SheisWe

Partners and project beneficiaries from around the world will join EIB experts and senior representatives this year at the European Development Days (EDD) organised by the European Commission on June 5 and 6, to reflect on how the EU Bank, as the world’s largest multilateral lender, can support the agenda ‘Women and Girls at the Forefront of Sustainable Development: protect, empower, invest’. The EIB delegation will be joining and hosting a series of debates to contribute to the gender balance agenda and explore solutions to further boost economic inclusion and female economic empowerment in development activities.

Last year the EIB group financed EUR 78.2bn of projects, among which EUR 7.9bn were outside the EU with EUR 19bn directed at climate action. With its new Gender Strategy and Action Plan, the EU Bank aims to apply a gender lens to all its activities. The EIB will hold a number of policy sessions and project presentations at its special stand 73 where beneficiaries and experts will be available for interview.

Ahead of the event, Ambroise Fayolle, EIB Vice-President notably in charge of Development, said: “The European Development Days are rightly putting gender at the centre of their debates this year. Tackling the challenges limiting women’s potential is indeed key to boost development and to fight poverty globally. This is also a core European value to which the EIB is committed. But not only this – quite simply supporting female entrepreneurship and promoting the economic empowerment of women is smart economics. I look forward to discussing this fundamental issue with African Heads of States on this occasion”.

EIB Gender Strategy and Action Plan

To improve the impact of its activities on women and girls, in December 2016 the EIB Group adopted a Strategy on Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Titled “Protect, Impact, Invest”, this Strategy and related Action Plan, approved earlier this year, will guide the Group to further contribute to the 2030 Agenda on the whole and, more specifically to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDGs) aiming to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” by 2030.

The EIB outside the EU: Financing with global impact

At the EDDs, the EIB will share the latest impact figures of its financing outside the EU. Last year, the EU Bank signed 100 new projects, with EUR 7.2bn. of lending.

In turn, this supports some EUR 29bn of investment in total, resulting in:

• 17 million women and men will benefit from safer water supply and improved sanitation
• 6 million homes will be supplied with electricity from clean and renewable sources
• 542 000 jobs in micro-enterprises and smaller businesses will be supported via better access to finance, thus enabling the creation of more jobs and the expansion of their outreach, especially to women and girls.

Original source: EIB
Published on 04 June 2018