Gender

In FY24, MIGA issued a guarantee to Konexa Power Holdings PCC of Mauritius for its equity and quasi-equity investments in Konexa Solar 1 Ltd, a Commercial and Industrial (C&I) electrification project, in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The project is expected to deliver an average of 20.5 GWh annually from new renewable energy sources in Kaduna State, in Northern Nigeria. As part of the project, Konexa has agreed to several gender interventions, relating to women as employees and leaders, allowing women to benefit from direct employment and leadership opportunities. Konexa will develop a strategy, informed by a gender audit, to attract, retain, and promote women and increase the share of women in senior management.

By taking steps to identify and address gender gaps in leadership and employment, the project offers strong potential to support female participation in the energy sector. This will contribute to the World Bank Group's strategic objectives (WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030) of fostering women's leadership and economic participation, which are critical for sustainable development and poverty reduction in Nigeria.

In FY24, MIGA issued a guarantee to Condor KGL Limited, a subsidiary of Kasada Hospitality Fund LP (Kasada) of Mauritius, for its equity investment into Condor KGL Rwanda Limited in Rwanda.

Kasada’s investment consists of the acquisition of the Umubano Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda, and its future conversion to a 138-key Mövenpick hotel. The tourism and hospitality sector is an important driver of Rwanda’s growth, being the country’s top foreign exchange earner and a major contributor to employment. The project will lead to job creation with up to 170 employees to be permanently hired as hotel staff and up to 100 temporary jobs to be created during the renovation and coxnstruction phases. Kasada will establish a target for 50% of management personnel at the hotel to be women, and will implement Accor's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) program to support women's advancement in the management pipeline.

This initiative contributes to the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030 by promoting women's leadership in the hospitality sector, contributing to gender equality and economic empowerment.

In September 2024, MIGA issued a guarantee to Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CA CIB) and Société Générale (SocGen) for their loan to OCP S.A., Morocco’s largest state-owned enterprise, financing the expansion of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) Rabat campus.

This investment builds on earlier support for the development of UM6P’s Rabat campus, by enabling the construction of new academic, sports, and accommodation facilities, as well as a new conference center to promote knowledge, science, and culture. As part of the project, UM6P is committed to narrowing the gender gap in scientific research and UM6P will develop and launch a Women in Science Empowerment (WISE) program. The program aims to facilitate and encourage women to pursue careers in scientific research, by providing women with essential resources, professional development opportunities, and continuous support, ensuring they have the tools to succeed.

The WISE program will be supported by MIGA’s FAS TF and contribute to reducing the gender gap in scientific research and promoting gender equality within the academic community. This initiative aligns with the World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030 by addressing barriers to women’s economic advancement and fostering more inclusive educational opportunities for women in science.

In October 2024, MIGA issued a non-honoring of financial obligations by a state-owned enterprise (NHFO-SOE) guarantee to a consortium of lenders, in support of Tanger Med Port Authority, a Moroccan state-owned enterprise in charge of the development of the Tanger Med Port Complex. This project is expected to improve access and efficiency by extending the capacity of the port’s passenger and truck terminal.

The MIGA guarantee was executed as a joint project with IFC, who provided a loan up to €197 million to Tanger Med. This will be the first sustainability linked loan in Morocco and among the first in the port sector in emerging markets globally. Key performance indicators associated with the loan include gender diversity and renewable energy.

In addition, the port authority has agreed to a Gender Action Plan and committed to designing and implementing a program aligned with its gender strategy to substantially increase the representation of women in managerial positions by 2030.

By taking steps to assess and address key gender gaps in employment, this project will support the World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030. It will foster women’s leadership in a traditionally male-dominated industry and offers a strong opportunity to promote and advance women’s leadership through career advancement pathways in the port sector. It is noteworthy that Loubna Ghaleb, Member of the Executive Board responsible for Development and Strategy, and Head of Projects and Financing at Tanger Med Group, was the recipient of MIGA’s 10th annual Gender Leadership Award in FY25.

In FY24, MIGA issued guarantees covering investments by Sonatel SA of Senegal to Orange Guinée SA, a telecom subsidiary in Guinea, and Orange Finances Mobiles Guinée SA, a mobile money subsidiary in Guinea, in the form of equity and retained earnings.

The Projects are aligned with the World Bank country engagement strategy for Guinea by supporting the development and use of digital financial technology to maximize access to job opportunities, decentralize service delivery, including health and education services, and enable better engagement of citizens. The client agreed to increase the number of digital centers for women in rural areas, focus on growing the underserved market segment of women and women-owned microenterprises for microfinance services, as well as undertake targeted interventions to increase women's and underserved groups’ access to mobile phones, mobile money, and greater broadband connectivity.

These initiatives are in line with the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030, which emphasizes the importance of digital inclusion and economic opportunities for women. By addressing the digital divide, this project empowers women and enhances their participation in the digital economy

In addition, within the project enterprise, the client will take steps, such as assessments, training and set targets, to improve the recruitment, retention and promotion of women.

In August 2024, MIGA guaranteed its first Green Loan principle compliant loan from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC Bank, and Crédit Agricole CIB to Banco do Brasil (BdB).

The loan's proceeds will bolster micro-, small- and medium enterprise farmers employing conservation agriculture. Conservation agriculture involves farming practices that promote zero tillage, permanent soil cover and crop rotation which improve soil health, improve resource efficiencies, enhance biodiversity,and increase resilience to climate change. A pivotal component of the project is its commitment to gender and racial equality, encapsulated in the Gender Action Plan (GAP). The GAP includes a pilot program targeting women in Quilombo communities—communities of African descent who have faced significant barriers to financial inclusion, including challenges in securing land title.

This initiative aligns with the WBG Gender Strategy 2024-2030, which emphasizes the importance of expanding economic opportunities by addressing intersectional challenges.

In FY23, MIGA, working with a long-standing client, ProCredit Holding of Germany, signed its first gender flagged project in an active conflict area-Ukraine.

The commitment of JSc ProCredit Ukraine, ProCredit Holding’s Ukraine subsidiary, to gender equality was evidenced by the subsidiary’s willingness to build gender capacity under the extremely difficult circumstances of the Russian Federation’s invasion of the country. ProCredit Ukraine has implemented a new gender training program for its staff to build gender knowledge. MIGA and ProCredit Holding also agreed to implement the same gender training in several other subsidiaries in Eastern Europe.^[1]

^[1]These subsidiaries are Albania, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, and Serbia. Kosovo is also on the World Bank’s list of fragile and conflict-affected situations, but it is on the list for “institutional and social fragility” rather than “conflict” as in the case of Ukraine. ​

In FY23, MIGA agreed on gender actions with Banco de Comercio Exterior de Colombia S.A. (Bancóldex), a state-owned business and export development bank in Colombia.

Bancóldex aims to support access to finance for women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Colombia by, for example, focusing on improving management information systems to collect data, providing gender training for Bancóldex’s teams and partner financial intermediaries, as well as developing new products and services targeted to the women’s segment of the MSMEs market.

To support this work, MIGA is working to arrange a technical assistance grant to Bancóldex, funded by MIGA’s Fund for Advancing Sustainability Trust Fund (FASTF). It is noteworthy that Claudia María González Arteaga, Bancóldex’s chief financial officer, was the recipient of MIGA’s annual Gender Leadership Award in FY23 for supporting Bancóldex’s operations in addressing gender disparities and supporting women-owned businesses in Colombia.

In FY25, MIGA issued a trade finance guarantee for short-term trade loans extended to Türk Eximbank, a Turkish export credit agency owned by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. This guarantee promotes private sector-enabled growth by supporting export-oriented companies in Türkiye through increased access to trade finance and liquidity in hard currency.

As part of the Project, Türk Eximbank initially committed to directing 15% of the overall use of proceeds toward women-inclusive firms^[1]. Remarkably, they successfully exceeded their initial commitment by directing 33% of the total trade loan, amounting to €98.5 million. In alignment with the Gender Action Plan Türk Eximbank had agreed to, and for the first time in Türk Eximbank’s history, they provided a mandatory training on gender equality and developed a guidance note on women-inclusive firms for all their employees to strengthen institutional capacity and support gender-inclusive trade lending practices. In the end, Türk Eximbank went beyond the GAP and further disseminated the guidance note to their clients, leading to a positive shift in client attitudes, through which a number of client companies updated their HR policies to better employ, promote, and retain women in the workplace.

[1] Women-inclusive firm is defined here as enterprises that are (i) owned by women (i.e., with at least one female shareholder with a properly documented representative and managing powers); or (ii) managed by women (i.e., with at least one female C-level1 manager or with at least 25 percent female representation in mid-level management); or (iii) employing a ratio of women that is higher than the average ratio observed in the respective sector; or (iv) has increased the share of women employment by at least 5 percent in the previous year.

This initiative is expected to improve access to trade finance for women-inclusive firms, boosting their growth and competitiveness in Türkiye’s economy. It also aligns with the World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024-2030 by expanding women’s economic empowerment through trade finance and strengthening gender-inclusive business practices.

MIGA’s two guarantees in support of two loans from JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. of the United States to Fondo MiVivienda (FMV), a government institution, aim at promoting inclusive homeownership, by supporting access to mortgages for women and low-income and vulnerable populations.^[1]

Of the lending made possible through the new MIGA-supported loan facility, FMV committed to target at least 50 percent to provide mortgages to women. In addition, FMV agreed to continue to build its capacity to serve women and other vulnerable groups by undertaking a housing market opportunity analysis and designing a new or updated financial product or service targeted at women and/or vulnerable groups. Further, FMV will develop home energy efficiency training materials tailored to women homeowners and residents.

^[1] It is important to note that FMV has reached near parity in its lending to women and men. As a result, FMV and MIGA agreed to focus on the lowest income segments of the female population and other vulnerable populations (for example, people with disabilities, migrants, and Indigenous people).