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Unlocking Billions: How to Grow a Gender Smart Movement with Jessica Espinoza
Episode 37 • 2nd February 2024 • Be & Think in the House of Trust • Servane Mouazan
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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.

Useful Links

Connect with Servane:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/servanemouazan/

Website: https://servanemouazan.co.uk

Subscribe to Conscious Innovation updates:

http://eepurl.com/hp0h55

Transcripts

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

Servane Mouazan:

explore and think about the mental

Servane Mouazan:

models and conditions that help you all

Servane Mouazan:

impact leaders. You people who love to invest

Servane Mouazan:

in positive social and environmental change,

Servane Mouazan:

to collaborate and do more great, positive

Servane Mouazan:

work. My guest today is Jessica

Servane Mouazan:

Espinosa, CEO of 2 X Global,

Servane Mouazan:

a global membership and field building

Servane Mouazan:

organization for investors, capital

Servane Mouazan:

providers and intermediaries working in public and

Servane Mouazan:

private markets across both developed

Servane Mouazan:

and emerging economies. And they are

Servane Mouazan:

unlocking gender smart capital at scale. And

Servane Mouazan:

to date, they have accounted for billions of dollars in

Servane Mouazan:

gender smart investments deployed in

Servane Mouazan:

the past couple of years. So settle in

Servane Mouazan:

and discover with Jessica what gender smart

Servane Mouazan:

investing really means, why it

Servane Mouazan:

matters, and how you are connected to

Servane Mouazan:

these two.

Servane Mouazan:

Jessica, hello and thank you for taking a moment to

Servane Mouazan:

reflect with me today on your thoughts and

Servane Mouazan:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

it like five mini bullets. So,

Jessica Espinoza:

one, driven by social impact. I think

Jessica Espinoza:

that characterizes me. Ah, second,

Jessica Espinoza:

collaborative. Ah, and always looking for new

Jessica Espinoza:

partnerships and ways to collaborate with others.

Jessica Espinoza:

Third, innovative. Um, over the last

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

and the conversation today. So I like

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

of a global citizen. I really feel home

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

and I love collaboration across

Jessica Espinoza:

countries, globally.

Servane Mouazan:

Wow. So, curiosity, collaboration, partnership,

Servane Mouazan:

innovation, global,

Servane Mouazan:

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

Servane Mouazan:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

of what it means has also evolved over the last

Jessica Espinoza:

years. So it all started for us with

Jessica Espinoza:

the 2 X challenge, which we collectively launched at

Jessica Espinoza:

the G seven summit in 2018. And

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

institutions of the g seven countries, colleagues who came

Jessica Espinoza:

together and mobilized their leadership to get on

Jessica Espinoza:

stage and make a joint capital

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

really, um, this desire

Jessica Espinoza:

to shift more capital towards gender

Jessica Espinoza:

equality and more investment projects

Jessica Espinoza:

that benefit women in emerging markets.

Jessica Espinoza:

And unfortunately, not that much has

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

that only a tiny fraction of capital

Jessica Espinoza:

and finance goes to women

Jessica Espinoza:

founded and led companies around the world.

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

together, we made this bold capital commitment of,

Jessica Espinoza:

uh, $3 billion in three years. At

Jessica Espinoza:

that time, everybody thought completely crazy,

Jessica Espinoza:

super ambitious. And we ended those three

Jessica Espinoza:

years in the middle of a pandemic in

Jessica Espinoza:

2020, uh, with over 11

Jessica Espinoza:

billion mobilized and deployed. And

Jessica Espinoza:

so it was really this moment where we showed,

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

And so during that time, we had to define

Jessica Espinoza:

what we actually mean by gender smart investing, because

Jessica Espinoza:

there was kind of a definition that criterion

Jessica Espinoza:

shaped way back when, which is to

Jessica Espinoza:

add gender analysis into

Jessica Espinoza:

financial analysis and the way we make investment

Jessica Espinoza:

decisions. But there wasn't kind of a

Jessica Espinoza:

framework that investors could use clear criteria

Jessica Espinoza:

beyond looking, for example, at companies

Jessica Espinoza:

founded or owned by women. So we expanded

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

chain to make sure that nobody had an

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

for us to have a framework that can be widely

Jessica Espinoza:

adopted by all types of actors. And so we

Jessica Espinoza:

define the two x criteria as one, entrepreneurship.

Jessica Espinoza:

So we do look at ownership and

Jessica Espinoza:

whether the company is founded by women. But

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

the share of women in senior management and on the

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

committee, then third, quality, uh,

Jessica Espinoza:

employment. So, looking at the share of women

Jessica Espinoza:

in the workforce, but also policies and

Jessica Espinoza:

practices and how they promote or hinder gender

Jessica Espinoza:

equality. And the fourth one, products

Jessica Espinoza:

and services and how they are

Jessica Espinoza:

designed to enhance the well being of women and

Jessica Espinoza:

girls or to promote their, um, economic

Jessica Espinoza:

participation. And so

Jessica Espinoza:

those criteria which were codified and harmonized

Jessica Espinoza:

without a standard setters, quickly became a global industry standard

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

by it. But I think your question goes

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

conversation a bit more about what we do, more

Jessica Espinoza:

specifically at two x global, and how this has

Jessica Espinoza:

evolved into this global membership and field building

Jessica Espinoza:

organization that works across a number of

Jessica Espinoza:

different strategic priorities.

Servane Mouazan:

I just pick up on the two

Servane Mouazan:

phrases that are coming up here. There's the

Servane Mouazan:

gender lens investing and

Servane Mouazan:

gender smart investing. I

Servane Mouazan:

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

Servane Mouazan:

that. But what is the actual difference here? Because

Servane Mouazan:

these two phrases are popping here and there.

Servane Mouazan:

Maybe people might want to know more about

Servane Mouazan:

that.

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

applied. I think I use

Jessica Espinoza:

it often interchangeably. Um,

Jessica Espinoza:

initially, everybody talked about gender lens

Jessica Espinoza:

investing, looking at investment through the

Jessica Espinoza:

lens of gender and

Jessica Espinoza:

making smarter decisions. But then as the

Jessica Espinoza:

community realized, okay, this is actually really smart

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

impact case, and it is just silly to

Jessica Espinoza:

ignore 50% of the population

Jessica Espinoza:

in our investment decisions. And so if we apply a

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

uh, especially gender smart. Uh, as an

Jessica Espinoza:

organization who merged with two x

Jessica Espinoza:

to become what is today two x global, coined the

Jessica Espinoza:

term gender smart investing, which really put the

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

Uh, I think in practice, sometimes gender smart

Jessica Espinoza:

investing is used more broadly

Jessica Espinoza:

by also more commercial investors to

Jessica Espinoza:

signal that it's kind of a mainstreaming approach,

Jessica Espinoza:

that they make their investments gender smart.

Jessica Espinoza:

Whereas gender lens is sometimes perceived as

Jessica Espinoza:

being even more intentional. You're leading with

Jessica Espinoza:

gender. It's like much more deliberate

Jessica Espinoza:

and focused, for example, in a fund's

Jessica Espinoza:

investment thesis. But I think

Jessica Espinoza:

largely it's used often

Jessica Espinoza:

interchangeably.

Servane Mouazan:

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

Servane Mouazan:

gender smart is also an objective, so

Servane Mouazan:

the investors themselves can qualify who they

Servane Mouazan:

are by just adding the gender smart

Servane Mouazan:

and owning and being and embodying that

Servane Mouazan:

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

Servane Mouazan:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

started my career, and it was already back

Jessica Espinoza:

then when I graduated from high school and was thinking about

Jessica Espinoza:

my future, I really noticed this

Jessica Espinoza:

dichotomy between the social sector that

Jessica Espinoza:

was doing good and the business sector that

Jessica Espinoza:

presumably was doing bad, but was kind of cool to

Jessica Espinoza:

be in the business sector. And I never understood

Jessica Espinoza:

where that was coming from because I thought back

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

business community to really promote change at

Jessica Espinoza:

scale. And so I consciously decided to

Jessica Espinoza:

study international business,

Jessica Espinoza:

but to apply a social impact

Jessica Espinoza:

lens to everything I was doing in that

Jessica Espinoza:

space. And at the time, it was

Jessica Espinoza:

kind of the early days of microfinance.

Jessica Espinoza:

And, uh, it was when the Nobel Peace

Jessica Espinoza:

Prize was awarded to Mohammed Eunice.

Jessica Espinoza:

And so I became really interested

Jessica Espinoza:

in social business. And I

Jessica Espinoza:

started relatively spontaneously. I

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

business, to know, understand how

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

then went back into a more corporate setting,

Jessica Espinoza:

and I then started

Jessica Espinoza:

working in microfinance as well. Across,

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

countries. And it really struck me that

Jessica Espinoza:

on the one hand, microfinance was positioned as

Jessica Espinoza:

a tool to, um, reach a number of

Jessica Espinoza:

social goals, but also to empower

Jessica Espinoza:

women. But in reality,

Jessica Espinoza:

there was like this disconnect between the narrative

Jessica Espinoza:

of empowering women and what was actually happening

Jessica Espinoza:

on the ground, which was often men were the

Jessica Espinoza:

decision makers, women were the quote unquote

Jessica Espinoza:

beneficiaries. But also their needs

Jessica Espinoza:

weren't really taken into account holistically. It

Jessica Espinoza:

was somebody else who was designing the products and services for

Jessica Espinoza:

them and was kind of saying, this is what women

Jessica Espinoza:

need, rather than really hearing and

Jessica Espinoza:

having women participate. And there was also this

Jessica Espinoza:

disconnect between micro businesses and

Jessica Espinoza:

larger businesses, kind of SME type of

Jessica Espinoza:

businesses. And I always wondered why it

Jessica Espinoza:

is that women could get small

Jessica Espinoza:

money, for example, for seeds, um,

Jessica Espinoza:

to start grow a small business. But as

Jessica Espinoza:

soon as she had ambitions to grow it, capital

Jessica Espinoza:

was nowhere to be seen. And so I became

Jessica Espinoza:

increasingly interested in that. In my

Jessica Espinoza:

personal journey, I faced a lot of kind of

Jessica Espinoza:

gender bias, not only myself, but I also noticed

Jessica Espinoza:

structural gender issues in the different countries

Jessica Espinoza:

where I worked. And so I became increasingly

Jessica Espinoza:

interested in how to connect all of these

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

smart business. So why

Jessica Espinoza:

is this happening? And I think that's

Jessica Espinoza:

been accompanying me throughout my career.

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

the procredit banking group, and I was member of the

Jessica Espinoza:

management board of the procredit bank in Nicaragua, which

Jessica Espinoza:

was an amazing. Again, you know, I

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

affect change at scale because m know

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

that time, I realized as well that actually a

Jessica Espinoza:

lot of influence is coming from your investors and

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

increasingly became interested in an investment

Jessica Espinoza:

side and the impact that I could have at an

Jessica Espinoza:

even greater scale if I moved into an investor

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

de G, the german development finance institution.

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

challenge and getting more involved in this. But

Jessica Espinoza:

it's kind of been accompanying me from the beginning

Jessica Espinoza:

and I've evolved my career in different

Jessica Espinoza:

ways to pursue the same objective, but,

Jessica Espinoza:

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,

Servane Mouazan:

and how to gain more influence,

Servane Mouazan:

again, more power as

Servane Mouazan:

well. So now that you

Servane Mouazan:

are steering that two x global,

Servane Mouazan:

do you have stories that illustrate the

Servane Mouazan:

power that these members, uh,

Servane Mouazan:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

to start with. One, uh, something that has

Jessica Espinoza:

always been at the core of what we do are our

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

of practice focusing on the nexus of gender and

Jessica Espinoza:

climate finance, the care economy,

Jessica Espinoza:

Jedi, broader justice, equity, diversity and

Jessica Espinoza:

inclusion. And they are very practical. So

Jessica Espinoza:

these, uh, are practitioners coming together,

Jessica Espinoza:

identifying shared challenges and

Jessica Espinoza:

then working on concrete solutions, collaborating on

Jessica Espinoza:

investment projects, and also, for example,

Jessica Espinoza:

jointly developing toolkits. And

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

really successful is our gender smart climate

Jessica Espinoza:

finance toolkit, which was launched at

Jessica Espinoza:

cop 26, uh, so a couple of years ago

Jessica Espinoza:

now, um, where I, uh, was

Jessica Espinoza:

in Glasgow, together with women entrepreneurs

Jessica Espinoza:

from around the world to launch this toolkit and to

Jessica Espinoza:

really put an emphasis on the fact that

Jessica Espinoza:

women around the world are really at the front

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

ignored from climate discussions, don't have that

Jessica Espinoza:

seat at the climate decision making table. And

Jessica Espinoza:

so it was an amazing opportunity at cop to have

Jessica Espinoza:

that shared stage with the women entrepreneurs to launch the

Jessica Espinoza:

toolkit. And the toolkit was

Jessica Espinoza:

developed by our members together.

Jessica Espinoza:

So we have different case studies from different

Jessica Espinoza:

members, uh, different expertise,

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

of twelve sector guidance. So whether you're in

Jessica Espinoza:

water or transportation or banking, you find

Jessica Espinoza:

something about genuine climate and how it's relevant

Jessica Espinoza:

for you. And I think that's really,

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

were a tiny organization still, but with the

Jessica Espinoza:

power of our members, we were able to create something

Jessica Espinoza:

that was a true co creation and

Jessica Espinoza:

that received a lot of recognition at the

Jessica Espinoza:

cop stage. And then subsequently,

Jessica Espinoza:

every time another cop came up, uh,

Jessica Espinoza:

annually, we were able to show progress and

Jessica Espinoza:

case studies and add to that

Jessica Espinoza:

toolkit to make it really relevant for

Jessica Espinoza:

practitioners.

Servane Mouazan:

I love this story because you highlight some key

Servane Mouazan:

principles here, the power of partnerships, the power of

Servane Mouazan:

finding a platform where you can also have

Servane Mouazan:

more echo and more resonance and more maybe

Servane Mouazan:

spotlights and where people

Servane Mouazan:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

involved? And I think it also

Jessica Espinoza:

reduces the barrier to get started because

Jessica Espinoza:

there are many people out there in different types of

Jessica Espinoza:

roles and jobs who really want to make a difference

Jessica Espinoza:

and who are excited about this opportunity. But

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

your own, especially, um, if you

Jessica Espinoza:

perhaps not necessarily don't internally

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

by joining these kind of networks and peer groups,

Jessica Espinoza:

it's really powerful to be part of the

Jessica Espinoza:

change and to get inspired about how

Jessica Espinoza:

to take the first steps and just move towards

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Servane Mouazan:

people into that circle or into that dance

Servane Mouazan:

of gender smart investing or

Servane Mouazan:

contributing to this movement. So

Servane Mouazan:

imagine lastly, financial institutions still

Servane Mouazan:

traditional or an organization, financial

Servane Mouazan:

organization that are still

Servane Mouazan:

entrenched in their own ways. What are the

Servane Mouazan:

steps that you might want to,

Servane Mouazan:

or that you are using? Maybe to influence and

Servane Mouazan:

convince them to pay attention, not just

Servane Mouazan:

attention, but also direct their capital to your aim

Servane Mouazan:

when they're not the people who would

Servane Mouazan:

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,

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

quite great diversity. Um, but we

Jessica Espinoza:

see that different things convince

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

important to understand the business case. And

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

board or their broader organization

Jessica Espinoza:

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

Jessica Espinoza:

it's really important to explain the business case.

Jessica Espinoza:

So what we find really helpful is to have, we

Jessica Espinoza:

have a number of fact sheets and

Jessica Espinoza:

different talking points and so on about how to make

Jessica Espinoza:

that business case in your particular

Jessica Espinoza:

sector. Asset class, geography, um,

Jessica Espinoza:

wherever you are situated, and

Jessica Espinoza:

then the other thing that almost always

Jessica Espinoza:

works is to have peers

Jessica Espinoza:

who have done it, because you sometimes

Jessica Espinoza:

can't imagine that something can actually work

Jessica Espinoza:

until you see somebody like you doing it.

Jessica Espinoza:

And so we also, um, seek to bring

Jessica Espinoza:

peers together and to facilitate a lot of

Jessica Espinoza:

peer learning and getting inspired by what

Jessica Espinoza:

others do. So in your scenario, if, for

Jessica Espinoza:

example, a big commercial bank comes to us and

Jessica Espinoza:

says, not really sure if we should get

Jessica Espinoza:

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,

Jessica Espinoza:

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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