Section 9 - Institutional processes and procedures
Our toolkit navigator includes the following guiding symbols to guide audiences in prioritizing resources
ToolKit Navigator
⧫ Beginner: Entry-level tools and step-by-step guides for investors and financial institutions to get started on their gender mainstreaming journeys.
⧫⧫ Intermediate: Intermediate-level tools, strategies, guidelines, and manuals for investors and financial institutions already working with impact-investing frameworks and with a solid understanding of the concepts of gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
⧫⧫⧫ Advanced: Advanced-level intersectional frameworks and analytical gender lenses for investors and financial institutions with established GDE&I practices and a strong conceptual understanding of applying a gender lens across institutional activities.
☆Must read
*** Key resource for diversifying the gender perspective
Does the institution have transparent, non-hierarchical and adequately communicated operative processes that encourage safe, sustainable and participatory workplace culture?
Choose your answer
Institutional processes facilitate an environment where everyone can behave and work collaboratively to enhance their knowledge and understanding of each other. It can create tremendous potential for innovation and economic growth.
Do you know what are good gender practices and how do they relate to institutional processes? We recommend reading through the Good Practices - Gender Mainstreaming section of the European Institute for Gender Equality.
⧫ Beginner, English
Have you already integrated or considered environmental, social and governance factors in your business activities? Gender can be easily incorporated in ESG practices. Check out the Ilu Toolbox Tool 3: Test for an integrated governance with a gender perspective to see where you currently fall in terms of your commitment to institutional gender equality. Once the test is completed, we recommend continuing with Tool 4: Plan of action for gender equality.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English, Spanish
Within the “S” of ESG, there are an infinite number of ways to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion and build transparent, ethical and collaborative environments that lead to innovation. Acknowledging differences often leads institutions to recognize the importance of diversity processes, such as providing women-only services and space for women’s voices to be heard and valuing women’s lives and experiences. Read through this Section 9 to learn how to mainstream gender considerations across operations.
Need to brush up your memory? Check out the European Institute for Gender Equality Toolkit is a great resource to start learning more about which steps your institution can take to continue its gender journey. We recommend starting with planning here!
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English
Select the challenges you identify with and explore the resources
Challenge:
Understanding the interconnectedness of global businesses, investments and value-chain activities is key to making informed decisions about gender equality.
The CDC ESG Toolkit is an excellent resource to start your journey toward analyzing how institutional processes can have an impact on not only the economic growth of diverse populations, but cultural heritage, human rights, circular economy, waste management, and pollution prevention among others. Start by any category to see how you can take your global corporate responsibility to another level.
⧫ Beginner, English
Mainstreaming gender across activities can help institutions in the sector to improve their performance and development.
Are you an investor interested in rethinking the investment process? Investment processes are built on assumptions about what expertise is trusted and what processes are seen as valid within prevailing norms in the investment ecosystem. This is why it’s important to stay critical when thinking through them. Pages 4-6 in the downloadable guide of Criterion Institute helps you record your current processes, identify what assumptions you are making in each practice, and identify where you may want to interrogate your assumptions through analysis to ensure current practices are not built on bias.
⧫ Beginner, English
Are you a financial institution? Read through the Gender Sector Brief: How to Apply a Gender Lens to the Evaluation of Financial Institutions Investments Financial Institutions of the CDC ESG Toolkit: a sector-specific diagnostic guide to support investors and fund managers to identify existing and future opportunities for ESG and gender-smart investing. You will also find quick facts to make your case for anyone in doubt.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English ☆Must read
Are you an investor or a financial institution? See this CDC guide on how to integrate gender in your investment processes or check out Section 6.3 in this toolkit for more resources on how to create a holistic screening process.
Need to work on your policies? Policies that address and inform about subminimum wages in the value chain, modern slavery, worker protections and rights (unions), fair working conditions, excessive executive pay etc. are important insights to include in any institutional guide, manual or policy, especially when engaging with transnational global value chains. Section 1 can help you through what it takes to recognize ESG factors in policy development.
Challenge:
The need for women-specific services and products exists because women and non-binary population’s needs are often different from men’s – for biological and physiological reasons, as well as a result of social, economic and political oppression.
Do you work at a financial institution or are you a part of an investment committee? You might play a critical decision-making role in driving capital or positive impact actions to the right places. Explore the short but essential CDC Tip Sheet on how to ask the right questions about equality and diversity from a commercial and impact-investing angle.
⧫ Beginner, English
For more information, you can also check the Gender Sector Brief (p 9 and 10), where you will find key information for decision making regarding diversity and inclusion.
Companies can use supportive business functions through their value chain – such as procurement – to ensure equal representation of, and management by, under-represented groups.
If you want to learn more about how to expand the gender lens within your organization's business and commercial activities, check out this Ilu Toolbox guide that seeks to provide a simple guideline to mainstreaming gender approach in the company’s value chain and creating an inclusive value chain.
⧫ Beginner, English, Spanish
Are you an investor interested in value chain equity for your portfolio companies? You can influence companies into sourcing from women-led businesses or to distribute their products through women-led companies or women sales agents. Check the How to Invest with a Gender Lens? guide on how to leverage value chain equity at pages 14-16.
⧫ Beginner, English
If you are interested in complementing your Gender Lens with a LGBTQI Lens when thinking about your pipeline, check out page 16 titled “Designing an LGBTQI-inclusive investment strategy” section from this Criterion Institute report.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English ☆Must read
There are no “gender blind” or “gender neutral” management practices. Otherwise we would not have only 8.1% of the 500 CEOs on the 2021 Fortune 500 list as women, a mere 41 out of 500. Nor would we have only 1 of them being a Black Woman.
Something is not working here, which means institutions need to take an honest look inwards. What are some of the structures that prevent women in all their diversities from advancing in the workplace?
Understanding, recognizing and having (even difficult!) conversations about institutional racism, sexism and ableism is a good place to start. There are no tools for this, each institution has to take accountability of their involvement in a system that disproportionately favors white cis-men and ask; what can we do to change this?
Challenge:
Creating participatory processes where everyone has access to a “seat at the table” requires additional resources. The Respectability Guide can get you started on how to create a working environment that supports, empowers and uplifts all.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English
Want to measure the results? Turn to Section 7 for tools and strategies on how to measure diversity initiatives, projects and programs across all institutional activities.
Read through the straight-forward Module 5 in the Working in a Feminist Organization: An Audit is designed to assist measure whether an organization is operating as a feminist organization by assessing where the institution is succeeding, areas of feminist principles, practice and behavior that might need strengthening.
⧫ Beginner, English, ☆Must read
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