Alex Farley

Taking stock of the 2X Challenge

By Alex Farley | Sep 27, 2023 | Blog, News

Publish What You Fund has examined how development finance institutions are disclosing their 2X investments and found big gaps in the information available. The lack of standardised disaggregated information makes it almost impossible to get the granular insights that are needed to measure the value, impact, and progress of gender lens investing. In a new research paper we assess the current state of 2X disclosure and suggest how the 2X community can improve its transparency and accountability.

Moving toward improved 2X disclosure

By Alex Farley and Gary Forster | Jun 6, 2023 | Blog

As 2X Global works to develop a new certification process for gender lens investors, we set out why greater transparency must be integrated into this process. Our new working paper provides four recommendations for improving the disclosure of 2X investments – so that we can understand their impact on women and girls, and ensure we are making the most effective use of our scarce resources.

Being serious about WEE requires funders to be serious about transparency

By Alex Farley and Sally Paxton | Jan 13, 2023 | Blog

The political support for investing in women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has never been higher. Especially in light of the disparate impacts from COVID-19 on women and girls, there has been a loud chorus of voices on the need to invest in WEE. The critical question, though, is whether the political rhetoric is matched by effective, catalytic investments that are significantly advancing women and girls’ equality and giving them the meaningful ability to participate in, and benefit from, economic opportunities and prosperity?

Your step by step guide to researching funding for women’s economic empowerment and women’s financial inclusion

By Alex Farley and Sally Paxton | Nov 2, 2022 | Blog, News

We’ve produced two new guides for anyone wishing to track international funding for women’s economic empowerment (WEE) or women’s financial inclusion (WFI) in their own country. The guides are based on an approach we’ve developed and tested over the last two years, which is designed so that it can be used and adapted by decision makers, researchers and advocates for their own purposes – including holding funders accountable or advocating for different investments. The new step by step guides are concise, accessible and flexible – signposting to a range of other, more detailed resources.

New systems needed to track funding for gender equality in Ethiopia

By Alex Farley | Sep 29, 2022 | News

A new study has concluded that it is not currently possible to track national funding for women’s economic empowerment in Ethiopia, and calls on the government to require public bodies to collect and report gender-disaggregated data for the projects they implement. The study was conducted by Three B Consult and commissioned by Publish What You Fund.

More funding is being directed to gender and equity programmes in Uganda, but where exactly is the money going?

By Alex Farley | Sep 28, 2022 | News

Our new assessment of national funding for women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in Uganda has highlighted an increase in resources allocated to gender and equity programmes over the last five years (2015/16 – 2020/21). However, allocations for WEE remain generally low, the released funds are often less than what has been approved, and the utilised funds less than what has been released. The study, conducted by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) and commissioned by Publish What You Fund, also found that a lack of disaggregated data means that the support targeted at women and girls is likely to be lower than the estimates suggest.