During these unprecedented times when COVID-19 has exacerbated systemic social and economic inequalities, there is renewed interest in sustainable investing and creating positive change for the world’s poorest – both for national economic recovery as well as global sustainable development. At the same time, there are also rising concerns about “impact washing” or “pandemic washing” – where money is deployed to “business as usual” investments, that may even reinforce rather than reduce inequalities. READ MORE

When Durreen Shahnaz first floated the idea of creating a new financing vehicle explicitly to help underserved women entrepreneurs in Asia, bankers and financiers advised her against including the word “women.” Calling it the Women’s Livelihood Bond, they said, might chase away investors. Better to just call it an emerging market bond. No way, said Shahnaz, founder and chief executive of Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (IIX).  READ MORE