INSIGHT by investRFP
New Gender equality in fund management teams project launched by UN Women provides asset owners and managers with a global guidance framework enabling a comprehensive overview, on-going progress documentation, target setting and monitoring using innovative digital technologies on the investRFP platform.
While women’s representation in the asset management industry still lags behind the rest of financial services, DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) as an investment decision-relevant focus is moving up asset owners’ agenda reflecting their aspirations to improve the impact of their investment and manager choices. Asset owners appreciate asset managers providing transparency on their DEI journey targets and progress, which continues to grow in importance also in terms of asset manager selection and monitoring process.
Based on Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), UN Women has developed a guiding questionnaire, which will annually reopen for asset manager response submissions during the month of March as part of Women’s Month activities intending to support asset owners and managers in their DEI target setting and implementation. After the deadline (Prolonged: May 12th, 2023) asset manager responses will be available to asset owners on the investRFP.com platform helping to identify asset managers putting value on DEI based on their aspirations or journey already started. Various digital evaluation tools will enable asset owners to analyze and monitor the progress over time in order to ensure steadily positive impact of their investments in terms of DEI.
Asset owners and managers can access the Gender equality in fund management teams tool by requesting a free account here.
‘Today’s financial markets offer a wealth of opportunities to leverage financial instruments and investment processes to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community. A focus on generating real impact on the wellbeing of women and girls and the broader society is a win-win strategy for everyone,’
-Anna Fälth, Head of Women’s Empowerment Principles at UN Women
‘Gender diversity and DEI are key topics for asset owners aiming to improve their impact in investment management, which is why this UN Women standard-setting project provides an invaluable implementation support and guidance for asset managers and owners globally. We are pleased to simplify this process with user-friendly technologies and welcome all asset owners and managers willing to join forces with UN Women in heading towards our common goals,’
-Albert Reiter, CFA, CEO of investRFP.com and investESG.eu
‘While we celebrate powerful female achievers in the fund management industry, it is essential to implement real impact opportunities and create a fair environment to unlock the full potential currently undermined by gender diversity-related hurdles. UN Women has launched a convenient tool for asset owners enabling them to make a change collectively, as well as for asset managers to demonstrate their intentions, values, and how they will walk the talk in the years to come,’
-Anete Liepina, Head of ESG Research, investRFP.com
| about
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide.
The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) are a set of Principles offering guidance to business on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.
Please go to www.weps.org to learn more about the principles and how to become a signatory.
investRFP provides a fully digitised, web-based platform designed to support asset owners in their fund and asset manager search, selection and monitoring process, covering all request formats, asset classes and legal structures.
The platform powers best practice implementation, enabling pension funds, banks, corporates, foundations, fund selectors and other asset owners to meet various jurisdiction- and scheme-specific requirements that involve information sourcing from managers, its monitoring and evaluation. investRFP has developed a best practice questionnaire library and provides instant access to an asset manager universe connecting 1500+ companies.
Please go to investRFP.com to learn more and request a free asset owner or manager account.
