OCA has been working to promote gender equity and improve women empowerment. We firmly believe that women play an integral role in helping societies and economies grow and thrive. Our work in the gender space covers: 1) Support to women owned/led businesses to strengthen their strategies and operations and to raise capital; 2) Support to investors to develop and implement Gender Lens Investing (GLI) strategies; and 3) Support to businesses to adopt inclusive practices internally, and within their value chains, to enable inclusive growth.

It is a great privilege to work in partnership with USAID and DAI on the Feed the Future Inclusive Agricultural Markets (FtF IAM) Activity, to conduct this research on Gender Lens Investing in Uganda, specific to the agribusiness sector. Our goal, in partnership with USAID, is to support the increasing number of GLI-minded investors already active or interested in Uganda in order to increase the flow of capital to inclusive agribusiness in Uganda. This work with FtF IAM has enabled us to deepen our understanding of gender-related challenges facing agribusinesses in Uganda, one of our key markets. We will apply learnings from this research to strengthen our services and support inclusive businesses to overcome deeply rooted injustices and inequalities. The GLI framework developed as part of this report was partly informed by OCA’s Gender Diagnostic Tool and will help us to better support investors and companies to mainstream gender criteria in their approaches and business models. We look forward to sharing our learnings in follow-on reports, publications and events with the goal to unlock funding for all actors looking to participate in the market system, including the poor, women, youth, ethnic minorities, or other marginalized groups.

Read and download the landmark report on Gender Lens Investing in Uganda here