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SEAF Women's Opportunity Fund (Philippines)

Philippines
May-17
2027
Keywords
Access to finance; Capacity building

Project description

The SEAF Women's Opportunity Fund aims to create shared value for women, entrepreneurs, and investors by investing in small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) owned or led by women in Southeast Asia that are working to propel women's economic empowerment and gender equality in the marketplace and workplace. The fund utilises a range of investment structures including equity, mezzanine financing and quasi-equity, which provides an alternative to traditional capital providers operating currently in the market. The fund also provides technical assistance to businesses, including advice on developing strategic and operational plans based upon future capital inflows, leadership development, capital structure and financing improving gender equality within the business and general operational advice. The fund's investments target early growth-stage women's SMEs in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, aiming to generate strong financial returns, as well as measurable social and environmental impact.

Primary thematic area

Secondary thematic areas

Financial services

Skills training

Project details

Umbrella programme

Investing in Women (an Aus Gov initiative)

Accountable Org(s)

SEAF; Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Funding Org(s)

Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Implementing/
Partner Org(s)

SEAF

Project contact

Bob Webster, SEAF (rwebster@seaf.com) (+1-202-737-8463)

Funding (USD)

Committed

Spent

$

​

$

N/A

Project website

D-Portal link

Project evaluation

Evaluation source

Ernst & Young were commissioned by the Australian Government ('Investing in Women') to prepare a case study-based evaluation of the SEAF Women's Opportunity Fund. This was published in October 2019.

Ernst & Young's report notes that SEAF has developed a proprietary Gender Equality Scorecard to assess women�s economic empowerment and gender equality within an individual investment. This has guided SEAF in terms of understanding their own maturity as well as serving as a useful screening tool for potential investors and a guide as to how businesses could be improved in terms of gender equality. Evaluations based on this tool do not appear to have been made public.

Evaluation methodology

Qualitative

Programme targets

The Ernst & Young report states that the programme has an initial target of five investments within two years of commencement.

The expected outcomes include high employee retention and morale, productivity, higher female workforce participation which will translate into tangible results thus ensure the sustainability of the SWOF interventions after exit.

Results achieved

Four investments have been made between May 2017 and October 2019.

While specific evidence is lacking, Ernst & Young's report states: "SEAF investments to date have supported businesses improving the lives of people in poor and impoverished regions by providing critical services to underserved populations and employment and livelihood opportunities through the business value chains".

Targets met?

The Ernst & Young report states that the programme has an initial target of five investments within two years of commencement.

The expected outcomes include high employee retention and morale, productivity, higher female workforce participation which will translate into tangible results thus ensure the sustainability of the SWOF interventions after exit.

2023

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