From Awareness to Action: Advancing Gender Finance in China
Research Team of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF), Central University of Finance and Economics
Achieving gender equality is essential for a future of global peace, prosperity, and sustainable development. Although gender equality has been incorporated into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress toward this goal still faces significant challenges worldwide. Therefore, it is crucial to take concrete and effective measures to eliminate gender inequality globally and create a more inclusive economic environment for women. China has made initial progress in advancing gender finance, but it still has considerable potential for introducing financing for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE). This further underscores the necessity for cooperation and coordinated development among all stakeholders.
Despite being in the early stages of gender finance development, China is witnessing a growing market interest in related financial practices. To further promote the development of gender finance in the Chinese market, the following suggestions are proposed for short, medium, and long-term development.
Increasing Visibility and Influence: In the initial stage of promoting gender finance, efforts should focus on deepening stakeholders' awareness and understanding of gender finance, increasing its market visibility, and establishing platforms for communication and exchange. The main measures include:
1. Academic and research institutions should actively conduct research and capacity-building activities related to gender finance to enhance overall market awareness and bridge information gaps.
2. International organizations and non-governmental organizations should initiate projects and training activities with industry influence to boost the market's engagement with gender finance.
3. Government platforms or third parties should build networks connecting more relevant fields, such as climate change, inclusive finance, financial digitalization, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) promotion. This will facilitate active cooperation and exchange among various parties and lay the foundation for the comprehensive development of gender finance.
Exploring Project Implementation Guidance: Building on increased market awareness of gender finance, the key to its development lies in implementing impactful pilot projects to encourage more financial institutions to innovate and practice gender finance spontaneously. The main measures include:
1. Encouraging more stakeholders to launch investment projects with a gender lens and implement more investment activities targeting women in the Chinese market.
2. Designing innovative financial products and services to meet the diverse needs of women, beyond policy-oriented concessional loans.
3. Research institutions should participate in the implementation of relevant projects, summarize experiences, and provide guidance and support for the implementation of future projects.
Creating a Women-Friendly Financial Development Environment: The long-term development of gender finance aims to promote gender-responsive budgeting and integrate a gender perspective into policy design to create a women-friendly financial environment. The main measures include:
1. Academic and research institutions should, based on successful cases and social impacts of gender finance products, advocate to relevant government departments to widely incorporate a gender perspective into the policy-making process and increase women's participation.
2. Financial regulators should develop guidelines and standards for gender finance according to market needs to promote the widespread adoption of gender finance innovation products.
3. Government departments should collect data on different policy beneficiary groups at the initial stage of fiscal budget allocation, gain a deeper understanding of the current status of various groups in the financial sector through data analysis, and formulate more targeted financial policies to effectively implement inclusive financial services.
Published on April 10, 2025