Bangladesh is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, where women disproportionately shoulder the burden of climate shocks yet remain underutilised as drivers of resilience due to systemic financing barriers. To more deeply understand the “gender–climate nexus” and address the siloed treatment of these issues within the financial sector, the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and Truvalu, a co-entrepreneurial impact investor, partnered with Kore Global to develop a practical user-centred toolkit to help stakeholders integrate gender considerations into climate/green investment portfolios in Bangladesh.
The project aims to strengthen ecosystem coordination, enhance awareness, and build capacity to catalyse change across the gender and climate investment landscape in Bangladesh.The toolkit was designed to equip financial institutions, venture capital funds, and impact investors with the frameworks needed to integrate gender considerations into climate financing. The project aimed to move beyond high-level policy commitments and provide the practical “how-to” guidance necessary to unlock equitable, low-carbon growth for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Over the course of the assignment, we:
- Conducted an action-oriented landscape analysis of Bangladesh’s gender–climate finance sector, mapping demand-side needs of women entrepreneurs against supply-side gaps in the financial ecosystem through interviews and focus groups.
- Developed a conceptual framework aligned with the 2X Challenge criteria, that links gender equality with climate action, demonstrating the benefits of gender-smart investments for both financial returns as well as societal and environmental impact.
- Designed a suite of operational tools for investors covering the entire investment lifecycle, including sourcing questionnaires, due diligence scorecards, and instrument design sheets.
- Created a consolidated Metrics Library that harmonizes global standards (such as IRIS+ ) with local Bangladesh Bank reporting requirements, enabling investors to rigorously track both social and environmental returns.
This toolkit serves as a catalyst for systemic change in Bangladesh’s green economy. By demonstrating how gender inclusion acts as a driver of innovation and risk management rather than just a compliance metric, the work empowers investors to deploy capital that strengthens both climate resilience and gender equality. The toolkit is now being piloted by partners in Bangladesh before being rolled out later in 2026.