Markets may be rattled, but Carmen Correa is increasingly certain about Por Mujer’s ability to expand access to finance to women-owned small businesses in Latin America.
Two years ago, the 35-year-old social enterprise launched the first rated “gender bond” issued on Argentina’s public bond market (and later that year, a second). Pro Mujer used the low-cost capital to lend to thousands of women entrepreneurs in northern Argentina.
Later this year, Pro Mujer will likely issue a gender bond in Nicaragua, the first in Central America, and followed by one in Bolivia, Correa told ImpactAlpha in a video interview at the The Latin American Impact Investment Forum in Merida, Mexico.
Low-cost capital
By developing and deploying familiar instruments such as bonds, ”we will be able to give access to finance to more women, we will be able to attract more investors into Latin America, and we will be able to actually finance institutions such as Pro Mujer in a much more efficient manner,” says Correa, who took the helm of Pro Mujer in 2022.
The bonds themselves, “allow us to not only give access to the needed finance, but also give them access to the needed tools to develop their own businesses,” she says.
In June, Pro Mujer will host its annual Gender Lens Forum Latin America, or GLI, in Mexico City.
