Gender economic disparity is a shared challenge faced in many countries, and solving it requires innovation, investment, and long-term strategies. With this in mind, Blend Group, through the EllaImpacta initiative, a comprehensive blended finance strategy aimed at women’s economic empowerment, including a multi-instrument investment facility, mobilizes and deploys capital at scale and at an accelerated pace, with a focus on women.
To more robustly structure the operation’s long-term objectives, the conditions required for this structural change, and the activities and implementation strategies the company should pursue, the organization received support from IDIS. Together, a Theory of Change and a set of indicators were developed to enable EllaImpacta to achieve its broadest and best possible reach, fostering women’s prosperity.
Solution and Results
The first stage of the project consisted of gathering information on the main challenges across EllaImpacta’s pillars of action: women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women’s leadership, and support for women’s economic development. This diagnosis, based on analyses of the organization’s internal documents and external references, provided the theoretical foundation needed to build the initiative’s Theory of Change (ToC).
With this completed, the second stage focused on developing the ToC for the EllaImpacta Fund in Brazil, as well as guidelines for monitoring the indicators established for the initiative. Based on the definition of impact objectives and the intentionality of each line of action, activities were classified according to whether they would be financed through private social investment or through capital with an expectation of financial return, within the blended finance structure—an innovative approach that combines different types of capital, including concessional, philanthropic, and market-rate resources, to leverage investment and generate social and economic impact. This combination aims to mitigate risks, increase attractiveness for private investors, and maximize the scale of interventions.
Finally, process, outcome, and impact indicators were defined based on national and international benchmarks to support future evaluation and course correction of the Theory of Change and its financing projects.
Susteinable Development Goals (SDGs)
About the Organization
Blend Group is a financial-sector organization that creates large-scale financing solutions for sustainable development projects around the world. Through blended finance strategies, it seeks to attract capital investments for major projects in sustainable urban development, housing, infrastructure, technology, social inclusion, food security, and environmental conservation.
