2X Canada

2X Canada is FinDev Canada's blended-finance facility for financial intermediaries that expand women's access to capital, financial services, and economic participation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is implemented by FinDev Canada with financial support from the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, and deploys catalytic capital to address market gaps and structural barriers faced by women, mobilizing additional private funds toward inclusive and sustainable development.

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2X Canada is a CAD 75.9 million blended finance facility led by FinDev Canada and funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, that is supporting investments driving a positive impact on gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Objective The overall impact objective of this facility is to enhance the socio-economic well-being of underserved, vulnerable populations, particularly women, primarily in Latin America, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. 2X Canada is working towards this objective by addressing persistent market gaps and structural barriers faced by underserved populations, particularly women. Build Back Better The vision to build back better supports a recovery that is inclusive, sustainable and resilient. The COVID-19 pandemic was in many ways an opportunity for both public and private sectors to ensure that financial investment decision-making places sustainability, equality and climate action at its core. Businesses in our target markets are facing tremendous challenges affecting employees, customers, and surrounding communities. The economic losses from the pandemic have been shown to have a disproportionately negative impact on women. More women have been pushed into poverty than men because of the compounded effects of job and income losses, increase in unpaid care work demands, lack of social protection and access to services, and the overrepresentation of women workers and entrepreneurs in informal sectors and sectors affected by lockdown measures. Investments within the 2X Canada portfolio addressed this reality. 2X Canada contributes to sustainable, inclusive, resilient growth in targeted markets with a focus on the underserved. 2X Canada supported an estimated 8-10 entities in fostering economic recovery from COVID-19, through investing in key sectors supporting gender equality or providing liquidity to enterprises that supported quality jobs and/or access to services, particularly for women, and/or to women-owned and led micro, small and medium enterprises.

2X Canada provides technical assistance. In addition to providing core services including strengthened management and governance, impact measurement, and various areas of business performance such as E&S and data management, specific technical assistance needs in the context of economic recovery are also supported. These may include business strategy re-orientation, rapid operationalizing of gender action plans, development of financial products and services specifically to serve women, and broader operations and systems strengthening.

View the public database of Qualified Investments in the 2X Challenge 2024-2027 here: https://www.2xchallenge.org/qualified-investments

Assessing Potential Investments Investment opportunities were assessed by the following: How they actively and intentionally had been driving gender equality How they had been addressing key barriers to gender equality How they had been meeting the 2X Challenge criteria How they had been aligning with FinDev Canada’s Development Impact Framework How they had been adhering to and advancing the OECD Blended Finance Principles and the DFI Blended Concessional Finance Principles 2X Canada also considered the following investment terms when assessing an opportunity: The type of transaction (debt, equity and/or a guarantee) The size of the transaction (minimum CAD 4 million) The geographic location of the transaction (official development assistance countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa).