2X Canada: Inclusive economic recovery

This project aims to enhance the resilience and socioeconomic well-being of low-income underserved and marginalized populations particularly women and girls in Official Development Assistance (ODA) eligible countries in the Caribbean Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Facility adopts a whole of Canada approach to help address COVID-19 economic recovery in ODA-eligible countries. It uses a repayable contribution to help mobilize additional public and private investment in support of the Facility’s expected outcomes. Project activities include: (1) providing financing to financial intermediaries including banks financial cooperatives and private equity funds that actively drive impact towards women’s economic empowerment; (2) providing complementary technical assistance to improve the financial performance and development impact of investees and ultimate beneficiaries; and (3) disseminating data and lessons learned to increase the scale of investments made using a gender lens. The Facility supports women as entrepreneurs employees and consumers of essential goods and services in target geographies.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) enhanced economic resilience development and sustainability of micro small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in particular women-led and owned MSMEs smallholder farmers and low-income customers; and (2) increased development visibility and sustainability of pro-poor and gender-responsive markets in high-impact sectors including agribusiness.