This Practitioner Brief presents key findings of research conducted in partnership by Egyptian investment fund, Mezzan Investments, and the FCDO funded Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF), from March to September 2021. The Brief aims to catalyse discussion and action across Gender-Smart Investing (GSI) practitioners, Egyptian firms and impact investors.

It has three specific objectives:

1. It contributes to thinking and ideas that align with the 2X Challenge’s global thought movement. It takes stock of emerging learning from Gender-Smart Investing in Egypt and the wider MENA region. It assesses, through on-the-ground analysis, the extent to which GSI strategies and best practices are being adopted across different sectors principally in Egypt.
2. It aims to encourage more businesses to adopt gender-smart investment strategies and scale their impact to achieve greater gender balance and empower more Egyptian women. It presents emerging good practices in the Gender-Smart Investing field and draws on testimonies and examples of how AWEF has worked with corporate partners and Egyptian firms to apply GSI strategies (see Section 2).
3. It aims to catalyse innovative gender-smart investing practices among impact investors, starting with Mezzan Investments itself. As a pioneer private equity investment manager, Mezzan plans to establish a new gender-smart fund dedicated to Egypt which provides growth and restructuring capital to Egyptian SMEs within a GSI framework. The findings from this research will help Mezzan develop a unique approach to Gender-Smart Investment based on a sound understanding of gender equality, gender-smart business models and approaches required to embed women’s economic empowerment in Egyptian companies. The fund will be the first of its kind in the MENA region and Mezzan is committed to driving forward this new innovative initiative.