WASHINGTON, D.C., March 4, 2019—The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Aaa/AAA) issued a Sustainable Development Bond to raise awareness for the importance of investing in women and girls to accelerate economic development, reduce poverty and build sustainable societies around the world. Impax Asset Management is the sole investor in the US$4 million, three-year bond, which highlights Sustainable Development Goal 5—to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. Implementing new legal frameworks regarding female equality in the workplace and the eradication of harmful practices targeted at women is crucial to ending the gender-based discrimination prevalent in many countries around the world.
Women and girls have a unique role to play as drivers of growth and progress and powerful agents of change. The World Bank works with public- and private-sector partners to close gaps between males and females globally for lasting impact in tackling poverty and driving sustainable economic growth that benefits all. In the last two decades, the world has narrowed the divide between men and women, especially in primary education and health. Yet critical gaps remain. Globally, countries are losing $160 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men.
“Gender inequality is not only the great human rights issue of our time, but the great economic issue of our time,” said Joe Keefe, President of Impax Asset Management LLC and CEO of Pax Ellevate Management LLC. “Eradicating gender inequality and providing full educational and economic opportunities to women and girls can potentially unleash the greatest period of economic growth in the history of the planet. This is an investment whose time has come. We’re delighted to invest in the Sustainable Development Bond and to support this important work.”
Heike Reichelt, World Bank Head of Investor Relations and New Products said: “We're seeing more and more interest in the purpose of finance. World Bank bonds are an attractive way for investors to achieve financial goals and support a social purpose. By focusing on key sustainability themes, our partnership with investors and other market participants is highlighting how together we can accelerate opportunities for capital markets to play a key role in mobilizing finance for development and achieving the SDGs.”
About the World Bank
The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD), rated Aaa/AAA[1] (Moody’s/S&P), is an international organization created in 1944 and the original member of the World Bank Group. It operates as a global development cooperative owned by 189 nations. It provides its members with financing, expertise and coordination services so they can achieve equitable and sustainable economic growth in their national economies and find effective solutions to pressing regional and global economic and environmental problems.
The World Bank has two main goals: to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. It seeks to achieve them primarily by providing loans, risk management products, and expertise on development-related disciplines to its borrowing member government clients in middle-income countries and other creditworthy countries, and by coordinating responses to regional and global challenges. It has been issuing sustainable development bonds in the international capital markets for 70 years to fund its activities that achieve a positive impact.
Information on World Bank bonds for investors is available on the World Bank Treasury website: www.worldbank.org/debtsecurities
For more information about World Bank Sustainable Development Bonds, see: https://treasury.worldbank.org/sdbonds.
About Impax Asset Management LLC
Impax Asset Management LLC, formerly Pax World Management LLC, is a pioneer in the field of sustainable investing. Impax offers a diverse lineup of strategies focused on the risks and opportunities arising from the transition to a more sustainable global economy. Each strategy integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) research into the investment process to better manage risk and deliver competitive long-term investment performance. Since 1971, Impax has made it possible for investors to pursue financial returns while having a positive social and environmental impact.
