Gender equality is a material driver of economic growth and investment performance. Persistent gender disparities, particularly in emerging markets, continue to constrain inclusive growth, productivity, and economic resilience. As emerging economies navigate a convergence of structural challenges – including demographic ageing, productivity slowdowns, and financial system fragmentation – the economic inclusion and progression of women stands out as a critical yet underleveraged solution.

This report shares insights from Amundi’s work to strengthen gender-lens investing and includes feedback from market participants, a proposed innovative gender-smart investing framework and case studies based on engagement with companies and sovereigns to promote women’s inclusion and workforce participation.

There is emerging consensus among market actors that gender impact should not be confined to “Gender or Orange Bonds”. Instead, it should examine how issuers embed gender into their overall strategy – through leadership, workforce, operations, and policies.

This Guidebook is designed as a reference for how investors and practitioners are beginning to apply this mainstreaming approach. It outlines how issuers can position themselves to access gender-smart capital through both labelled and general-purpose bonds, how investors can identify and support gender-strong issuers, and what ecosystem actors can do to enable market development.