Promoting Women Enterprise Clusters As Agents Of Change In A Just Green Transition Of G20 Economies

Women enterprise clusters – as a type of community-driven social solidarity enterprise that is socially inclusive and environmentally conscious in its consumption of natural resources – embody LiFE or Lifestyle for Sustainable Development principles and can lead the way towards sustainable consumption and production behavior among the G20 economies. This has been recognized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other agencies that promote social solidarity economy. To promote these, in 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, finding these types of enterprises to have a strong linkage with all 17 SDGs. India’s G20 Presidency 2023 too advocated for women-owned enterprises and suggested working with MDBs and IFIs to create specialized funds to finance them. The G20 Development Working Group on Inclusive Businesses has been, since much earlier in 2018, finding mention of sustainable and women-led enterprises in its deliberations. A financial analysis conducted by Development Alternatives in India points to policy and financial gaps that hinder the growth of such enterprises. The existing ESG frameworks are not attuned to these types of businesses and fail to capture their true impact. There is also a lack ofconvergence with financial models and policies that support women-led enterprise development among rural, agri and forest centric communities which are most vulnerable to climate change, already under or at-risk ofmultidimensional poverty. In this context, this Policy Brief proposes recommendations for creating an enabling environment for the women-enterprise clusters to grow and thrive. Through identifying opportunities for linkages with financial and public-private-people partnership models, the recommendations shall also drive collaboration among policymakers, financiers, and civil society networks to drive sustainable investment into women enterprise clusters towards inclusive economic growth.