Closing the Gap
How 2X Global and the WE Finance Code are working to close the gender finance gap.
Global Signatory
Date Joined
- March 2026
The WE Finance Code and 2X Global share an ambition to increase finance for women and strengthen the financial ecosystem, while playing different and complementary roles.
The WE Finance Code brings together financial institutions and other ecosystem actors at the country level around commitments to increase finance for women entrepreneurs. 2X Global provides a global community, standards and collective capital mobilisation mechanisms that enable institutions to deepen and expand their gender-smart finance practice.
Institutions can engage with both depending on their objectives. A WE Finance Code signatory may choose to join 2X Global’s global community, adopt the 2X Criteria, pursue 2X Certification or participate in the 2X Challenge where relevant. A 2X Global member operating in a country with a WE Finance Code may also become a Code signatory and demonstrate leadership within its national financial ecosystem.
2X Global is a Global Signatory to the WE Finance Code, creating a foundation for closer collaboration and clearer pathways between the two.
2X Global
2X Global is a global membership and field-building organisation advancing gender-smart finance and mobilising capital for women. It brings together a global community spanning the full spectrum of capital providers, including DFIs, MDBs, pension funds, banks and financial institutions, foundations, family offices, fund and asset managers, and intermediaries.
Through its global standards, membership community, capacity building and collective capital mobilisation, 2X Global helps institutions strengthen gender performance and move more capital towards women.
”At 2X Global, we are unlocking gender-smart capital at scale and shifting how global finance recognises and amplifies the economic power of women. Becoming a Global Signatory to the WE Finance Code reinforces this mission. By joining this collective effort, we bring our global expertise, evidence base, and convening power to accelerate progress across the industry. Through this shared commitment, we ensure that intentional leadership, data-driven information, and coordinated action unlock meaningful economic opportunity and drive growth shaped by women worldwide.
Jessica Espinoza2X Global CEO
WE Finance Code
- Builds the data infrastructure
Closes the sex-disaggregated data gap on WMSME financing. 580+ signatories in 33 countries to date committed to track and report on key indicators annually — aggregated nationally, then globally.
- Leverages data to take action
If you measure the gap, you can take actions to close it, so beyond the data, signatories commit to tailored actions to support WMSMEs (products, services, capacity building, research etc).
- Organised by country
National coalitions of local regulators, FSPs and other ecosystem partners drive the National adoption of the Code, embedding the framework in broader country strategies, recruiting signatories, and tracking and reporting progress annually — a floor-plus-aspiration model with a one-year grace period and five-year reporting horizon.
2X Global
- Sets global standards for gender-smart finance
The 2X Criteria provide a globally harmonised market framework establishing common definitions and thresholds for gender-smart finance. They are a public good that can be freely adopted by organisations across the market.
2X Certification is an independent certification standard for organisations seeking to demonstrate and certify their actual gender performance through third-party verification.
- Connects a global community
2X Global Membership connects institutions across the full spectrum of capital providers globally, providing peer learning, capacity building, collaboration and opportunities to shape and demonstrate leadership in gender-smart finance.
- Mobilizes capital collectively
The 2X Challenge is a collective capital mobilisation initiative through which participating capital providers use the 2X Criteria as a shared framework to qualify eligible investments and contribute towards a collective capital target. Since its launch at the G7 Summit in 2018, participating capital providers have collectively mobilised more than US$34 billion of finance for women.
