At Inua, we are committed to fostering gender equality, diversity, equity and inclusion within our organization and across our investment portfolio. Our policy is rooted in the recognition that gender biases persist in Uganda’s economic landscape, and it is our responsibility to help address the systemic gender gap in industry and employment.
We affirm our dedication to the following principles:
Gender Balanced Decision-Making: We strive to maintain gender-balanced teams and governance, ensuring diverse perspectives and mitigating potential gender biases in making investment decisions.
Equal Opportunities to Access Capital and Support for Female Entrepreneurs: We actively seek gender balance in our deal sourcing efforts, promoting equal access to investment opportunities for both male and female entrepreneurs in Uganda’s SME space. Furthermore, we prioritize investment readiness support and mentorship for female-led companies that have faced institutional barriers to formalize and access capital, elevating them to have equal opportunity in consideration for commercial investment.
Ensuring Gender Awareness and an Inclusive Work Environment in our Investments: We assess gender issues, equity and culture within potential investments, developing a gender strategy as an integral component of our post-investment impact plan. We require our investees to adhere to a minimum standard of gender inclusivity, ensuring a safe work environment, equal pay, robust healthcare and maternity policies, clean women’s facilities, and a comprehensive harassment and grievance policy.
Driving Cultural Transformation in our Partners: We support investee companies in establishing gender-aware and gender-equitable organizational structures, fostering inclusive workplace cultures, and implementing internal policies that drive behavioral change and promote accountability. Furthermore, we advocate for diverse leadership in these companies and seek to actively attract and engage key female mentors, advisers and board directors for our investees, enhancing their counsel, advisory and governance structures to drive gender equality and promote diverse strategic leadership.
Using our Resources to Empower Women: We strive to build an investment portfolio that aligns with the 2X Challenge, prioritizing companies led by women, companies employing or supplied by women, and companies providing goods and services that empower or improve the lives of women.
Transforming our own Industry through Female Talent Development: We are committed to increasing the presence, capacity and mentorship of female investment professionals in the Ugandan investment ecosystem, knowing that diverse talent will catalyze diverse investment in the future and engender long-term change in correcting the implicit and systemic gender biases that have plagued our industry.
By operating in line with this policy statement, Inua aims to embed gender inclusivity as best-practice in Ugandan enterprise, drive inclusive growth and help build a more equitable and prosperous society.
Every action counts.
Published September 2023
