The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $20 million fund to Singapore’s ABC Impact, a network of investors, to help firms in the Philippines and neighboring countries implement educational, health, agricultural and women-focused financial inclusion projects.

Approved by ADB on 12 December is a private equity fund under the ABC Impact Fund II LP for companies also located in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand and Vietnam.

Aside from gaining profits, beneficiary firms must contribute to improving the environmental conditions and the lives of indigenous peoples and women.

“Financing the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been uneven in Asia,” the ADB said in its preliminary analysis on the ABC Impact Fund II LP.

Data by the bank showed progress levels in over half of 17 UN SDGs have slowed while 30 percent, including those related to poverty, hunger, and climate, have stagnated.

Helping women-led businesses

The ADB said more women struggle with securing a source of income as women co-founded firms received only 17 percent of the $25.75-billion private capital raised by start-ups in Southeast Asia in 2021.

However, during the pandemic in 2020, the ADB said women-owned entreprises in the Philippines already accounted for 58 percent of microenterprises, 50.3 percent of small enterprises and 16 percent of medium enterprises.

“ADB standards integrate gender considerations into the investment process more systematically, guiding investors to direct capital toward businesses that promote gender equality through leadership, employment and entrepreneurship, as well as to those offering products and services that positively impact women,” the ADB said.

Through the effective implementation of gender-inclusive projects, the ADB projects an additional $4.5 trillion to the gross domestic product of Asia and the Pacific.

Philippine female workforce

Meanwhile, the World Bank has reported that a small increase of 0.5 percentage points in the female workforce in the Philippines could push up its GDP per capita by about six percent by 2040 and nearly 10 percent by 2050.

ABC Impact’s founding investors include Temasek, Pavilion Capital, Seatown Holdings, SP Group, Mapletree and Sembcorp.

Launched in August 2023, ABC Impact Fund II is composed of over $550 million in assets under management.