Pioneering a Social Impact Investment Market in the Pacific

Economic growth in much of the Pacific region is not keeping pace with population growth. The remote nature of island nations and gaps in domestic infrastructure makes international trade expensive. Domestic markets are small and many communities rely on local production bases for income and consumption. Inefficient and burdensome regulation, low contract enforcement, limited access to finance, and low skilled and unhealthy workers make the business environment challenging. Traditional investment tools are designed in ways that make them inaccessible to many Pacific Island businesses.

Women face additional obstacles in the investment climate preventing them from growing their businesses with a prevailing culture of informality amongst female entrepreneurs, unequal access to property, credit and justice, and lower levels of experience and comfort with formal business processes. While these obstacles impact men, they have a greater impact on women.

Our role and impact

Through the Pacific Readiness for Investment in Social Enterprise (Pacific RISE) program, Tetra Tech worked with investors, intermediaries and social enterprises in the Pacific to identify social impact investment opportunities with businesses and support social enterprises to access funding.

Pacific RISE included a strong focus on supporting women’s economic empowerment through implementing a gender lens in investment from its design phase. As an early adopted of a gender lens investing approach, the pilot developed tools and practices leading to leading to financial return and social impact that incorporate a comprehensive gender lens, and potential models for others in the field to replicate.

Tetra Tech implemented Pacific RISE in partnership with the Criterion Institute and Pacific Trade Invest Australia. We brought our expertise, networks, and connections to Pacific RISE, developed after decades of working in the Pacific, and our local teams across the region provided technical assistance on navigating the Pacific impact investment ecosystem.

Pacific RISE introduced Gender Lens Investing to the Pacific, working with partners and external advisers to support almost AUD $1M worth of private capital investment, with most investments targeting women’s economic empowerment. It also led the way in developing the Pacific’s first social investment thesis and the first-ever Gender-Based Violence Due Diligence tool (adopted by UNICEF). Pacific RISE has influenced and impacted the gender lens field on a global scale.