Sustainable Fitch has issued a Second-Party Opinion (SPO) on the Women’s Livelihood Bond™ (WLB) Series framework by Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), confirming its full alignment with leading global sustainability guidelines, including the ICMA Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles, and Sustainability Bond Guidelines.
In its assessment, Sustainable Fitch described the WLB framework’s alignment as “excellent.” It also recognized the framework’s compliance with the Orange Bond Principles (OBP) — a first for the ESG rating agency. The OBP were developed by the Orange Movement, a consortium that includes IIX, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the US International Development Finance Corporation, Water.org, ANZ Bank, and Nuveen, LLC.
This is the first time Sustainable Fitch has evaluated any financial framework against the OBP, marking a significant milestone in the broader integration of gender-lens investing into ESG ratings.
Headquartered in Singapore, IIX is a global impact investment firm with a team of over 70 professionals spread across Asia and Africa. The firm provides equity and debt financing and is best known for its innovative WLB Series, which channels capital into impactful ventures that uplift underserved women, particularly in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Proceeds from the bonds under this framework are earmarked for seven impact categories — three environmental (clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and water, sanitation & hygiene), and four social (SME lending, microfinance, micro-insurance, affordable housing, and agriculture-focused financial services).
The target beneficiaries of the social components are low-income and underserved women in lower-middle and upper-middle-income countries, as classified by the World Bank.
Sustainable Fitch projects that the WLB Series will yield strong social and environmental outcomes, including job creation, expanded access to formal financial services, greater renewable energy use at the household level, and improved sanitation and clean water access.
The SPO was conducted using Sustainable Fitch’s modular ESG assessment framework, which allows for comprehensive evaluations at the entity, framework, and instrument levels. This SPO is part of Fitch’s growing suite of ESG products, which are designed to support transparency and informed decision-making in sustainable finance.
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