Advanced materials
Advanced materials have the potential to create a range of new products which disproportionately benefit women. These products range from self-healing solar panels and sealed earthen floors, to nanotechnologies, improved pesticides and arsenic-removing materials. For example, self-healing solar panels could increase the durability of off-grid structural hollow sections (SHS), which improve women’s economic empowerment by reducing time poverty, opening up new economic opportunities and catering for health improvements (e.g. from reduced air pollution). Similarly, sealed earthen floors inhibit contact with insects, parasites and germs in traditional dirt flooring that can cause diarrhoea and other diseases. Given their traditional responsibility for domestic work, this positively benefits women. Similar arguments can be made for the other innovations listed above.
- Opportunity
- low
Alleviate resource scarcities, particularly those faced by women, and increase the potential for job opportunities in the creation and deployment of new materials.
- Opportunity
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The manufacture of advanced materials could open up opportunities for women’s job creation and upskilling. For example, new manufacturing capabilities will be required for each of the materials outlined in this megatrend (e.g. self-healing solar panels, advanced pesticides, arsenic-removing chemicals, bricks made from urine and sealant earth floors).
To encourage the employment of women in these sectors, gender-smart investors could work with stakeholders to focus on skills development that provides women with the capabilities necessary to work in the advanced materials manufacturing sector.
- Opportunity
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Biological breakthroughs can be used in developing countries to improve health outcomes (e.g. through embeddable sensors monitoring for health monitoring, personalised medicine or genome sequencing).
However, new treatments are likely to less affordable, particularly for women, and research and development (R&D) into women’s health is typically lower than into men’s health. As a result, there is a risk that women get ‘left behind’ in the gains of biological breakthroughs.
Gender-smart investors could support improvements in investees’ capacity to leverage biological breakthroughs to enhance women’s economic empowerment by helping them:
- Collaborate with governments, researchers and regulators to ensure products are equitable in their construction and potential clientele (e.g. current genome sequencing databases predominantly focus on individuals of European descent).
- Work to lower the cost of biological breakthroughs to ensure their applicability to developing country settings.
- Rigorously evaluate potential barriers that may inhibit women’s access to new biological breakthroughs and working to tackle these (e.g. lack of official IDs, cost, geographic mobility, etc.).
- Opportunity
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Self-healing solar panels have the potential to increase the durability of off-grid SHS, which improves women’s economic empowerment by reducing time poverty, opening up new economic opportunities (through mobile access, health improvements (e.g. from reduced air pollution). and building resilience in disaster situations.
- Opportunity
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Women make up 45-80 percent of the food-producing workforce in developing countries. Advanced materials (capable of removing arsenic from water, improving pesticides’ anti-viral properties, etc.) will enable productivity improvements that benefit female farmers.
To harness the potential for advanced materials to create inclusive agricultural value chains, gender-smart investors could help investees:
- Evaluate potential barriers that inhibit women’s access to new technologies, and work with other stakeholders to tackle these.
- Identify high-potential advanced materials and regularly scan product pipelines to develop an understanding of their uses and best practices, with integration into existing investments where possible.
Gender-smart investors could also invest in companies innovating to produce advanced materials with a high potential impact within food and agriculture, working with investees to maximise utility and drive down costs to customers.
- Opportunity
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Material innovation could make possible a range of new infrastructure that increases women’s access to goods and services. However, infrastructure is often designed without a gender lens, such that the barriers to access for women may be higher than those for men.
To harness the potential for advanced materials to create inclusive infrastructure, gender-smart investors could help investees:
- Evaluate potential barriers that may inhibit women’s access to new infrastructure, working with and through investees and other stakeholders to tackle them.
- Identify high-potential advanced materials and regularly scan existing and planned infrastructure developments to develop an understanding of their uses and best practices, , with integration into existing investments where possible.
Gender-smart investors could also invest in innovative companies that are producing advanced materials with a high potential impact in construction or infrastructure, working with investees to maximise utility, the range of use cases and drive down costs to customers.
- Opportunity
- low
Innovative materials, such as sealed earthen floors, inhibit contact with insects, parasites, and germs in traditional dirt flooring that can cause diarrhoea and other diseases. Given their traditional responsibility for domestic work, this positively benefits women.
To harness the potential for advanced materials to improve women’s economic empowerment, gender-smart investors could help investees identify high-potential advanced materials and develop an understanding of their uses and best practices, with integration into existing investments where possible.
Gender-smart investors could also invest in innovative companies producing advanced materials with a high potential impact in construction or infrastructure, working with investees to maximise utility, the range of use cases and drive down costs to customers.
