'Gender bond' pioneer Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos (Banobras) secured the sustainability bond use of proceeds innovation award for the Mexican development bank's innovative focus on gender-focused infrastructure projects.

In March 2023, Banobras raised MXN6.5 billion ($347 million) from two gender-focused sustainability bonds which were tied to infrastructure projects in Mexico.

Banobras told Environmental Finance that infrastructure is “not gender-neutral,” as a result the bonds contribute highlighting and addressing the structural inequalities regarding female access to infrastructure.

Projects financed through the bonds include the rehabilitation of public parks and streets, providing specialist medical equipment to service women's needs at hospital, and the construction of educational facilities.

For example, the proceeds consider projects like ‘Mi Macro Periférico’, a sustainable transport project in the city of Guadalajara which also incorporates elements to address the structural inequalities which limit female access to transport, such as breastfeeding rooms at stations, programmes against violence when using transport, and a driver training programme to increase participation of women in the sector.

The bonds follow Banobras issuing the first gender-linked infrastructure sustainability bond from a development bank in 2022. Banobras has raised more than MXN54 billion from sustainability bonds since it first issued in 2017.