The #FinEquity2023 Annual Meeting convened on February 2023 for its first meeting this tea. It was themed, Using One Tool to Serve Two Priorities Financial inclusion for women’s Empowerment and Climate Transition. The meeting brought together the community to talk about why and how a relentless focus on women is needed in times of increasing climatic stress—women are the first victims of climate change. They have a crucial part to play in a fairer climate transition, also provided an opportunity to explore the nexus that links financial inclusion, women’s empowerment, and climate change.
During the welcome, Antonique Koning, CGAP Gender Lead, gave a brief overview of Fin Equity’s work. The global community has grown to a global community of over 6,000 researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and donors globally from more than 140 countries, prioritizing women’s financial inclusion. “In the last year and a half, the organization has grown tremendously, with more than 3 000 people joining the community of practice, she added.
FinEquity had its soft launch in September last year, with the Graca Machel Trust and the FSD Network. The organization is planning for an in-person meeting in October this year and the occasion of the African Micro Finance week in Togo.
In her keynote address, the Founder of the Graça Machel Trust, Mrs Graça, highlighted that we need to see women as drivers of social and economic transformation in every sphere of our society, and their role in a fair climate transition is no exception. “At the Graça Machel Trust, we are intentionally investing in the innovative thinking, economic potential, and power of women. For example, our Women Creating Wealth Entrepreneurship Development program is creating pathways for women’s entrepreneurship that will strengthen the capacity of over 10,000 women entrepreneurs in the next five years, with many operating in sectors relevant to climate change, such as agri-business, agri-processing and energy. In addition, we are exploring integrating climate change adaptation principles and mitigation in our capacity-building efforts to strengthen smallholder farmers,” highlighted Mrs Machel.
Panel Open Discussion:
The panel, which included Graça Machel, Nandini Harihareswara, Independent Consultant and Christian Pennotti, Senior Director, Market Based Approaches, CARE explained how offering such as bundling loans with non-financial services, using alternative credit scoring models for lending, and incentivizing uptake of index-based livestock insurance can improve climate resilience among rural women.
For women, the nexus already exists. According to Mrs Graça Machel, “the woman afflicted by climate is the woman affected by poverty and the same woman affected by a lack of all natural resources.” Therefore, we must focus on this intersection to assist financial service providers in developing products and services that enable women to build resilience in the face of climate change and mitigate and adapt to climate challenges by creating productive livelihoods that are less vulnerable to shocks,” she added.
Nandini Harihareswara emphasized that when we are successful with these models. Women are empowered to adapt to new, less climatically vulnerable livelihoods. Christian Pennotti used the example of CARE, which has 65% of its savings groups run by women and continues to save and lend even in the face of pandemic and climate-related disasters.
Another crucial issue that was highlighted was access to a variety of generic financial services, including savings and remittances, which may assist in moderate consumption during droughts or hasten recovery after a climatic shock. The solutions and having women be the agents of change and a crucial part of the answers, as well as some instances of women already practising some type of ecological solutions that also help solve some of the climate transition challenges, was also mentioned.
“Women are disproportionately affected since they are on the front lines. They certainly have the best sense of the problem and where it lies. They are also well positioned to inform what solutions should look like,” highlighted Christian Pennotti.
“We confront obstacles in all parts of integration, so what we want is to address as well as do for women and people with whom we interact, is to support those who are already integrated,” Mrs Machel concluded. It’s crucial to realize that “the woman impacted by climate change is the woman afflicted by poverty, a lack of resources, and coffee.” At Graca Machel Trust has been proving that it is in their interest to integrate women and serve women because they will have more to gain if they are integrating women”.
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.