Conference Cracking “
Tough Nuts
”
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The Conference focused on encouraging the uptake of new technologies
for agriculture and access to finance in a way that promotes resilience.
Given that one of the main objectives of the EcoMicro program is to facilitate climate change adaptation, we were excited for the opportunity to put our heads together with
185 participants from 34 countries
represented by NGOs, private sector companies, financial institutions, investors, donors, and other development practitioners
to discuss “tough nuts” related to promoting agriculture technology adoption and resilience
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For instance, what innovative technologies are being implemented to promote productivity and climate resilience? How can we forge and strengthen links between rural smallholders and their access to agricultural knowledge and financial services?
Furthermore, what better place to discuss resilience than in La Antigua, whose beautiful colonial architecture continues to stand strong after recent volcanic eruptions a mere 10 miles away. Coincidentally, this was also the former capital city of Guatemala until an earthquake destroyed it in 1773. Presently, our thoughts continue to remain with the people of Guatemala as we hope for the country’s recovery.
Below we share the feedback and experience of several of our EcoMicro partners that were supported by the Program to attend the event. This represented a unique knowledge-sharing opportunity for EcoMicro adaptation projects to learn and share on the broad range of technologies and approaches available to mitigate and adapt to global changes related to rural and agricultural development.
Click on the video below to hear more.
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Resilient Dairy and Crop Farming: How to Upscale Through Supply Chain Support and Microfinance
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Two countries. Two projects. Two climate-resilient solutions. The challenge: Climate change.
Small-scale farmers both in Mexico and Bolivia were faced with similar climate impacts: water scarcity, rising temperatures, and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. How could they introduce technologies in support of climate resilience? This was the question addressed by representatives from two climate resilience programs supported by the Multilateral Investment Fund at Cracking the Nut ’18: Danone’s "Margarita" project and the EcoMicro project in Bolivia.
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Climate-Smart Lending and the
Quest for Right-Tech Over High-Tech
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How can we digitize lending platforms for smallholder farmers as the most vulnerable population affected by adverse impacts of climate change?
This was the theme addressed at Cracking the Nut by Christoph Jungfleisgh, CEO and Co-Founder YAPU Solutions, during his session “Climate-Smart Lending and the Quest for Right Over High-Tech”. According to Jungfleisgh, “Climate-smart finance is increasingly being prioritized by financial institutions, but many of them lack the methodology, capacity, and knowledge to develop appropriate financial products”.
First, as Jungfleisch
notes, climate-smart finance is an area of high complexity and cost. There are limited markets for climate technologies, low levels of integration with suppliers, and low levels of data integration as paper-based processes persist. For financial institutions and end-clients respectively, this results in higher monitoring and reporting costs and lack of dedicated line of credit and incentives.
To harness data-smart finance as an enabler, the “right technology” is one that answers to core pain points of financial institutions. Beyond access to available climate technologies, however, this also involves integration of non-financial support services (e.g. awareness and capacity building for smallholder farmers). By enabling institutions that serve smallholder farmers and microenterprises to digitize their processes and integrate themselves into a connective data ecosystem, MFIs can leverage climate finance to harness new market opportunities, innovate business operations and models, enhance portfolio quality, differentiate their offers from competitors, expand in new markets, and importantly, strengthen their social mission
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KNOWLEDGE PRODUCT
Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance (2017)
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Climate financing by the world’s six largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) rose to a seven-year high of
$35.2 billion
in 2017, up more than
20 percent
from the previous year.
Of the 2017 total,
$27.9 billion
or
79 percent
was devoted to climate mitigation projects that aim to reduce harmful emissions and slow down global warming. The remaining
21 percent
or
$7.4 billion
of financing was invested in climate adaptation projects that help economies deal with the effects of climate change, such as unusual levels of rain, worsening droughts and extreme weather events.
This seventh edition of the Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance is an overview of financing committed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDBG) and the World Bank Group (WBG), to projects and activities in 2017 that mitigate climate change and support adaptation to climate change. In addition, this year’s report summarizes information on climate finance tracking from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
Read full report
here
.
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WeXchange Pitch Competition
Deadline: July 30, 2018
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Six finalists will be selected to make their pitch to an independent panel of experts at the WeXchange forum in Lima, Peru. The winner and finalists will receive outstanding prizes.
WeXchange is the first platform in Latin America and the Caribbean committed to connecting and strengthening high growth women entrepreneurs. Founded by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), an innovation laboratory for the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB), its goal is to help women entrepreneurs be successful in their ventures.
The Pitch Competition is organized by Angel Ventures. Connect with WeXchange and apply
here
.
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EcoMicro
partners with
Financial Institutions
to create Green Finance Products that build resilience of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(MSMEs) and
low income households
to Climate Change. This is an innovative approach to developing products that
facilitate access to sustainable, low-cost energy or adaptation technologies
for MSMEs and low-income households.
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EcoMicro is a Technical Cooperation Program by the
Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), co-financed by
Global Affairs Canada,
the MIF and
Nordic Development Fund. The
Global Affairs Canada contribution supports
The
EcoMicro Caribbean Program
.
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Inter-American Development Bank | Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) | (246) 627-8500 ecomicro@fomin.org | www.ecomicro.org
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