Financial Investments Consultations Corporate Tax Consultant
Access to finance is very important for farmers. This allows them to buy inputs or pay for working capital and make the necessary long-term investments to increase the value of their farms while building their climate resilience.
However, farmers often find it difficult to secure this funding, despite its important role in boosting agricultural production and employment in developing countries. Women producers face particular challenges in this area, such as their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and lack of training or ownership of land, together with the associated impacts on 'bankability' of access to finance.
To better understand the issue, we wanted to examine which risks and sustainability aspects financial service providers (FSPs) consider relevant when evaluating smallholder financing applications. This paper builds on the previous SSI webinar in November 2018, where we presented the results of a consultation we conducted with FSP in mid-2019.
We ask FSPs to consider sustainability issues that inform their decisions about when to provide loans, grants and other financial support to smallholders. We also asked these FSPs whether they used voluntary sustainability standards when making investment decisions. This paper summarizes the results of these findings and will make an important contribution to the upcoming State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI): Standards and Financial Review.
