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fromJoachim Will
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An initiative in Zambia shows that climate protection and equality are mutually beneficial. However, banks still often ignore this when granting loans.
Lusaka – It all started with the Transformed Poachers program. It was launched in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley to get poachers out of illegality. The aim was to convince the men to give up their weapons and “retrain”. Together with the women from their families, they should be able to earn their money in organic farming in the future. It worked. Instead of shooting down elephants and selling their ivory in the famous African wildlife sanctuary, they now produce food.
The organization Comaco, whose chief financial officer is climate activist Prudence Muchinouta, is now working with communities across the South African country, and 225,000 people, 52 percent of them women, went through the training. And Comaco created a market for the sustainably produced food. The organization created its own brand, It’s Wild, which is selling well.
Women could advance the climate-friendly conversion of the economy enormously
The first idea was to create another livelihood for the poachers and thus save the elephant population in the Luangwa Valley from final extinction. However, it quickly became apparent that the women in particular excelled in the learning groups. Many then also took on management positions in the cooperatives and communities in order to make agriculture more soil-friendly and climate-friendly. “They are ‘change agents’ for climate protection,” says German development expert Jessica Espinoza, who accompanied Comaco’s success story.
In the early years, Comaco could not grow as much as hoped, partly because there was a lack of financing. Local banks have now woken up, and Zambia’s leading bank, Zanaco Bank, is also heavily involved. The background: Zanaco has launched a program in which business areas are identified in which women can be particularly successful. The “Gender Smart Opportunities Assessment” was developed together with DEG, a subsidiary of the German development bank KFW, which finances and advises companies in developing countries. Espinoza oversaw the project.
“It’s worth it for banks to give women loans,” says the 35-year-old, who worked for a social enterprise in Mexico and a bank in Nicaragua before joining DEG in Cologne. Women are particularly loyal customers with an enormously high repayment rate. Many financial institutions in developing countries would not have understood this. The women still get microcredit, for example to buy seeds, but when it comes to financing a tractor, it becomes difficult to find financiers. “Hardly anyone is aware of the fact that women in particular can promote the conversion of the economy to climate-friendly processes,” reports Espinoza.
Jessica Espinoza is a development professional.
© DEG
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In fact, the situation is clear. Studies have shown, for example, that women are more likely than men to set up new companies that focus on sustainability and develop innovations for climate protection. “But they hardly have access to financing,” says Espinoza. Or: Corporations in which women also sit on the supervisory board would have significantly lower emission values and lower energy consumption on average than comparable all-male companies. Another example: feeding the world. The WHO has calculated that crop yields could be 20 to 30 percent higher if women had the same access to agricultural resources, such as financing, seeds and fertilizers, as men.
Climate protection and equality must be considered together
In the meantime, however, there are more and more banks and other financiers who recognize the opportunities for linking “green” and women-oriented investments. An alliance of international investors founded in 2018, called “2X Collaborative”, demands: In order to be able to meet the climate crisis with the necessary speed, women worldwide must be involved on an equal footing – as decision-makers, entrepreneurs, qualified workers and consumers. The alliance is an initiative of the development finance institutions from the G7 countries, of which DEG is one of the founders.
And 2X Collaborative has some successes to report. Allianz has far exceeded its goal of investing at least three billion dollars in the Gender Lens Investing Strategy by the end of 2020. 11.4 billion were reached. There is now a new target of $15 billion for 2021/22. In addition, at the world climate summit in Glasgow last autumn, Allianz presented a “toolbox” that makes suggestions to investors and companies on how the climate and equality goals can be actively promoted – for example in the areas of agriculture, water, energy, climate adaptation, biodiversity and financial services. And the idea is catching on. Large private investors and financiers such as Citi Group, the Investor Leadership Network of global pension funds and more than 30 other institutions worldwide have also joined.
Espinoza is convinced that the topics of climate protection and equality will be absolute megatrends in the financial sector. “And when you link the two together, they accelerate each other,” she says. (Joachim Will)
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