How Digital Finance Can Boost Climate Resilience
2021-10-28
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It is becoming increasingly clear to experts in the climate resilience space that digital financial tools and systems are going to play a large role in helping vulnerable populations across the globe better prepare and respond to the shocks and stresses presented by climate change.
To that end, World Council of Credit Unions recently joined forces with several other government, corporate and non-profit organizations in supporting Digital Finance for Climate Resilience (DF4CR), an effort coordinated by BFA Global.
“Digital Finance for Climate Resilience solutions do not yet exist in the market for low-income or climate-vulnerable populations at the depth or breadth required to improve their climate resilience, because the innovation ecosystem necessary to create and deliver these solutions is underdeveloped. A global Task Force was convened to develop a Framework for Action that illustrates the opportunity in DF4CR and to chart a path toward the scale-up of an innovation ecosystem,” reads a statement from the DF4CR Task Force.
The Framework for Action identifies five key actors crucial to developing such an ecosystem, including:
Over the next two years, the DC4FR Task Force will be looking to identify success stories about how digital financial climate resilience has benefited real people. The next step would be to take the best of those innovations and scale them up for larger populations.
Highlighting credit union efforts toward climate resilience
WOCCU President and CEO Elissa McCarter LaBorde identified DF4CR as an initiative the international credit union movement must embrace shortly after joining our organization in August 2021.
“The goals of the DF4CR Task Force are directly in line with those of World Council of Credit Unions and our members who are working to reduce the impacts of climate change across the globe,” said Laborde. “It will take a continued commitment to both large- and small-scale efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change going forward and WOCCU is committed to championing that cause.”
WOCCU connected representatives from the Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU) and the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO-Philippines) with the DF4CR Task Force for a November 4 Financial Inclusion Week event—Digital Finance Innovations for Climate Resilience. Lasalette Gumban, NATCCO’s Diaspora Program Unit Head, will give a presentation on ACCU’s Guide on Climate Action, which encourages credit unions to introduce climate compliance as a criteria for assessing loan applications.
According to ACCU: “The Guide on Climate Action has been prepared in the belief that institutionalizing climate actions and educating members on climate risks and making them assess their vulnerability is essential for preparedness.”
You can register for Digital Finance Innovations for Climate Resilience and all other Financial Inclusion Week events, free of charge, by clicking here.
WOCCU will continue to look for success stories from its member credit union organizations to help the DF4CR Task Force identify the best examples of how digital financial tools are boosting climate resilience in ways that can be scaled up both regionally and globally.