Building the wealth and resilience of communities on nature’s frontlines
Small-scale fishers and smallholder farmers around the world live adjacent to a wealth of natural resources. But living in rural and remote communities is a barrier to benefitting from the value of the resources. These communities lack access to formal financial services like bank accounts, formal debt, or insurance, while financial service providers and global development organizations often lack mechanisms to effectively deliver resources to these communities.
Where traditional financial systems and strategies fail, innovative finance bridges the gap. Rare’s Innovative Finance program connects rural and remote communities on nature’s frontlines to the formal financial sector, helping them build resilience to both financial shocks and the consequences of climate change. By breaking down barriers separating communities and the formal economy, Rare helps build financial resilience and reduces pressure on nature.
Connecting communities to the formal economy
The formal economy consists of legally recognized entities with access to traditional financial services like savings accounts, insurance, and affordable financial loans. Most small-scale fishing and farming communities are rural and remote, far from banks and other financial institutions and the benefits of formal financial services. This leaves fishers, farmers, and other rural residents financially vulnerable to the impacts of emergencies, pandemics, or the impacts of climate change. In this Rare Quotes, Rare VP of Innovative Finance Kate Schweigart discusses Rare’s approach to connecting communities to the formal economy.
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