financial services

This blog explores opportunities for women in agriculture by means of two national surveys of smallholder households in Mozambique and Tanzania. These suggest that women face several barriers, which may prevent them from diversifying their sources of income both within and away from agriculture. »

This expert opinion discusses how digital financial services (DFS) can help women to control their financial lives. One important benefit of DFS to women is privacy. »

This report by the Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab and the Initiative for Smallholder Finance captures the way the smallholder finance space currently operates by describing the key actors and the nature of their interactions, and by conceptualizing these in a new “industry model.” The report identifies market frictions across the major components of the “industry model” that continue to inhibit smallholder farmers’ access to financial services and opportunities for removing them, and rallies sector actors around the need for more collective action than ever before. »

This guide (PDF), developed by AgriFin (World Bank Group), in partnership with Bankaool (Mexico), HBL Bank (Pakistan) and HDFC Bank (India), provides a practical, evidence-based guidance to financial institutions engaging in agricultural value chain finance (AVCF). It includes a comprehensive picture of agricultural value chains to enable financial institutions to adapt financial products to the specific demands of value chain actors; and examples of field-tested AVCF products and procedures that have shown value or promise for financial institutions. »

A new report published by CGAP presents insights in how digital financial services (DFS) can work for smallholders. Digital tools offer great opportunities for the world’s 450 million smallholder families, but cannot replace personal support, according to the new human-centered design research. Recognizing the need for DFS that better respond to smallholder demand, CGAP partnered in early 2015 with a financial service provider (FSP) in each of Zimbabwe, Senegal, Rwanda, and Cambodia to design a new generation of smallholder-specific digital financial products and services. Under the guidance and expertise of two human-centered design (HCD) firms, CGAP and its FSP partners worked to explore, create, evolve, and test possible digital solutions for smallholder families. »

This report focuses on how African small-holder farmers respond to an uncertain climate future and how they can be agents of change. In addition, it focuses on what financial options are available and how funding could be improved for this. Impacts of climate change are already felt in Africa. Mean temperatures in Africa will rise faster than the global average, and agricultural losses in the region will amount to 2% to 7% of GDP by 2100. »