Addressing climate change with Microfinance Plus: experiences in cattle and coffee regions of Nicaragua. Bastiaensen, J., Romero, M., & Huybrechs, F. (2019), in: O’Connor, M. & Silva Afonso J. (eds.) Emerging Challenges and Innovations in Microfinance and Financial Inclusion. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Frederic Huybrechs (TRUEPATH) says: This chapter reflects on the role of rural microfinance in the context of climate change. It develops a conceptual framework to inform strategies of microfinance institutions (MFIs). This framework acknowledges how these strategies inevitably take part in complex context-specific institutional bricolage, thus highlighting the importance of path-dependent local embeddedness. We illustrate the framework with an analysis of the ‘green Microfinance Plus’ approach of the Fondo de Desarrollo Local (FDL) and the institute Nitlapan-UCA (Universidad Centroamericana) in Nicaragua. Their approach consists of the combination of short term and/or investment credit with compulsory technical assistance (which is partially or entirely paid by the clients, depending on their wealth level). In some instances, it is also combined with Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). We first introduce our analytical framework and then present two cases in cattle and coffee regions. The chapter concludes with insights about the role of microfinance in the context of climate change.
The role of microfinance and financial inclusion in the quest for environmental sustainability. Bastiaensen, J., Huybrechs, F. & Van Hecken, G. (2019), in: Hudon, M., Labie, M. & Szafarz, A. (eds.) A Research Agenda for Financial Inclusion and Microfinance. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Frederic Huybrechs (TRUEPATH) says: Building on the argument for a ‘double bottom line’ of financial and social/poverty objectives, some actors in microfinance argue for a third bottom line to engage with environmental crises. In this chapter, we provide an overview of nascent practices of ‘green microfinance’ and develop a perspective on how (micro) finance relates to sustainability. We argue that the complex and challenging nature of the topic which requires a wide-ranging research approach.
IPACST Knowledge Brief: Sustainable Business Model Knowledge Brief, Nancy Bocken and Roberto Hernandez Chea, Lund University, IIIEE ()
IPACST Knowledge Brief: Intellectual Property (IP) ‘need-to-know’ for researching sustainability transitions, Frank Tietze and Pratheeba Vimalnath, University of Cambridge
IPACST Knowledge Brief: Sustainability Impact Assessment ‘need-to-know’ for researching sustainability transitions, Anjula Gurtoo and Akriti Jain, Indian Institute
‘Pastoralists Without Pasture: Water Scarcity, Marketisation and Resource Enclosures In Kutch, India’
Lyla Mehta and Shilpi Srivastava, Nomadic Peoples 23.1:195-217
Beyond Technical Fixes: climate solutions and the Great Derangement, Nightingale, A.J., Eriksen, S., Taylor, M., Forsyth, T., Pelling, M., Newsham, A., Boyd, E., Brown, K., Harvey, B., Jones, L., Kerr, R.B., Mehta, L., Naess, L.O., Ockwell, D., Scoones, I., Tanner, T. and Whitfield, S. (2019) Climate and Development. See also: Climate Change: How do we move beyond ‘the great derangement’
Bridging the gaps in understandings of uncertainty and climate change: Round Table Reports, Mihir R. Bhatt, Lyla Mehta, Shibaji Bose, Hans Nicolai Adam, Shilpi Srivastava, Upasona Ghosh, Synne Movik, NC Narayanan, Lars Otto Naess, D. Parthasarathy, Catherine Wilson and Vishal Pathak (2018).
Bridging science and culture: participation and representation in addressing transformative change in biodiversity assessments. Beck, S. & Forsyth, T. (2019). Contribution to the Biodiversity Revisited initiative.
Unpacking uncertainty and climate change from ‘above’ and ‘below’, Lyla Mehta, Hans Nicolai Adam and Shilpi Srivastava (Eds.), Regional Environmental Change, Vol 19:6, August 2019. Read the introductory blog here.
In the media…
Die Macht, die Zukunft zu Verändern [The power to change the future]
Alexander Mäder, 13 September 2019, RiffReporter
Eröffnung des Futuriums [Opening of the Futurium]
Ed. 10 September 2019, HPD: Humanistischer Pressedienst