Climate finance neglects small-scale farmers
Published: Nov 13, 2020
By TIOLCORPLAWS News Service
ROME, NOV 13, 2020: According to a report released by the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), only 1.7 per cent of climate finance a fraction of what is needed goes to small-scale farmers in developing countries despite their disproportionate vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Examining the Climate Finance Gap for Small-Scale Agriculture is the first detailed analysis of climate finance flows to small-scale farmers. It is released during the Finance in Common Summit where representatives of the world's 450 Public Development Banks are meeting for the first time to discuss how to reorient financial flows to support global climate and development targets.
While there are no exact figures available of what climate financing small-scale farmers require, various estimates of their general needs are in the order of hundreds of billions annually, which gives an indication of the magnitude of the climate investments required. 'Governments must make sure that climate finance gets to the people who need it most, and smallholder farmers should be top of that list, not at the bottom,' said Margarita Astralaga, IFAD's Environment, Climate and Social Inclusion Director. IFAD aims to support this by increasing public and private climate finance flows to small-scale farmers." IFAD is the only multilateral development organization focused on eradicating hunger and poverty in rural areas. Next year it will launch ASAP, a climate financing mechanism envisioned to be the largest fund dedicated to channelling climate finance to small-scale producers to help them adapt to climate change and combat hunger and malnutrition. ASAP builds on IFAD's Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), the largest global climate adaptation programme for smallholder farmers, which has already channelled more than $300 million to more than 5 million farmers in 41 countries.
