Exactly, it rarely trickles down to the ones that need it the most.
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Thanks for sharing this report, Keeva! As important as mitigation investment is, the only just way forward is to invest in mitigation and adaptation. This is especially true for populations most vulnerable to climate change—developing countries, yes, and especially smallholder farmers in those countries.
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This is an excellent point. The costs of compliance multiply exponentially when you start dealing with MICRO-holders (as opposed to smallholders) and there is a real risk of the unintended consequence that the smallest, and most impoverished farmers and their families get left behind.
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Hello! I’m Elizabeth A. Vazquez, the CEO and Co-Founder of WEConnect International and we were created by our member buyers representing over US$4 trillion in annual purchasing power and serving women-owned businesses based in over 135 countries. Our biggest challenge is how do we quickly scale our community of women-own businesses that can solve problems for our member buyers?
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A1
|-|Inclusion
|-|The percentage of Women in the energy sector is still low
|-|There is So much potential in the you but very limited chances.
|-|Energy crisis in terms of business (most people still do not understand the correlation between the two and rural areas are still behind in understanding why it is important)|
|-|Comfortability over taking risks.
|-|Recognizing opportunities. (mostly due to lack of information)
|-|Access to the right training |
|-|is the income sustainability
|-|Staying curious and motivated
Here is our second question today - do reply with an opener of ‘A2.’ - thank you
Part 1-
USAID will use to measure its local leadership targets which might allow more funding to flow to local development organisations By prioritizing locally led development (LLD), donors and implementers are transforming in fundamental ways to intentionally bring those closest to development issues to the table and harness overlooked solutions and voices to make an impact on long-standing challenges.
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One challenge I anticipate having in the coming years is the growing use of AI in content production. For media sites like NextBillion, which publishes original articles from entrepreneurs and others working around the world, it’s important for us to be confident that the analysis we’re sharing is original and “human-generated.” So far, this hasn’t been an issue (as far as I know). But I’m sure at some point, a guest writer will likely submit an article that will be largely (or even entirely) generated by AI. I hope this is something we will catch and resolve in the editing process, and we’ll certainly ask guest writers to be transparent if they’re using AI in their research or writing. But given the growing desire among businesses/organizations to produce content online that draws attention to their work, and the growing ease of producing this content with AI, I anticipate that this will be a challenge we’ll have to navigate soon, perhaps this year.
Another major challenge is how to strongly link the development sector needs with the ESG agenda of business. The S component in ESG is something which can benefit development sector and also add value to the ESG agenda of the company, and the E component in ESG has a link with almost impacting all development sectors outcomes (around Health, Nutrition, Food systems, Water and Sanitation, Education, Social Protection, Livelihood, Gender)
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A2 – The biggest challenge is trying to propagate enterprises that help people inclusively – workers, customers, suppliers and others.
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A1:
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A key challenge we are anticipating in 2024 is the discourse around Safeguarding; in creating our Gender Strategy for 2024-2028, with representatives from Sub-Saharan Africa, we learned from folks that safeguarding is very “Global North” and still not localized. We are trying to find a middle ground between leveraging industry standard and donor language of safeguarding to build capacity in these areas and to ensure our sustainability, but also speaking to our audience in accessible ways that don’t alienate them or overlook the good work they are already doing.
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Fundraising for our climate program - allocated climate financing does not often trickle down to the local grassroots initiatives, entrepreneurs, and organizations that we work with. While the dialogue talks about community engagement - we need to see funds reach communities.
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Lovely to know you! added you on Linkedin!
Very important points made here Alison. Connecting how one factor can intersect and affect others, especially the rights for women and children are so important we we discuss these challenges.
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A2 - A few opportunities we see on the horizon:
• Innovative legislation addressing the gig economy and precarious employment (e.g. Canada’s Labour Code Reform).
• Legislative changes (Canada) to improve ease of incorporation for cooperatives and employee-owned businesses.
• Growing awareness of socio-economic inequality as well as climate change may create support and conditions for new policy and practice approaches.
• Global supply chain disruptions may renew interest in and support for localizing economies.
• Growing role of Indigenous businesses in the economy.
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A2:
The power of the local – rightly focused on the international development sector but the power of local businesses, particularly SMEs is there to be tapped. Grow domestic economics and resource base. To be realised, need better, fairer trade agreements that level the playing field with respect to multinationals. Progress on the UN tax convention is a welcome step.
Capitalising on the push to reform IFIs – institutional level reforms that address the imbalance of power/representation of LMICs, particularly Africa. Reforming the multilateral architecture, rebalancing the distribution of power there is a integral part of locally led development. I’d like to see this more consistently include the OECD DAC.
Popular mobilisation for climate action
Last year Bond ran an indepth project with experts from international development and adjacent sectors to identify and platform promising innovations. You can see the collated list here. Future Innovation Cards | Bond
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A2 Big Opportunity: We have to start looking at the big issues together, instead of looking at individual solutions. Our work across people, nature and climate is increasingly interconnected; ensuring economic development, while protecting natural resources and biodiversity, enhancing livelihoods for people, and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Global food systems are complex and there is a big opportunity for collaboration. We need to understand the interlinkages and be honest about the potential trade-offs, so we can continue to move ahead together.
These are enormous problems to solve, so the opportunity is for a coordinated approach, with sharing and learning built in. The palm oil and cocoa sectors are a good examples of where broad industry collaboration has led to some progress.
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A2: While it is difficult to be optimistic given the world we live in now, there are some things to be hopeful about. There is currently significant global attention and funding toward digital livelihoods. There is interest in understanding how the challenges that prevent displaced people from accessing digital livelihood be addressed and in finding sustainable and scalable solutions.
Companies are now interested in how they can engage displaced talent, via direct hiring, freelancing or impact sourcing-working with refugee agencies.
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Similar challenge we face too, Emma. Big bold commitments for climate funding but many red tape barriers to get this to the most vulnerable.
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For WEConnect International, how do we do a better job of integrating AI to improve the way we grow and support our community of member buyers, women-owned businesses and strategic partners based in over 135 countries?
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CottonConnect has the following priorities for the year:
• Increase regenerative agriculture practices
• Transparency and traceability with our bespoke TraceBale system
• Focus on HRDD due diligence and our dedicated team will ensure messaging is culturally appropriate
• Giving communities a ‘voice’