Our previous post on greening rural financial services has received a lot of positive feedback. We are working on a sequel, which will examine some specific case studies and attempt to draw some conclusions on potential lessons and best practices.
In the meantime, we have been asked to send a call out to our network on sharing experiences in green microfinance (MF):
The journal Enterprise Development & Microfinance (EDM) is going to publish a special issue on green microfinance. The guest editors for this special issue are: Johan Bastiaensen (IOB, University of Antwerp – UA), Davide Forcella (CERMi, ULB), Frederic Huybrechs (IOB, UA). The aim of the special issue is to provide a picture of the present knowledge and experiences concerning green microfinance initiatives, and their main outcomes and challenges, along four main lines of research:
Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and environmental management: environmental responsibility of MFIs, policies/tools/strategies to reduce the internal or clients’ environmental risk, initiatives to foster the implementation of environmentally friendly activities for MFI clients or staff, and development, use and outcomes of tools to measure the environmental performance of MFIs.
Green MF and the access to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, existing business models, role of subsidies, strategies to scale up, etc.
MF and climate change adaptation: the role of MF to reduce the vulnerability of clients to forecast climate change events, weather shocks or extreme weather events, the effect of climate change on the credit risks of MFIs, etc.
MF and environmentally friendly rural development: how MF can support the implementation of environmentally friendly practices such as agroforestry, organic farming, recycling, etc. its role in ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, link with international green commodities markets and payments for environmental services.
The editors welcome contribution from academics, students, practitioners (companies, non-governmental organisations, government agencies), MFIs, Development Finance Institutions, investors, international organisations, social audits or rating agencies, etc.
Article could be related to experiences or studies both in developing or developed countries.
Abstracts are expected for end of September 2014, article should be completed by 1st February 2015. Interested authors could contact the guest editors:
Johan Bastiaensen (IOB, UA) johan.
Davide Forcella (CERMi, ULB) davide.forcella@yahoo.it
Frederic Huybrechs (IOB, UA) frederic.
or look directly to the Journal website.