Mobilising finance for community-based resilience

This report examines barriers to accessing finance for community-led resilience in the global South, drawing on the 'Voices from the Frontline' initiative. It identifies five main barriers—regulatory, market, social, economic, and technological—and highlights four sustainable alternatives: VSLA savings groups, the TWW profit-sharing model, Kiva crowdfunding via field partners (iDE), and Abalimi Bezekhaya's subsidised cost model. The report emphasizes that financial access must be paired with capacity building and mentorship, and suggests that the private sector can play a critical role as guaranteed offtakers and mentors for small-scale entrepreneurs.

• Poor and vulnerable communities face five primary categories of barriers when attempting to access traditional finance: regulatory/governance, market-related, social, economic/financial, and technological. These include a lack of formal documentation, prohibitively expensive costs, lack of collateral, and limited digital literacy or infrastructure.
• Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) savings groups provide a participatory, self-managed microfinance mechanism where members pool money weekly to offer loans for income-generating activities or essential expenses. In Uganda and Kenya, these groups typically consist of 10 to 30 members, mostly women, and operate in 10–12 month cycles.
• The Tresor Women Warriors (TWW) in The Gambia utilizes a profit-sharing microfinance model instead of interest-based loans, which is particularly relevant in a majority Muslim context where Islamic law may prohibit interest. TWW provides loans to groups of approximately 10 women after they complete two months of capacity-building and business planning.
• The Kiva crowdfunding platform, in partnership with field partners like International Development Enterprises (iDE) in Mozambique, connects social impact lenders globally with underserved entrepreneurs. iDE provides essential on-the-ground services including vetting, entrepreneurial training, and loan administration to facilitate these interest-free loans.
• Abalimi Bezekhaya in South Africa employs a 'subsidised cost' model to support urban micro-farmers, providing training, resources, and infrastructure below market prices. Its 'Harvest of Hope' project (2008–2019) acted as a social enterprise and aggregator, selling over R16 million worth of produce and paying approximately ZAR 10 million to urban micro-farmers.
• The Khulisa Amafama pilot project in South Africa demonstrates a private sector partnership between UCOOK, PEDI, and Abalimi. UCOOK acts as a guaranteed offtaker for urban small-scale farmers, providing market access and business mentorship to help farmers transition from subsistence to commercial farming, which improves their ability to access credit.
• The report concludes that financial access alone is insufficient for resilience; it must be integrated with sustained training, capacity development, and mentorship. It recommends that donors move toward performance-based grants focused on outcomes rather than outputs and that the private sector use CSR budgets for financial literacy training.

APA

Ebrahim, A. (2022). Mobilising finance for community-based resilience. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/VFL%20Mobilising%20finance%20report%20WEB.pdf

Chicago

Ebrahim, Allie. Mobilising finance for community-based resilience. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2022. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/VFL%20Mobilising%20finance%20report%20WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ebrahim |first1=Allie |title=Mobilising finance for community-based resilience |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=August 2022 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/VFL%20Mobilising%20finance%20report%20WEB.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ebrahim2022mobilising, author = {Ebrahim, Allie}, title = {{Mobilising finance for community-based resilience}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/VFL%20Mobilising%20finance%20report%20WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }