Mobilink Bank has joined SDPI in calling for gender-responsive financing for Pakistan's women farmers. Mobilink Bank joins SDPI to call for gender-responsive financing for women farmers in Pakistan.
Mobilink Bank and SDPI Report Launch Gender Responsive Climate Finance for Pakistan’s Women Farmers
A new study by Pakistan's premier digital microfinance Bank, Mobilink Bank, and SDPI has revealed a heightened financial vulnerability among women farmers in Pakistan as a significant proportion of these women are increasingly resorting to borrowings as a coping mechanism to manage the impact of climate shocks, despite limited access to formal financial services. The results highlight the critical need for more inclusive and climate-smart financial products and services to help women farmers safeguard livelihoods, recover more quickly, and become more resilient.
The study titled “Designing Gender-Responsive Climate Finance: A Diagnostic Study and Product Framework for Women Farmers in Pakistan” is based on field research conducted in 8 districts of Punjab and Sindh, highlighting the need to bridge the gap between women's participation in agriculture, their vulnerability to climate change and their access to formal financial services. The results were presented at a high-level policy dialogue co-organised by SDPI and Mobilink Bank in Islamabad, which convened policy makers, financial regulators, banks, development finance institutions and development partners to discuss how evidence can be used to inform action for women farmers in the financial landscape.
Adviser to the Finance Minister Adnan Pasha was the guest of honour at the event highlighting the importance of giving formal recognition to women farmers as economic actors and contributors to the agricultural economy of Pakistan. The government is actively looking into policy recommendations that came out of the study and urged financial institutions to create products and systems which cater to the needs of women, especially in terms of access to finance, collateral and climate resilience. Pasha also valued SDPI's ongoing advocacy for these reforms and Mobilink Bank's initiatives to support women farmers' financial inclusion, calling for increased attention to solutions designed for women farmers' needs.
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Khowla Shoaib, Head of Strategy, Sustainability & Women Financial Services, Mobilink Bank said that the Bank's policy of promoting women in agriculture is evident in the bank's portfolio as agriculture accounts for around 60% of all GLP while women make up more than 21% of the total. The results of the SDPI research confirmed the Bank's understanding of the main financial and climate-related constraints affecting women farmers, and offered additional insights that have supported the Bank's portfolio and the creation of new gender-responsive products for women farmers, she said.
Over 9 out of 10 women farmers reported extreme climate events over the last five years, such as heatwaves, floods, heavy rainfall or drought-like conditions, and over 80% reported losses or negative impacts to farming. Borrowing was one of the most or second most prevalent coping strategies in each district. In Khushab all women who reported a coping strategy had taken loans and more than half had sold animals which could impact future livelihoods negatively.
The findings presented by Ayesha Naeem, lead researcher from SDPI revealed the deep-seated structural and policy gaps that need to be tackled on priority. Although 67% of the total working women population is working in agriculture, only 1.5% of the total agriculture households is formalized as a female headed household. Likewise, land ownership is restricted with only around 2% of ever-married females (15-49 years) owning land alone or jointly and 97.2% reported not having inherited land or a house.
In Sindh, 99.1% had no land ownership (either alone or jointly). The financial and digital gender gap compounded by the fact that 56% of men and only 14% of women have an account with all the services offered by a financial institution, and that 48% male and 11% female own a mobile wallet.
As climate risks grow, solutions are needed more and more. The floods in Pakistan in 2022 inflicted over US$30 billion in economic losses and damages, with at least US$16.3 billion projected to be needed for resilient reconstruction.
The gender component of the study was particularly significant as half of Pakistan's population is not recognised as an active agricultural labourer, and zooming climate finance down to the micro farmer level was another strength of the study, Dr. Sajid Amin Javed, Deputy Executive Director (Research) SDPI stated. Strengthening the rural economy, especially the agriculture and livestock sectors, was key to the overall renovation of the economy of Pakistan, he said, adding that collaborations with institutions such as Mobilink Bank, having access to huge data of its customers, was crucial to continue this research thread.
While addressing the few gaps that the report addresses, Engr. Ubaid Zia, Head of Energy Unit at SDPI stated that women are working in the agricultural sector, facing climate shocks and already taking loans to meet their livelihoods requirements, but the formal financial system is not treating them so. This is not a marginal concern in a country which is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world and is at the core of Pakistan's agricultural resilience. The exclusion is structural; not a consequence of products and services being built around land ownership, individual mobility, and access to digital technologies, but rather these are simply not representative of a woman farmer.