Small and medium-sized enterprises are essential engines for growth and play a key role in creating jobs and supporting sustainable livelihoods. Yet, the financing gap for SMEs, particularly in emerging markets, is widening.
Climate change has become an increasing concern, especially for small businesses. As the effects of climate change intensify, people around the world are feeling the pressure of financial constraints, greater risk and an increase living costs. These challenges are even more complex in developing countries.
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of
To highlight the contributions of these enterprises, the United Nations General Assembly designated
The
Pamela-Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of the
"So where do we go from here, I would say we need to look at the wider ecosystem. So we look at the market charges, technology, access to finance, legal changes, and requirements of what small businesses really need. A competitiveness assessment tool that has been launched is a very important tool because it looks at what are the necessary mechanisms that need to be put in place for companies to meet their actual current agricultural impact.
The World Bank estimates that there are 500 million smallholder farming households globally, comprising upward of 2 billion people. Though these farms are small, typically under two hectares, their cumulative impact is large. Smallholder farmers produce at least a third of the global food supply. And though these small farms contribute little in the way of greenhouse gas emissions, they bear the brunt of climate impacts.
Taking action on climate change offers new opportunities for economic development, growth and job creation. Reducing emissions, can save businesses money, attract new customers, and keep their competitive edge around the globe. According to the Harvard Business Network, "decarbonizing and cutting emissions at the SME level has benefits. It creates a more resilient supply chain overall, especially as the impacts of climate change become more uncertain and severe. The Covid-19 pandemic, for example, led to significant challenges across 57% of the supply chain, showing that "when small business suppliers struggle, larger operations falter too."
In the Sahel, droughts are becoming more and more intense. The temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than in the rest of the world and could reach up to five degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Yet, the Gambia is only responsible for just 0.05% of the world's emissions. As temperature rises, extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity, threatening biodiversity.
Kemo Fatty, the founder and executive director of Green-Up Gambia, an organization that addresses urgent environmental crises and raises eco-consciousness in communities, especially amongst young people in rural villages, spoke of how his organisation works with entrepreneurs in various ways to deliver sustainable farming practices.
He says that most of the food needed to feed 9 billion people is going to be grown by these local subsistence farmers.
"But the earth's temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster and where I live there's been a significant reduction in the rainfall patterns. So obviously, drought has been a major player. So we've seen that in terms of adjustments to resistance, farmers are really learning agroforestry models and these are really working, but not to their full capacity. Because most of the produce, 90% of the produce goes abroad, and people come and buy, there's no value added to this. Small and medium-scale enterprises are actually focusing on adding value to this approach means that time is our premium."
"We are lacking the tools that are necessary for us to leapfrog into this transition to bring up small business involvement and see how we can help enterprises to actually decarbonise our supply chains. So if we look at the carbon footprint, we need to help these small businesses become sustainable in the long run."
According to the
This story was produced as part of the 2022
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