In Nepal, while attempts have been made to integrate women in decision-making in community forest user groups (CFUGs), including special provisions for poorer members’, representation of women is not enough and there still remain challenges to their meaningful participation and influence in decision-making. Besides absence of forest tenure rights for women, limited access to land and other resources and lack of social entitlements have stunted their position as possible stakeholders in the forest economy. Gender-based constraints women experience also intersect with other social identities such as age, caste/ethnicity, class and educational levels and has a compounding effect for women to survive and thrive in agriculture and forestry-based enterprises. Similarly, women in Nepal face serious challenges in financing low carbon small and micro enterprises that create jobs and income for rural women. Mainstream banks and financial institutions narrowly prioritise profit potential so that social and environmental objectives are often ignored. More importantly, despite policy promises of encouraging women entrepreneurs through diversifying their financial access, banks and financial institutions stick to strong collateral-based loans, which women are not in the position to fulfil or often lack.

In response to such challenges and with the aim of improving financial literacy, ForestAction Nepal has partnered with Climate Initiative Policy (CPI), an advisory organisation with deep expertise in finance and policy to drive economic growth while addressing climate change to work on this project.

Project Objectives

The main objective of this project is to conduct research to understand constraints and opportunities in financing women led/women-benefitting grassroots organisations in agriculture and forestry sector engaged in climate-positive economic activities and demonstrate the feasibility or establish pathways to finance by enabling appropriate project preparation support through a dedicated facility that could serve as a template for similar projects in Asia.