Studies

Over the past decade, climate disasters in India have upended thousands of small and marginal producers and workers lives and livelihoods. Across sectors, informal and vulnerable workers, primarily women, are disproportionately impacted by climate change and are pushed further into poverty as they struggle on the front lines of the climate crises.

Since 2000, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and the American India Foundation (AIF) have worked to enhance financial stability and prosperity for its members through the transition to green technology and into the green economy in what is termed as building ‘climate resilience’. SEWA and AIF help build the skills, capacity, and confidence of workers to have livelihood security and resources to withstand the changing physical landscape and the significant increase of climate and economic shocks.

In 2024, Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), an international NGO with experience in evaluating economic empowerment of women, assessed the impact of SEWA’s and AIF’S on-going initiatives designed to engender inclusive financial growth and development through climate resilience. The following report focuses specifically on SEWA’s and AIF’s efforts, and the economic and social impact of those efforts, while also articulating the investment framework and financial partners and model used within each case study. The purpose of the report is to present different case examples of climate-linked financial models and their scope, structure and impact.

Through primary and secondary data collection, GFI’s assessment found that small and marginal producers, mainly women, gain stability and security as a result of targeted financial solutions that address specific climate challenges. When initial investments are activated, women producers reported sustained increases in their income, and a reinvestment of their income into their businesses and to climate friendly solutions linked to livelihood security. Furthermore, opportunities for expanded investments by SEWA and AIF to sustain and scale up successful models can provide further wrap-around support to deepen resilience against climate shocks for workers and communities.