UNEP lab session at EDD: Financing the SWITCH to Green SMEs across Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean

Paris, 29^th May

As a flag event of the European Year for Development (EYD2015), European Development Days (EDD15) will open its doors on 3-4 June 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. The Forum will bring together leaders, visionaries, experts and other professionals working in development cooperation to discuss and share ideas on pressing global challenges. Over 400 organizations and more than 5,000 development practitioners and policy-makers from around the world are planned to attend EDD15 to contribute their experiences to our shared aim of poverty-free, sustainable and fair world where everyone has a chance to a decent life.

In the context of sustainable development, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the engines of growth for rural and urban areas that generate income and economic empowerment for producers and consumers everywhere. If a special focused is placed on the shift of SMEs to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns, significant increases in productivity and resource efficiency can be gained.

Under the umbrella of the EU-funded SWITCH Regional Programmes, UNEP, the Rio+20 10YFP and other actors have been essential partners in driving the policy changes needed to advance SCP in the SME sector through regional programmes such as SWITCH-Asia, SWITCH-Med and the most recent one, SWITCH Africa Green.

The three programmes will join forces during the European Development Days to address a crucial topic of SWITCHing to SCP by enabling access to finance for Green SMEs which still remains a major challenge. Speakers will seek to address the following questions:

·What proven policies and financial instruments can drive Green business models in SMEs across developing countries (Africa and Asia)?

·What are some of the star examples of SMEs and financial instruments that are being scaled in these regions?

·Why is green finance not being massively scaled for SMEs in developing countries? What is holding us back?

The session entitled “Financing the SWITCH to Green SMEs across Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean” will take place on the 4^th of June (09:00 – 10:15 am) and will take the form of interactive discussion with an emphasis on debate, exchange and recommendations to scale up finance for Green SMEs. More information on the session can be found here

To find out more about SWITCH Programmes and their activities the forum participants are invited to visit the SWITCH stand at the Practice Village on the 3^rd and 4^th of June. The stand is open all day with the aim to envisage projects under the umbrella of SWITCH Programmes giving special attention to the topic of finance for Green SMEs.

Special address from Ms Yuki Yasui, Deputy Director, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative:

“A lot of progress has already been made on Sustainable Finance which is about mobilizing private finance for sustainable development. For example, UNEP Finance Initiative has been working with banks, investors and insurers globally since 1992 to mainstream environmental and social issues in their business decision making processes. Green SME Financing however is a new frontier in Sustainable Finance that straddles between the branches of Inclusive Finance, which tackles access to finance for SMEs and individuals, and Green Financing, which specializes in specific thematic financing such as energy efficiency and green technology transfer. To make scalable impact on Green SME financing in Asia, national partnerships between policy makers, financial regulators, SMEs and financial institutions needs to be formed to work on developing financing strategies for each specific thematic issue such as financing Green SME”.