The International Centre for Environmental Health and Development (ICEHD) convened a high-level Climate Finance Workshop in Lagos to address the barriers rural women farmers in Nigeria face in accessing financial instruments and climate adaptation funding. The workshop, themed “Exploring Financial Resourcing for Women Farmers in Nigeria,” brought together 52 participants from civil society organizations, NGOs, government institutions, women farmers’ groups, financial institutions, and climate advocates. It was part of ICEHD’s flagship project, “Grassroots-Driven Climate Action by Rural Women Farmers in Nigeria,” aimed at evaluating financing challenges, identifying practical solutions, and promoting economic empowerment and climate resilience for women farmers.
The programme began with introductions and an overview of ICEHD’s work, followed by a keynote address from Michael Omoniyi Bankole, Head of the Climate Change and Environmental Planning Department at the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources. He emphasized the importance of integrating gender-responsive financing into climate adaptation planning. ICEHD’s Programme Officer, Oluwadara Victor Adewoye, presented findings from direct engagement with rural women farmers, highlighting challenges such as climate shocks, drought-induced herder conflicts, food insecurity, declining yields, limited market access, financial exclusion, lack of documentation, and the impact of gender-based violence on livelihoods.
Discussions focused on key thematic areas including gender and land ownership, domestic and global climate financing pathways, market integration strategies, insurance-backed financing, blended finance models, and concessional lending. The role of CSOs in proposal development, consortium building, policy advocacy, and transitioning from grassroots activism to strategic policy influence was also examined.
Participants engaged in plenary and group discussions to analyze existing climate finance mechanisms, documentation and land tenure challenges, and strategies to improve financial literacy and access to funding. Promising financing options identified included the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme, the Adaptation Fund, concessional lending from institutions like Access Bank, FCMB, and Bank of Industry (BoI), as well as insurance-backed risk pooling and blended finance models to de-risk agricultural investments.
The workshop underscored the need for multi-sector collaboration across agriculture, finance, civil society, government, and insurance sectors to scale climate finance and enhance resilience for women farmers. Key gaps highlighted included restrictions on land ownership, low literacy in documentation, limited fundraising capacity, and insufficient understanding of climate finance mechanisms. Participants recommended improving access to land documentation, strengthening business registration processes, enhancing collaborative proposal writing, and building robust CSO-led consortiums to unlock gender-responsive climate finance for rural women farmers in Nigeria.
