In Peshawar, the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) unveiled the Climate Adaptation and Risk Financing Fund with financial backing from the German Development Organization, GIZ, during a ceremony on Wednesday.
Helene Post, Deputy Head of Development Cooperation at the German Embassy in Pakistan, praised the fund’s launch, emphasizing its innovative approach to addressing the climate change challenges faced by grassroots communities.
She reaffirmed the German government’s commitment to supporting Pakistan in its efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
SRSP’s Chief Executive, Masoodul Mulk, expressed gratitude for the German government’s funding and longstanding collaboration, highlighting the fund’s integration into SRSP’s ‘village banking and community investment’ model.
Mulk explained that the village banking model, initiated in 2010 with Australian government support, aimed to overcome challenges faced by traditional microfinance models in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the region’s unique socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.
The initiative empowered women’s groups with financial literacy training and established a fund for lending within the community. This model, starting with Rs45.47 million, has since disbursed Rs526 million to 19,000 members.
Syed Mohsin Ahmad, Chief Executive of the Pakistan Micro-Finance Network, underscored the sector’s challenges and emphasized the importance of insurance in climate change risk mitigation.
Katharina Nett, a representative of GIZ, commended the project’s localized approach and expressed keen interest in its implementation.
