Region: Asia

MSC collaborated with NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) to publish this report, which maps 70 central schemes and 433 state schemes across 28 states in India. The report identifies scheme-based support available across six essential needs of entrepreneurs and shares some best practices implemented by state governments to improve access and uptake of schemes. Read the report for key recommendations on the design and delivery of schemes to make them more accessible and effective for women entrepreneurs.

River erosion has affected Bangladesh’s low-lying lands for millennia. The rivers change course over the years and cause loss of land and assets for people who live near the riverbanks. Climate change has added additional complexities to these natural processes and made poor and vulnerable people much worse off. Together, these processes continue to widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

Bangladesh remains highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with flooding affecting 20-70% of the country annually. Women and poor farmers are often the worst hit, despite having a minor role in causing climate change. Even though farmers and local communities know of changing weather patterns and take steps to mitigate the effects, they lack adequate financial resources, which limits how well they can adapt to these changes.

MSC dispels some myths on the issue of high account dormancy in India compared to other countries.

In Bihar’s Buxar district, farmers struggle to cope with the changing climatic conditions and adapt to them. Significant annual variation in rainfall and temperature erodes farmers’ adaptive capacities. Farmer producers organizations (FPOs) could play a central role to promote and facilitate farmers’ adaptation to climate change—but they need improved incentives and support.

Smallholder farmers in the flood-prone state of Bihar need capital and support from system-level actors to increase their climate resilience. This blog identifies seven critical factors that can enable the building of climate resilience and adaptive strategies of smallholder farmers.