More Funding for Climate Action with DFC

More funding is coming soon to support climate resilience in Belize. Today, the Development Finance Corporation signed a new agreement with the Belize Fund to unlock more funding for climate resilience and blue economy projects. It’s a five-year partnership aimed at making environmental financing easier to access, and it’s all part of a bigger push to protect our natural resources and support sustainable development. News Five’s Britney Gordon has the details.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Two of Belize’s top financial institutions are teaming up to take on climate change head-on. The Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future and the Development Finance Corporation are joining forces to boost climate resilience through co-financing, knowledge sharing, and community outreach. Henry Anderson, CEO of DFC, says the partnership fits perfectly with their mission to grow Belize’s blue economy and support sustainable development across the country.

 

Henry Anderson, CEO, Development Finance Corporation

“Belize is the second most vulnerable country as it relates to climate change. It’s existential. So when we adopted our environmental and social safeguard policy, essentially what we’re seeing is when we make decisions and we make investments, we have to work with our clients to ensure that those investments as best as possible is forward looking. It takes into consideration the challenges we face with climate change. When you look at the natural capital that Belize has in terms of the atolls, the marine area the Barrier Reef. And the livelihoods that depend on it. Right now, we could do everything perfect in Belize and climate change will still come because we’re not the problem right here. We’re the victims. But we can’t just sit back and cry on that. So we have to find ways to help the fishers exist.”

 

Since 2022, the Belize Fund has been working to create transparent and inclusive financing for the conservation and development of Belize’s marine and coastal resources. According to Executive Director, Doctor Leandra Cho-Ricketts, this memorandum will strengthen the organization’s ability to support crucial climate change solution projects.

 

Dr. Leandra Cho-Ricketts, Executive Director, B.F.S.F.

“At the Belize Fund, we’re excited for this partnership because it’s an opportunity for us to be able to scale up and leverage the moneys we have, which, as you all are aware, is a sustained source of income coming from truly proceeds at the blue bond, right? So that’s where for the next twenty years and even beyond, and. It is certainly not enough to provide all the impacts we would want, positive impacts we would want. So this opportunity allows us to take that, leverage it with the resources from DFC to be able to also create new and innovative ways of supporting, especially the blue economy and helping those stakeholders to be more resilient, particularly to climate.”

 

Through this partnership, the DFC will focus on financing communities that depend on the blue economy to survive. The aim is to support the long-term development of Belize’s economy and people.

 

Henry Anderson

“Let’s take the artisanal fishing product that DFC rolled out last year. We did over three hundred  loans. Over three million dollars. That might sound like small numbers, but that’s big. It’s about thirteen percent of our productive portfolio. You had the fisher folk who were going to money lenders being forty percent interest rates, and know they’re in single digit. Now when we partner with the fund, let’s say for example, if you fish lobster, there’s a certain type of traps you need to have. The fund can come in and say, okay, if you use that technology, we will pay X percent towards your loan. And what that does, that provides help to the fisher, it de-risks DFC, and you get the impact of ensuring that in  terms of protecting the natural capital, you know it’s there and it’s reusable.”

 

It is the Belize Fund’s hope, that by collaborating with the DFC, more opportunities will arise for small organizations to access funding for conservation initiatives.

 

Dr. Leandra Cho-Ricketts

“The money we give,  we have to ensure that who receives it can manage it, can report on it. Because essentially this is a public’s money, right? It’s not private money. It’s Belize’s money. And so we, we have to ensure true accountability for it. So we take the job seriously and as a result, it means it unintentionally excludes certain, like individuals can’t apply. And communities or community groups, like certain fisher associations that don’t have the capacity can’t apply. But in looking for blended finance opportunities with the DFC, this is where it could help unlock where individuals, if there’s certain loan programs that are developed or finance programs developed, it could then apply through that means.”

 

The collaboration will kick off with a pilot project, dispersing about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars throughout the year. Britney Gordon for News Five.