Growth & Jobs | MFIs urged to develop crisis toolkits

Gillian Hyde, general manager, JN Small Business Loans, has urged microfinance institutions (MFIs) to develop crisis toolkits, which will ensure greater support for clients in future crises. Hyde said that previous crises, such as hurricanes, gave the company the experience it needed to assist clients during the pandemic and advised MFIs to do likewise.

The JNSBL general manager explained that the knowledge gained from past experiences, such as hurricanes Ivan in 2004 and Dean in 2007, prepared the 21-year-old company to provide better support to clients. She stated that this prepared JNSBL well to quickly respond to customer needs throughout the pandemic.

“One of the things that we leveraged during the pandemic is that we experienced multiple hurricanes and storms in prior years, which allowed us to build a response programme to provide support for our clients during a crisis,” Hyde noted.

NECESSARY TO DEAL WITH CRISIS

“We were able to leverage that knowledge set and that toolkit, which we built over the years. I believe it is important that we consciously try to develop that toolkit, which is necessary for us to deal with a crisis. We may not get it all right because there is no one who would have predicted all the challenges associated with COVID-19, but certainly, it will put us in better stead.”

Hyde was a panellist during a break-out session at the Caribbean Regional Climate Conference 2021 by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently. The plenary session was titled Private Sector In Climate Change: What’s The End Goal?”

Hyde added that as a region, the Caribbean was vulnerable to climate-change issues, and as such, many businesses needed assistance to mitigate the effects of climate change and natural disasters.

“Inaction has cost us and will continue to cost us,” she stated. “It is estimated that climate change will cost the region five per cent of its GDP by 2021 and 21.7 per cent by the end of the 21st century. Therefore, it is clear that we need to focus and drive climate-change mitigation and preparation efforts to ensure that our businesses become more sustainable and resilient.”

The JNSBL general manager added that greater analysis and methodologies are needed to ensure that the region’s businesses cope. “There needs to be greater analysis and knowledge sharing among our business partners to ensure we are clear about how disasters and crises such as COVID-19 and climate change affect us. This is needed for us to determine what must be done to implement our toolkits in the short and medium term,” she said while adding that greater collaboration was needed.

She also called for more funding for microfinance institutions to be able withstand crises and also serve their customers effectively.