Blending Finance, Technology, and Training to Encourage Responsible Growth
This paper describes GreenMicrofinance's (GMf) work in Puerto Lempira, Honduras, where it is partnering with local players to introduce technology and foster entrepreneurship.
The partnership between GMf and MOPAWI, an NGO that represents the indigenous Mosquitia community, focuses on the processing of the American palm and seeks to leverage GMf's triple bottom line approach of financial, social, and environmental returns in order to:
- Increase local employment while decreasing out-migration;
- Lower cost of production and with lower agricultural labor;
- Reduce waste and increase product yield;
- Decrease emissions and deforestation.
Estée Lauder, one of the world's leading cosmetics companies, has played a key role in financing the initial assessment and launch of a commodity diversification plan for the Mosquitia community. This partnership has brought much-needed cash into the economy and demonstrated that local people are integral to the sustainable development of the area and should not be marginalized. Finally, the partnership has turned an economically downtrodden area with few resources into a productive community that can preserve its innate natural stewardship and traditional cultural heritage while climbing out of poverty.
