What is the name of your organization?
Sitawi
What is the name of your solution?
Amazon: Enabling Conditions
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Sitawi intends to implement an investment readiness program for impact organizations in the Amazon region.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Brazil
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
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What specific problem are you solving?
The UN estimates that developing countries will need up to US$300B to cover adaptation for claimte change costs by 2030. Between 2016-20, almost half of the investments were focused on activities in the energy and transport sectors, while agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors where most small businesses of local communities are concentrated, accounted for 9%. Projects in these sectors aren't usually prioritized because they're considered complex and high-risk, with uncertain or long-term returns. Therefore, strengthening socio-bioeconomy businesses, which includes community-led organizations as well as social-bioeconomy organizations which impact communities, and creating enabling conditions for expanding the flow of financing in this sector is essential to promote the transition to a low-carbon economy, reduce rural poverty, increase food security, and help protect ecosystems, natural resources and biodiversity. Currently, the impact-community can fund only a small part of the socio-bioeconomy businesses available. Some of these require traditional philanthropy, another can be addressed through impact investment (returnable capital) - which is more abundant. However, impact investors make decisions based on a risk-return analysis. The implication is that organizations in remote regions, less polished under investors' lenses, have unfavorable odds of accessing capital.
What is your solution?
Sitawi's proposal is to solve this challenge of a financing gap for the Brazilian Amazon small organizations through a training program, an investment readiness program, which will promote enabling conditions for these organizations to access different capital and well-manage the financial, administrative and management pillars.
Sitawi’s initiative main goal is to promote the preservation of the standing forest by strengthening socio-bioeconomy small organizations (including businesses, cooperatives, associations) providing access to technical and managerial capability building, and adequate investments opportunities. The objectives are: 1) Identify socio-bioeconomy organizations that acts in value chains such as rubber, acai, nuts and cocoa, with high additionality and receptiveness for being part of a technical and managerial capability building and investment readiness program; 2) Increase organizations' autonomy in terms of access to adequate financing, strategy and financial literacy, Internalizing managerial tools in each of the organizations; 3) Increase financial flow to Amazon community led socio-bioeconomy organizations and promote systematic change to the local ecosystem by creating inter-cycle community engagement.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
An important part of the project is to identify challenges faced by small organizations in the Brazilian Amazon through partners in the region, such as local institutes, research centers, universities, government departments, among others. This “Map and interview key/potential partners on each value chain” phase is essential so that the initiative contemplates the community approach to the project. These partners support the identification of gaps and diagnosis of impact organizations in the region, in addition to validating the content of the training course implemented by Sitawi that will be carried out with small businesses in sociobioeconomy chains.
Also, another phase of the project is to validate the program design with community led socio-bioeconomy organizations, especially the methodology. Since many organizations are in remote zones, the capacitation program must consider all the possible challenges in order to execute it properly, including allocate a part of the budget to the organizations selected to assist with the costs of participating in the program, such as transportation, accommodation, and food, enabling in-person meetings.
