Progression on the waterfront at Istanbul's World Water Forum
6-4-2009 | CSR news
Every three years, the world’s decision-makers and the water community around the world come together for the World Water Forum. In March, 25,000 international attendees floated into Istanbul, Turkey to ‘bridge the divides for water’ and discuss global collaboration on water problems. Rabobank was one of two banks at the forum offering advice on financing and answering questions about water and agriculture.
“Bridging divides is a core problem. A lot of people work with water and on water problems, but there has been little progression on the waterfront. The sector itself does not have to be convinced about the problems. If we can cross over and combine knowledge from sectors like finance, politics and new media uses, then we can gain new insights and new approaches and even solutions to water problems,” said Rabobank’s Water Manager Peter Vos.
Investing in sanitation
“It is hard, for instance, to reach the Millennium Development Goals for sanitation because people are having difficulty financing sanitation. If we could approach sanitation, not as a stand alone activity and cost factor in which people have to invest, but as a resource for agriculture where people are even paid,” said Vos, “Then, this would give a huge boost to the sanitation investments.”
Questions about finance
Many countries, government officials and aid agencies came to the World Water Forum with questions about finance. How can the world’s poor finance changes in water technology and infrastructure? Since the bank is involved in agriculture and this sector uses more than 70 percent of the world’s water, it is necessary for Rabobank to be involved in water issues and water financing.
Vos shared the importance of focusing on small farmers. “Rabobank’s development model where we help clients and micro finance institutes to mature over time is a very convincing story. We start with small holders and micro credits. When production increases, clients might eventually end up with bigger loans from a formal bank. This model was well understood, even for the critical audience at the WWF.”
Creating access to markets
It is in Rabobank’s genes to develop a sustainable way of doing business and create models to help maintain an agricultural chain from small holder to distributor to supermarket to the dinner table. Access to markets is essential for farmers to survive.
“If we make it possible to sustain agricultural business in the long term, then these farmers become less of a credit risk,” said Vos, “If you finance water, you will be financing farmers,” said Vos, “Financing farmers is our business.”
