Leora Klapper, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank and Natascha Beinker, Co-Chair G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and Co-Chair GPFI SME Finance Subgroup, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) co-author an article on how SMEs need financial help to meet sustainability standards and join global value chains.
They write, SMEs rarely get help from the corporations to which they sell – or other supply chain partners – to invest in better social and environmental standards. The International Trade Centre studied the costs of achieving sustainability certification and found that producers alone shoulder the vast majority of these expenses.
The policy considerations Klapper and Beinker offer to help SMEs access financing and join global value chains are in these categories:
- Large businesses and buyers
- Lenders and investors
- Governments
- International development finance institutions
