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No single financial product can build climate resilience. That was a key idea explored at Women’s World Banking’s UNGA Roundtable: women entrepreneurs need connected financial and non-financial solutions that respond to different stages of climate risk. Women’s World Banking’s 5R (Risk Awareness, Retention, Transfer, Reduction, and Taking) Climate Resilience Stack help move the conversation from reacting to climate shocks toward preparing for risk, building financial buffers, protecting against severe losses, reducing future disruption, and investing in resilient businesses.

For women entrepreneurs facing climate shocks, access to finance is only part of the answer. At Women’s World Banking’s UNGA Climate Week roundtable in New York, the conversation focused on what it takes to build resilience before, during, and after a climate shock. The discussion explored how savings, emergency liquidity, insurance, credit, and non-financial support can work together, rather than relying on a single financial product.

The question at our UNGA Climate Week roundtable was not simply, “What do women need to withstand climate shocks?” It was: What will it take to deliver those solutions at scale? The roundtable brought together funders and partners to discuss where investment and collaboration can make a difference, from preparedness and savings to protection, adaptation, and growth finance. The opportunity is to connect those pieces. Evidence can reveal where women are most exposed. Financial institutions can turn those insights into relevant products. And catalytic partners can help move promising approaches toward scale.

For Lakshmi, climate risk is business risk. Lakshmi, a 35-year-old coastal fisheries entrepreneur in Odisha, India, runs a business where income is seasonal and climate exposure is part of everyday reality. When a cyclone destroys her nets and equipment, a single shock can wipe out months of hard-earned savings. At Women’s World Banking’s UNGA Roundtable, we discussed what climate resilience looks like in practice for women entrepreneurs. WWB’s research in climate-vulnerable areas of India shows that women entrepreneurs facing repeated disruptions still rely heavily on savings and informal coping mechanisms.

At Women’s World Banking’s UNGA Roundtable, the discussion put the scale of the challenge into focus: financial resilience is critical to helping women prepare for, withstand, and recover from climate shocks. 1.05 billion women in climate-vulnerable countries do not have formal savings. And 901 million women lack a way to receive relief payments after a climate emergency. Financial systems need to help women prepare before a shock happens, not simply respond afterward. WWB’s research in climate-vulnerable areas of India similarly found women entrepreneurs primarily relying on savings and informal coping mechanisms when their businesses are disrupted.

Women entrepreneurs are developing solutions that improve access to health information, trusted products, quality medicines, and care. We speak with Abimbola Adebakin, Founder of Advantage Health Africa, and Cristiane Lourenço of Bayer Foundation about the financing and support needed to help these solutions reach more women. Listen wherever you get your podcasts!