This season, your gift can help women entrepreneurs prepare for the climate challenges El Niño looks likely to bring to Southern Africa in the season ahead.
With access to finance and practical training, women can take steps to adapt to changing conditions, from diversifying their income to investing in resilient seeds and building savings for more difficult times.
Your support will help women protect their livelihoods and create more secure futures for their families.
Over the coming months, El Niño is forecast to bring hotter conditions and delayed or below-average rainfall to parts of Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa during important growing periods.
These are forecasts, not certainties, but in communities where farming supports local trade and employment, an unpredictable season can have far-reaching effects, affecting businesses even when their owners are not farmers themselves.
A business doesn’t operate in isolation. It relies on customers who can afford to buy, suppliers who can deliver and a local economy that keeps moving. And in many rural communities, all of these are closely connected to agriculture.
That means the impact of a difficult growing season can be felt across entire communities, affecting markets, work opportunities and household spending.
Learn more about El Niño and the forecasts hereFor women entrepreneurs, climate-related pressures could mean delayed planting, fewer opportunities for paid farm work, crop and livestock losses, water shortages and rising food prices.
When household income falls and everyday costs rise, a woman may face difficult choices: should she restock her business, buy food, pay school costs or protect the small savings that help her cope with an emergency?
These decisions can affect more than one person. When a woman’s business is under pressure, the effects can be felt by her family, her customers and the wider community.
But forecasts give us something precious: time to act.
When climate uncertainty rises, access to the right financial tools, knowledge, and support can be the difference between selling an asset to survive and keeping a livelihood alive.
In Ntchisi, Malawi, Alifosina Samson runs a butchery and a shop selling seeds and farming supplies. The two businesses might seem quite different, but as Alifosina explains:
“The butchery business and selling farm inputs work together. Sometimes it is hard to find meat for the butchery. When this happens, we look at the farm inputs business as a solution. Sometimes it is the seeds that are scarce. When this happens, we focus on the butchery. That is how those things work together.”
For women like Alifosina, growing a business is not simply about earning more. It’s about creating enough stability to educate their children, withstand setbacks, and build a different future for the next generation, regardless of market shocks or seasonal dry spells.
Alifosina joined MicroLoan Foundation in 2024, starting out with a MWK 30,000 (£13) loan. Since then, her business has grown sixfold, creating a source of income that helps support the education of four children.
And Alifosina isn’t an isolated case, the same pattern holds across MicroLoan’s client base. 94% of clients report improved farm production since joining, while those using climate-adaptive inputs report double the crop yields and up to seven times the income.
Click here for more impact dataWe can’t change the weather. But we can help women strengthen their businesses and livelihoods, so they have more choices when conditions become difficult.
For more than 20 years, MicroLoan Foundation has worked alongside women in underserved communities, providing access to finance, practical training and the support of a group of fellow entrepreneurs.
This combination can help women plan ahead, make informed decisions and build greater financial resilience.
Through our group lending model, women also save together and support one another. Alongside finance and training, this network can help women share knowledge, plan for challenges and make their businesses more adaptable.
We’re also developing new ways to help women manage seasonal risks, including exploring weather-linked savings, more flexible repayment options and agricultural insurance.
Climate adaptation takes more than knowledge. A woman may know that she needs to diversify her business, invest in different seeds or build up her savings, but she needs the resources to actually make those changes possible.
Your support can give women like Alifosina the finance and training she needs to put her plans into action for the season ahead.
£32 will help a woman take her step towards building or growing her livelihood by providing a start-up loan.
£58 will provide a woman with an agricultural loan, giving her access to finance, alongside practical training and peer support.
£133 will pay for loans and training for one woman for a whole year, supporting her as she works towards her business goals.
£665 will provide loans and training for five women, helping them access finance and develop the knowledge to plan for their businesses.
£4,500 will pay for a motorbike for a Loan Team Officer, helping them travel to rural communities to support 450 women.
Published on: 06/11/2026