KUMPUL, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) organized the EmPower National Forum 2026: Scaling-Up Women’s Access to Finance for Climate Action. The national forum brought together more than 100 participants from government institutions, financial institutions, development organizations, the private sector, academia, civil society organizations, and women entrepreneurship communities to discuss climate finance for women-owned businesses while sharing implementation lessons from community-based climate action financing initiatives in Indonesia.

Women play a central role in food security, economic resilience, and climate solutions. However, women continue to face inequalities across many aspects of life. These inequalities become increasingly severe during climate crises. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women farmers produce 60 to 80 percent of food in developing countries, yet they own less than 20 percent of agricultural land. Equal access to productive resources could increase agricultural yields by 20 to 30 percent and help lift up to 150 million people out of hunger.

“Studies have shown that when women gain greater control over productive resources, the impact reaches far beyond individual households. This is evidence that empowering women is one of the most economically efficient resilience strategies,” said Dwi Yuliawati.

The forum is part of the EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies Programme (Phase II), an initiative by UN Women and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), supported by the Governments of New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. The program aims to strengthen gender-responsive climate action across the Asia-Pacific region. In Indonesia, EmPower focuses on strengthening gender-responsive climate action, increasing women’s participation in environmental decision-making, and developing climate-resilient livelihoods, including access to green financing.

The climate-resilient livelihood component of EmPower is implemented by KUMPUL together with UN Women. The program began with pilot initiatives in West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara in 2025 before expanding to West Java and East Java in early 2026. Through the program, ultra micro women entrepreneurs are introduced to climate-smart technologies and provided with more accessible financing to support the adoption of these technologies in their daily economic activities.

To date, more than 6,000 ultra micro women entrepreneurs have received capacity building support and financing access through collaboration with PNM’s Business Capacity Development Division (PKU). The program has introduced four climate-smart technologies while training and assigning 21 local trainers across implementation areas including Sulamu in East Nusa Tenggara, Suralaga in West Nusa Tenggara, Dampit in Malang, and Cibodas in Bandung.

“From our assistance to customers, we have seen how climate change increases business vulnerability for women entrepreneurs and creates income uncertainty. Through this initiative, PNM is encouraging financial services that are more responsive to climate risks while building partnerships that provide women entrepreneurs with access to adaptation knowledge and technology,” said Razaq Manan Ahmad.

During the forum, participants joined panel discussions, fireside chats, and a visual exhibition featuring the experiences of women entrepreneurs adopting climate-smart technologies to support their businesses. A key session titled Shaping the Future of Climate Finance: From Access to Scalable Impact featured speakers from the policy, finance, and development sectors discussing the development of a gender-responsive financing ecosystem in Indonesia.

“Women are not only beneficiaries of climate programs. They are leaders in climate adaptation. We continue to test and validate business models that work while identifying effective de-risking mechanisms that can help scale these solutions into broader systems,” said Faye Wongso.

Globally, women continue to face limited access to climate finance despite their significant role in strengthening community economies and climate adaptation efforts. Through EmPower National Forum 2026, stakeholders in Indonesia encouraged the development of a more inclusive and gender-responsive financing ecosystem amid growing climate challenges.

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