When the warning signs are clear, waiting for the shock is no longer an option.
Dr Chantal Naidoo, Founder and Executive Director, Rabia, joined banking and non-banking financial sector professionals at The Namibia Sustainable Finance Alliance (NSFA), together with Bank of Namibia and RMB - Rand Merchant Bank for Sustainable Finance Workshop in Windhoek, held under the theme “Sustainable Finance in Practice: Strategies, Risks and Opportunities.”
In her presentation, “On Our Watch: Super El Niño and Responses by Financial Institutions,” Dr Naidoo challenged financial actors to look beyond conventional risk management and consider how financing arrangements can support preparedness, protect productive assets and strengthen resilience.
Three priorities stood out:
Anticipate, do not just react: Use forward-looking indicators and early-warning triggers to identify exposed borrowers and act before financial distress escalates.
Rethink the terms of finance: Build climate-responsive provisions into term sheets, including pre-agreed payment deferrals, covenant relief and preparedness support.
Share risk more equitably: Allocate risks according to who is best able to control, absorb or diversify them, rather than shifting risks beyond borrowers’ control onto those least able to bear them.
The takeway is clear: sustainable finance must finance resilience, not simply price risk.
From layered resilience investments to anticipatory covenants and pre-agreed relief triggers, the terms of finance can be redesigned to account for climate shocks and share risk more equitably.
Putting dignity and resilience at the heart of finance. This is the thinking behind Rabia’s Dignity of Finance and Just Term Sheet.
We are grateful to the Namibia Sustainable Finance Alliance, Bank of Namibia and RMB for convening this important exchange.
