Money where it matters: Jane Weru interview
Channel: IIED
Date: 2016-12-14

Jane Weru, of Kenya's Akiba Mashinani Trust, talks about local level finance.

Weru was speaking at  a ‘Money where it matters’ event, organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), held  in London in December 2016.  

The conference brought together financiers, decision makers, practitioners and researchers from around the world to look at channelling development and climate finance to the local level.

Participants were asked to three questions:
What are the benefits of local level finance?
How does local level finance work best in your experience?
What should happen next?

Weru said the advantage of local level finance was that people were able to mobilise their own resources and make decisions on how to use that money.

She said local level finance worked best when communities of the urban poor come together and create their own organisations, raise their own money and then come together to ensure the money was used for the purpose for which it is intended.

Weru said that what was needed in the future was to continuously support these grassroots organisations so that they become stronger, and were able to handle more money and more resources, until they reached a point where they could fully represent the aspirations of their communities and push for the communities to get the things they required. 

More details: www.iied.org/money-matters