Investing in Women Smallholder Farmers: Building Climate Resilience Through Women’s Groups
Webinar
CGAP co-hosted this webinar with IFAD to help the agricultural and financial services community understand the pivotal role women play in climate-exposed agrifood systems, explore how women-led groups strengthen livelihoods and rural enterprises, and highlight strategies to unlock women’s potential as agents of climate adaptation and mitigation.
It showcases successful models from India where women-led grassroots institutions provide collective access to resources and markets, enhance skills and training, and improve social and economic empowerment. Watch to learn how tailored financial products, training, and leadership initiatives can strengthen climate resilience for women SHFs.
This event was convened by the CGAP-IDH Accelerating Business to Empower Rural Women in Agriculture (ABERA) initiative and IFAD’s Gender Transformative Mechanism in Climate Adaptation.
Presenter
Leena Datwani’s current work with CGAP focuses on (1) the role of financial services in building resilience of rural women in light of climate change, and (2) a country-level approach to impact women’s financial inclusion in India. Previous work at CGAP includes work on financial services for gig workers, and development of an enabling digital finance ecosystem to better serve the poor. She has also lead strategic engagements with key public sector, private sector, and civil society stakeholders.
With over 20 years of experience in inclusive development, inclusive finance, and women’s economic empowerment, her work includes leading, designing and executing research and projects for impact. She has worked on digital finance, digital public infrastructure, inclusive fintechs, rural livelihoods and women’s financial inclusion.
Leena holds a Master’s in International Economics and International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. She is based in New Delhi, India.
Moderator
As the Country Programme Co-ordinator for India, Meera Mishra supports the management of the country portfolio and leads the work on partnership building with government and private sector. She is also the Gender Focal point for the South Asia Hub.
She has over 33 years’ experience of working with national and international organizations. Among others she has worked as a Senior Policy Specialist with the UNDP Regional Office for Asia Pacific from 2001-2006.
Mishra holds a Master’s degree in International Development Studies from University of Guelph, Canada.
Panelists
Piyush is an entrepreneur by heart and passionate about sustainable technologies and social development. He is the Chief Growth Offi cer & India Managing Director of Sistema.bio, an Ashden Award winning social enterprise working in clean energy with innovative biogas technology, wherein he heads the operations in India. Based at the headquarters in Pune, Piyush started Sistema.bio India with a humble team of 22 people in the area of sales and technical operations with a pilot project in Gujarat.
Within a span of 5 years, the company has over 700 people and is delivering thousands of digesters every month across 21 states in India.
Prior to leading Sistema.bio India, Piyush had worked with a number of credible organizations including TERI, Tata Consultancy Services and Indian Oil. He has a vision to create a world where waste is a resource, and farmers are empowered and productive. Piyush has a Masters degree from TERI University in renewable energy engineering and management.
Ms. Rajlaxmi Shah, IAS, is the Managing Director of Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), the Government of Maharashtra’s women’s development corporation. She leads programmes that mobilise over 1.8 million rural women into self-help groups, enterprises, and community-managed institutions across the state. Began career as a civil servant since 1999, she has held key responsibilities in land administration, rehabilitation, election management, and urban infrastructure. She has represented MAVIM internationally in Rome and Berlin, sharing Maharashtra’s experience in women-led development and community-driven institutions. She attended the 128th IAS Induction Programme in 2026 at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, where she received the rare distinction of presenting the batch overview before the Hon’ble President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan
Vilas Dhurandhar, a veteran banker with 25 years of experience, is part of ICICI Bank’s Leadership Team overseeing retail rural assets for Maharashtra as Zonal Head. Previous roles include retail banking and product head in the rural and inclusive banking department. He has designed and executed special projects such as Digital Village, Micro Entrepreneur Loans, and Privilege Banking. He was also a core committee member for Sangli Bank Merger.
His association with MAVIM goes back to 2014. As part of the ICICI-MAVIM partnership, they offer financing to SHG members and women micro entrepreneurs.
He holds a PG MBA in Finance from the Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management.