Financing the First Mile: Unlocking Rural Access Investment for Community-Led Development

​Rural access is the economic “first mile” underpinning health systems, education, markets, and climate resilience. Yet small-scale rural infrastructure remains fragmented, underfunded, and rarely structured for scale. Fika, Green Empowerment, and Musana will share concise evidence on returns and cost curves, then explore how to structure first-mile infrastructure using blended finance approaches, combining grants, public budgets, concessional capital, tariffs, and community contributions. 

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​Speakers include:

• ​Andrea Johnson, CEO - Green Empowerment (Moderator)

• ​Haril Kazindra, CEO - Musana Community Development Organization

• ​Nivi Sharma, CEO - Fika (formerly Bridges to Prosperity)

• ​Junia Anilik - Sabah Renewable Energy Rural Electrification Roadmap (Sabah RE2) Consortium

​Together, we’ll map a practical capital sequence: what to fund first, how to pool and match funding sources, when public finance and user revenues step in, and how NGOs and philanthropy can catalyse and responsibly exit.