Convergence's State of Blended Finance reports focus on mobilizing private investment in emerging markets. This April 2024 edition marks a new annual two-report cycle, with the first report providing an analysis of the entire blended finance market.
In our latest segment, Andrea Zinn, Director at Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) and Senior Manager at Aceli Americas, Aceli Africa, talks about ways to amplify donor funding for agricultural development and why donor coordination with the private sector is so important to reach the missing middle.
Key takeaways from the 28 March 2024 event “Donors as investment catalysts” on how major donors can best spend their limited aid funds for agricultural finance. Co-organized by the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN), the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD) and the Marketlinks initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
7-9 May 2024 | Nairobi, Kenya, Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) | In-person. The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health summit will be held to deliberate on Africa’s recent widespread decades-long decline in soil quality of farmland - a phenomenon that continues today and negatively impacts the agricultural production capacity and food security in the continent.
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the enquiry into sustainable finance in agrifood systems conducted in 2023 by the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate for Donor Platform members. The investigation included a series of interviews which explored how donors, philanthropic organizations, public funds and blended capital funds can make their funding effective and act as an incentive for achieving SDG 2.
Wondering what all those terms mean in sustainable finance in food systems and rural development? Here are some definitions of commonly used terminology and key concepts. You can find out more in the joint report by the Donor Platform and the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, which focuses on how to make donors and public funds more catalytic for food systems through sustainable and blended financing approaches.
28 March 2024 | 14:00 to 15:00 CET | Virtual. Declining rates of official development assistance (ODA) have propelled donor countries to employ innovative ways to attract more private sector investments to agriculture, notably through blended finance. Join the discussion on where donors think concessional capital is best utilized.
22 February 2024 | 14:00 to 15:00 CET | Virtual. Investors typically shy away from lending to smaller agricultural enterprises because the financial costs and risks often don’t match the financial returns of these investments. The first session of the SAFIN and USAID's ‘Backing the Middle’ webinar series explores this notion
Key messaging and speaker quotes are captured in this short report of the Annual General Assembly (AGA) convened on 26 and 27 October 2023. The AGA was a chance to celebrate the Platform’s 20th anniversary and reflect on how the donor landscape in agriculture, rural development and food systems has evolved.
Andrea Zinn is the Director of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) and the Senior Manager of Aceli Americas, providing advisory on adapting the Aceli Africa incentive model to mobilize private capital to agri-SMEs in Latin America. This interview is an opportunity for speakers from the 2023 Annual General Assembly to reflect on two decades of rural development and aid effectiveness.
The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development is a vibrant partnership, advocacy and knowledge network of key donors focusing on food security and rural development.
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