7- 8 November 2016. Brussels. By focusing on the practicalities of blending finance for agriculture, this conference aimed to contribute to the knowledge base on how this can best be done, and to bring together key stakeholders who, working together, can catalyse the change towards more impactful public sector funding of agriculture.
Most discussion of blended finance has been on healthcare, financial services and infrastructure, in line with the major activities funded in this manner. In its 2015 survey, OECD/WEF found that among respondents, only 4.7% of blended finance had been for food and agriculture.
Given the role of public funding for smallholder finance (and also, the new interest of the European Union in blended finance for agriculture, through its AgriFI initiative), it made sense to engage in a specific debate on how blending tools can be used to leverage finance for agriculture.
This debate involved not just international public financiers, but also developing country governments as well as the entities that are able to cross the distance between international financiers on the one hand, and farmers on the other. Best placed are developing country commercial banks, value chain actors and NGOs active in agricultural value chain development.The organisers have have opened a LinkedIn Group and a Page which they encourage you to join for the purpose of continuity. Please click on the Blending4Ag LinkedIn Group and Blending4Ag Page in order to join the community of Blending4Ag experts.
They will continue to send you monthly newsletters. They encourage to share ideas and activities relating to ‘blended finance for agriculture’ to be published on the LinkedIn Group and on the Blending4Ag newsletter.
During the conference there were a number of social reporters sending tweets and writing blogs.
- You can find the blogs by clicking here.
- Also, you can view and download the PowerPoint presentations from the event on the Blending4Ag website under each programme session.
Extracts of the programme:
- Achieving leverage in Central Bank and other national agri-finance and guarantee schemes – what are the experiences in using public support to unlock private funding for smallholder agriculture?
- Venture capital and blending – how venture capital investors in developing countries can collaborate with foundations and other sources of blended finance for agri-investments
- Local currency issues. What is the scope for raising local currency financing from domestic sources for agriculture finance? What are the international facilities available for managing currency risk?
- Tackling the last mile challenge: how can actors in blended finance collaborate to viably finance farmers who sell only in local markets?
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