Investing in Inclusive Agribusiness – Trends, Opportunities and Challenges

19 January 2016. Geneva. This half day event - prior to the Annual General Assembly of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development provided an opportunity for donors, NGOs and the private sector to share experiences in supporting inclusive agribusiness initiatives.

The session mapped out major streams of work including value chain development, support for the World Economic Forum’s New Vision for Agriculture and Grow Asia and Grow Africa initiatives, and market systems approaches (M4P). The discussion focused on how to better align public and private investments to achieve impact at scale.

1. Lisa Dreier (World Economic Forum): Developments with NVA and Grow Africa/Grow Asia and implications for aligning public and private investments for achieving impact at scale (private sector perspective); 
2. Mike Albu (BEAM Exchange): Market systems approaches and the BEAM exchange: latest trends in donor investment strategies to leverage private sector engagement (donor/public sector perspective);
3. David Bright (Oxfam) : Risks and rewards: what lessons are we learning about how align public and private interests to scale inclusive agribusiness? (NGO perspective); 
4. Joost Guijt (Seas of Change Initiative) : Opportunities for building a stronger inclusive agribusiness learning network  

Building up on the success of the Roundtable on Inclusive Agribusiness in South East Asia (23-24/09/2015, Vietnam) the Global Donor Platform organised this pre-event, the day before the official opening of the Annual General Assembly to further discuss the alignment of public and private investments to achieve impact at scale.

The GDPRD work stream could: 

1. Help to strengthen donor linkages across thematic areas of agriculture, trade, market development, financial inclusion and private sector engagement as they relate to inclusive agribusiness. 
2. Explore the potential for greater donor collaboration on inclusive agribusiness research and impact assessment. 
3. Deepen understanding of effective policy and program strategy for optimising public private partnerships in the agri-food sector. 
4. Strengthen learning networks between donors, private sector initiatives, NGOs and research.