WEBINAR. How agricultural/forestry companies and landscapes operators in Africa are responding to COVID19

23 April 2020. WEBINAR. How agricultural/forestry companies and landscapes operators in Africa are responding to COVID19 Organised by IDH, FMO, Proparco and Mirova

Hear from companies and land-based operators in Africa about the measures they are taking on operational health and safety, business continuity planning and more, to support their workers, communities and business partners, and help halt the spread of COVID19. 

• Moderator: Nienke Stam, Head of Landscapes Finance, IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative
• Gautier Quéru, Director Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, Mirova
• Business Continuity Planning: Anish Jain, Chief Treasury Officer & Head of Corporate Communications and Marketing, Export Trading group (ETG) 
• Operational Health and Safety: Teddy Deroy, Director at IBIS ESG Consulting and Gretchen Blake, Chief People Officer at MTO Group
• Communication & Outreach to Smallholders and Communities: Gerome Topka, Regional Lead Africa, Earthworm Foundation and Barthélemy N’Guessan, Senior Sustainability Manager, Groupe SIFCA

Related:

23 April 2020. NASIRA financial program receives €25 million top-up from the European Fund for Sustainable Development

The European Commission together with FMO scaled up the NASIRA financial guarantee to support small COVID-19 affected entrepreneurs in Africa and EU Neighbourhood.

The measures are a joint response and include a top-up of €25 million from the European Fund for Sustainable Development and an expansion in scope to support COVID-19 affected entrepreneurs. Also, NASIRA receives €2.5 million from FMO’s Dutch Government Fund MASSIF. With these adjustments, the NASIRA guarantee will help small businesses in Africa and the EU Neighbourhood to stay afloat during and after this pandemic.

The NASIRA guarantee is part of the EU External Investment Plan, which, by investing €4.6 billion in EU funds, is set to leverage an additional €47 billion in total investment from the public and private sector. It will enable small business owners to access affordable loans through local banks, microfinance institutions and other non-banking financial institutions. 

Ghana produces the world’s highest-quality bulk cocoa beans and is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa, accounting for 20% of global production. But a great deal of the actual cocoa processing does not take place in Ghana. FMO's client Niche Cocoa was set up to fill the vacuum that existed in local cocoa processing, with the aim of producing high-quality, semi-finished cocoa products and confectionery. Niche aims to expand production to cover the entire value chain – from bean-to-bar – in Ghana.

Related

2 April 2020. COVID19: On-site measures for agricultural/forestry companies and sustainable landscapes operators -  recording of the first webinar of IDH and Mirova