IFC and agribusiness in a changing environment
RVO and IUCN NL organized together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on 28 October a one-day event in The Hague in the framework of the World Bank Group-Netherlands strategic partnership ‘Food for All’. The event convened more than 80 professionals in the private sector, knowledge institutions, NGOs and policy makers engaged in agribusiness in developing countries. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, invests heavily in agribusiness in developing countries and emerging markets, and therefore has a great interest in exchanging experiences on investment opportunities, climate smart technologies and challenges in value chain operations. The main objective of the event was that both private sector and IFC bring current and upcoming activities and challenges in relevant countries to the table and explore opportunities for cooperation. This event was well received by the participants and some promising leads were established between IFC and several companies. One of the conclusions was that in order to achieve impact in climate smart agriculture and reducing deforestation, private sector green value chain initiatives and private sector finance must be aligned with public finance and government programs that ensure the necessary land-use planning, enabling environments, legislation and landscape wide monitoring and verification of impact. The complete meeting report can be found here.