Type of capital: Debt (CAPEX, working capital)
Ticket size: n.a.
Description
responsAbility and CGIAR have partnered to launch a science-based impact investing solution targeting food systems transformation. The Climate Smart Food Systems Fund aims to provide long-term expansion debt to innovative businesses operating in the food value chain in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa, with the goal of mitigating climate change, reducing food loss and promoting the climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The fund’s strategy is to finance agribusinesses that are experiencing growth opportunities to meet the increasing demand for healthier, more equitable and more sustainable food but which lack access to adequate long-term financing and strategic support to mainstream climate change in their growth plans.
To apply scientific rigour in the climate impact rationale, responsAbility collaborated with CGIAR experts from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in the concept design, which was commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The anchor investor is German development bank KfW, acting on behalf of BMZ. The fund estimates that the strategy could potentially transform 300,000 hectares to climate-smart practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 8 million tonnes.
