SAVE THE DATE I June 30 I Online event: Incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems
Date: 30 June 2021, 15:00 – 16:30 (Rome) / 9:00-10:30 (New York)
Venue: Zoom. Registration at: https://buff.ly/3g1ApUg
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish.
CONTEXT
Increased investment in agriculture and food systems – from both the private and public sectors – is critical to enhance food security and nutrition, reduce poverty, and adapt to climate change. To generate sustainable benefits, this investment must be responsible.
Responsible investment in agriculture and food systems is primarily determined by the enabling environment. Hence, beyond the essential public investment that governments make in the agricultural sector, governments also play an important role in facilitating and supporting responsible investment by small-scale producers and other private sector investors in agriculture and food systems.
Strategic policy interventions, such as targeted investment incentives, can help to steer investors to invest more and in a responsible manner, with a view to promoting sustainable development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In fact, in some circumstances, investment incentives may be appropriate, and may be the most effective mechanism for overcoming a particular barrier to investment that supports the government’s national development priorities. In such cases, incentives can be used as a targeted policy instrument to address specific needs, but should be effective, worth their cost, and ideally not offered to investors who would have undertaken the investment even without the incentive.
However, incentives may be ineffective, and even detrimental, if certain fundamentals are not in place. These fundamentals include factors such as strong institutions, reliable infrastructure, and laws that protect human rights and the environment.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Columbia Center for Sustainable Development (CCSI) have jointly developed a Guide on incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems. The Guide provides policymakers and technical government staff with guidance on how investment incentives can be used to enhance responsible investment in agriculture and food systems. It contains useful and practical recommendations which help governments to design, implement and evaluate incentive schemes that will stimulate responsible private-sector investments for sustainable development.
FAO and CCSI organize the event Incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems to:
- Familiarize participants with the potential of incentives to enhance responsible investment in agriculture and food systems, as well as risks of using investment incentives when they are not appropriate;
- Share good practices of incentives that enhance responsible investment in agriculture and food systems; and
- Launch the FAO-CCSI Guide on incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.
AGENDA
Moderator: Pedro Arias, Economist, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia – 5 minutes
Special guest remarks
Thanawat Tiensin, Chairperson of the UN Committee on World Food Security and Permanent Representative of Thailand to the UN Agencies in Rome
High-level thematic introduction
Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General, FAO – 5 minutes
Lisa Sachs, Director, CCSI – 5 minutes
Incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems – presentation of the FAO-CCSI Guide
Anna Bulman, Fellow, CCSI – 5 minutes
Ladan Mehranvar, Legal Researcher, CCSI – 5 minutes
Yannick Fiedler, Programme Officer, FAO – 5 minutes
Question & Answer session – 10 minutes
Good practices of incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems
Inji Dougui, Director General, Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency Tunisia: “Programmes supporting initiatives from young agri-entrepreneurs” – 7 minutes
Bostjan Skalar, CEO, World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies – 7 minutes
Question & Answer session – 10 minutes
Concluding remarks
Lorenzo Cotula, Principal researcher (law and sustainable development), Natural Resources / Team Leader, legal tools, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) – 5 minutes
Pedro Arias, Economist, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia – 5 minutes
USEFUL LINKS
Access the different language versions of the Guide on incentives for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems at: