Innovative Finance
The annual unmet financing needs across agrifood systems are enormous, particularly for small-scale farmers, small and medium enterprises and farmer organizations in developing countries. These amounts do not even include the additional funding needed each year to sustainably transform the world’s agrifood systems.
Innovative financing solutions – such as impact investing, fintechs, blended finance, other de-risking instruments and carbon finance – can help bridge that gap.
The FAO Investment Centre’s advisory team supports partners like the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank to do more and better in the agrifood lending sphere.
FAO’s portfolio of climate-related financing projects is also growing, as are efforts to align investments and planning with the Paris Agenda, helping countries and financiers meet their climate commitments.
The Centre is working with countries and partners to close the digital divide and introduce more digital solutions – like fintechs, mobile payments, weather-based insurance – that can make a difference in the agrifood sector, especially for small-scale producers.
Initiatives
Latest stories
Climate Finance: an instrument for sustainable agrifood system transformation in Sierra Leone
05/08/2024
Agrifood systems are highly vulnerable to climate change. Accessing climate finance can help transition to more climate-resilient agricultural practices...
Investment Briefs
Irrigating from space: how FAO-developed remote sensing technology can make a difference
01/08/2024
There is no food without water. Yet, population growth, rising temperatures, and unpredictable weather—such as increased drought and floods—are threatening...
Investment Toolkits
New toolkit shows how to empower smallholders through transparent microfinance practices
16/07/2024
Interest rates have been a contentious issue in microfinance for many years. While higher interest rates for microloans are often justified by the underlying...
Investment Centre welcomes new head of West and Central Africa Service
08/02/2024
The Investment Centre is strengthening its ability to respond to the growing and evolving needs of countries and investors. Alessandro Marini, who recently...
Latest publications
FAO Investment Centre - 2017 at a glance
09/2018
This brochure is a summary of the FAO Investment Centre activities during 2017.
1964-2014 FAO Investment Centre: 50 years of development support
01/2015
To celebrate the Investment Centre’s 50th anniversary, we at FAO reflected on half a century’s worth of experiences in facilitating...