Microfinancing Partners in Africa’s Post

No. What kind of ‘washing’ should I call this? Free trade agreements such as the AfCFTA are what brought in big agribusinesses and their unsustainable practices (monocropping, usage of agrochemicals and synthetic fertilizers, etc.), not only in technical but also in economic and social terms. And now in articles like this it’s written as if African farmers just don’t know how to farm and need saving by new technologies. And they talk about the benefits of sustainable farming systems as if the current dominant farming systems - created by big agribusinesses backed up by so-called ‘developed’ countries’ governments - hadn’t killed the original, local and more sustainable practices, and were not the very causes of current environmental and social problems in the continent and elsewhere.

The Conflict Between the Sustainable Development Goals and Environmental Activists - https://lnkd.in/gi_yn43P Stuart Smyth At the end of the 20th century, the United Nations (UN) launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were a list of eight Goals with a 2015 achievement date. The first of these Goals was the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, an ambitious goal that was not achieved. While the goal was not reached, progress was made in reducing the number of individuals who were food insecure, so not a failure, but not a win for everyone as of yet. The figure below indicates that between 2005 and 2014, the global number of food insecure declined by nearly 200 million. However,

Some of the most pressing challenges of today are natural disasters and global supply shortages. In #TheBahamas, small-scale farmers, women and marginalized groups are being impacted by them. What can we do? IDB Lab and Bron Ltd. are working together in CultivateU, a new project that aims to offer #Educational programs to strengthen ecological sustainability, #Climate resilience and economic growth. Learn about the project's goals here: https://lnkd.in/gnCNQZJx WelAndra Francis-Rolle, William Ernest, César Buenadicha, Marcelo Cabrol, Daniela Carrera Marquis, Anton E. Edmunds, Inter-American Development Bank

It's a tale as old as time. Small-scale farmers, struggling with limited access to credit and investment, hampering their productivity. We need a better way of improving financial services for these farmers. It should be tailored to their specific situations, focusing on how the financing can help them adopt sustainable practices and boost their resilience to climate change. #SustainableAgriculture #AgriTech

What can help scale innovative finance mechanisms for sustainable land use in Latin America? IFACC Initiative’s recent event at London Climate Action Week highlighted the importance of collaboration as we heard the views of experts and key sector stakeholders on innovative finance solutions. I was honoured to open the event and highlight its aim to bring together banks, catalytic investors, government, corporates and civil society to build the conversation on financing the sustainable agricultural transition. Read the full roundup here: https://lnkd.in/eQ6digPb Launched at COP26, IFACC (Innovative Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado, and Chaco) aims to mobilize $10 billion by 2030, supporting deforestation-free soy, cattle, agroforestry, and non-timber products in South America. Its collaborative efforts have already resulted in 11 innovative financing products and $240 million has been disbursed since 2021. #LCAW #IFACC #Deforestation #LandUse #Agriculture #SustainableFinance #Amazon

📢 A new report by ActionAid EU & Counter Balance reveals that the European Investment Bank (EIB) supports climate harmful industrial agriculture projects in the Global South⚠️ The EU's external policies need a revamp to support sustainable agriculture! 1️⃣ EU's "Farm to Fork" failed to set a coherent & comprehensive framework for sustainable agriculture in external policies. EIB's €800m to agribusiness outside the EU, harm the climate & small farmers. It's time for the EU & EIB to support sustainable, agroecological practices.🌍 2️⃣ We call on the EIB and the EU to... 🔴 End support for export-oriented projects 🔴 Prioritize sustainable agri-food systems 🔴 Ensure respect of human rights & environmental protection We need to push for a sustainable future NOW! 🌱 https://lnkd.in/eJ2KK_NA

📢 New European Investment Bank (EIB) Report: Industrial #agriculture is the 2nd largest contributor to #climatechange. The EU's external policies need a revamp to support sustainable agriculture. 🧵🧵🧵    Read more in ActionAid EU & Counter Balance's latest report: https://lnkd.in/eJ2KK_NA   #EU's "Farm to Fork" failed to set a coherent & comprehensive framework for sustainable agriculture in external policies. EIB's €800m to #agribusiness outside the EU, harm the climate & small #farmers.     It's time for the EU & EIB to support #sustainable, agroecological practices. 🌍 We call on the EIB and the EU to...   🔴 End support for export-oriented projects   🔴 Prioritize sustainable agri-food systems  🔴 Ensure respect of #humanrights & #environmentalprotection    We need to push for a sustainable future NOW! 🌱 

Discover how IDB Invest is driving innovation in the agricultural sector through a combination of blended financing and tailored advisory services. By championing sustainable agricultural practices, we aim to generate significant economic, social, and environmental benefits while attracting new investments to the region. One example is our collaboration with Prolade. With our technical guidance, they developed an #Environmental and #Social Action Plan (PAAS) that addresses #biodiversity analysis, land acquisition processes, #community relations management, and pollution control measures. The project also features an innovative biochar program to enhance soil quality and a Corporate Governance Action Plan to strengthen decision-making, improve risk management, and boost transparency. We are proud to support a more #inclusive, #sustainable, and climate-smart agricultural sector, creating economic opportunities and improving lives across the Latin America and Caribbean region. #Socialinclusion #climatechange #sustainability

Here's a snapshot of our work in 2023 (below); As the Head of Sector Transformation in Aid Environment in East Africa, one of the things that stood out for me during the year was the emerging discussions around EUDR. At AidEnvironment, my sector provides advisory support services on various sustainability issues to commodity companies, especially those dealing in coffee and cocoa in East Africa. Our clients include Coffee/cocoa Exporters to the EU market, roasters, certification bodies, private sector financiers, etc. It was great to see how the EUDR deadlines have brought CSR issues in the sector to life. We are very interested in discussions around social issues such as land rights/tenure, gender, child Labor, youth employment, and living wage/income, as well as environmental issues such as land degradation, climate change, and regenerative agriculture.

In 2022, I embarked on one of the most exciting and impactful journeys of my life as founding chairman and seed funder of Biochar Life, P.B.C. Biochar Life is a public benefit corporation that trains smallholder farmers to make biochar from their crop wastes rather than burning it, sequestering the biochar in their soils for its agricultural benefits, and getting paid from the resulting carbon credits.  (Producing biochar from crop wastes is a carbon negative process removing 1-2.8 units of CO2 for every one unit of biochar.) So far we have:    -  Produced and sequestered ~6,100 tonnes of biochar fertilizer across ~2150 acres of degraded farmland  in Kenya, Malawi, and Thailand.  - Removed ~10,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.    - Disbursed $527,000 from the sale of these 10,000 tonnes to 740 farmers and local operations staff in Kenya and Malawi. - Established a 50 person operating staff in Kenya and Malawi.  - Prevented massive amounts of GHG emissions from open field burning of crop wastes.  - Collaborated with Penn State to add biochar production and verification to its suite of AI enhanced agricultural capabilities of Penn State University's PlantVillage which we now use for our verification/certification for purposes of carbon credits.   - Closed our first external financing from Corus International.    The juxtaposition of smallholder farmers, biochar, and carbon credits offers a huge opportunity to improve the lives of ~2.5 billion people while reducing the impacts of climate change.   As our next step, we are doing a fundraiser with Wefunder which will be a revenue share loan offering 2X returns for the 1st $100,000 and $1.5X thereafter with a goal of $350,000. Please consider joining us on this social and climate change journey and receive a 2X-1.5 X return. https://lnkd.in/eDrnui3K #sustainability #climatechange #agriculture