FAO Investment Centre Annual Review: Showcasing the latest achievements while marking 60 years of support to the agrifood sector

Rome – Last year the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Investment Centre provided investment and finance solutions in around 110 countries according to the Centre’s 2023 Annual Review published today. As the FAO Investment Centre continues to assist countries realize the promise of the Four Betters, its support included the design of 38 public investment projects – more than half involving climate and environment-related goals – approved by financing partners in 26 countries worth around $6.6 billion in new investment.

The Centre, which this year marks the 60th anniversary of its establishment, also contributed to dozens of agricultural strategies, sector and policy studies and policy dialogues in 64 countries. Implementation support to ongoing projects continued apace, representing support to a total investment portfolio of $46.7 billion in 92 countries.

“Transforming global agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable is a huge and urgent task,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, wrote in the Review’s foreword. “Investment is critical to that transformation – and to realizing the Four Betters at national and local levels. Through our Investment Centre, we work with partners to provide tailored technical support on investment and finance solutions – the 4+2 – to help countries ensure food availability, accessibility and affordability,” he added.

Generating win-win solutions 

Partnerships, collaboration and collective action have been at the heart of the Centre’s 60-year history.

Since signing its first cooperative agreement with the World Bank in 1964, the Centre has worked with an ever-expanding network of financing and knowledge partners to provide countries with tailored, scalable investment and finance solutions for healthier, more sustainable outcomes. The Centre now counts over 20 financing partners, including the African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Caribbean Development Bank. In 2023, new partnership agreements were welcomed with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the European Investment Bank and further partnership discussions have been ongoing throughout 2024.

Financing the sustainable transformation of agrifood systems will require $4 trillion in investment – or more – in low- and middle-income countries from now through 2030. Given that public funding alone is not enough and private investment the Centre is exploring new finance frontiers for private investment and blended finance with longstanding partners as well reviewing opportunities to leverage specific financial instruments like sustainability-linked loans.

Through its support to private investment, the Centre also assisted the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in shaping its overall priorities, providing technical inputs on its new five-year agribusiness strategy (2024-2028) towards greener, more inclusive agrifood systems.

It has extended its blended finance cooperation with the European Union. Through its advisory services it helped 24 projects to receive financing in 2023 for a total value of USD 124 million. And it is ramping up work on innovative finance with European development finance institutions and new impact investing partners.

Filling critical knowledge gaps, through publications, knowledge-sharing events and platforms, and developing capacities for better investment decision-making also formed much of the Centre’s work in 2023. One important example is opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean for bioinputs – products of plants, animals, or microbes, capable of enhancing crop productivity, quality or health and used as supplements or natural alternatives to more widely used synthetic agrochemicals.

The Centre continues to strengthen collaboration across FAO – drawing on the Organization’s expertise, convening power and neutrality – to improve the quality and quantity of agrifood investments.

This One FAO spirit underpins the Centre’s work, from investment support and in-depth analytical studies to innovative tools and technologies, including through FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative,  an evidence-based, country-owned and led initiative.

The right investments at the right scale

As part of its transformation agenda, the Centre continues to add more innovations and technological content to its finance and investment solutions at country level – from policy and planning support to more public and private investment and de-risking approaches. It will support local financial institutions, including commercial and public development banks and microfinance institutions, to do more and better in agrifood lending. It will also support local financial institutions to increase the use of innovative technologies to improve access to finance at country level.

Given that public funding alone is not enough, the Centre is exploring new finance frontiers for private investment with longstanding partners as well as reviewing opportunities to leverage specific financial instruments like sustainability-linked loans.

Looking ahead, the Centre will continue to strengthen existing partnerships, including with the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the EBRD and the European Union, while also cultivating new ones. And it will seek new ways to support Members directly.