Building a Bigger Table for Food and Nutrition Security

The close of 2024 offered an opportunity to catch up with the leadership of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) – the only multilateral platform for public and private food and nutrition security financing - as they reflected on recent key achievements, the milestones of the past decade, and the future of this innovative program. The past year has seen a scaling up of GAFSP’s robust toolkit of financial and technical resources, from grants to blended concessional finance, that catalyze funding for projects from farm to table.

Natasha Hayward returned to the Program in 2024 as the World Bank’s global lead for food and nutrition security. “It’s fantastic personally to be able to rejoin the Program and the team, and to find it in such good health and spirits,” she said. “There is a strong sense of community and ownership and forward-looking drive, coming in at a time when attention is turning to GAFSP’s Vision 2030.”

She said that GAFSP looks in many ways quite different than it did at the beginning. “GAFSP had this great foresight at its inception to have both a public and private sector window,” she said. “But now, we have grown. We have an offer of financing tools that allows the GAFSP to tailor support to the needs of different actors, from smallholder farmers to established enterprises in agri-business. And then the producers and others in between. You can see the progression along the value chain.”

Niraj Shah is the Program Manager of the Private Sector Window (PrSW) of GAFSP. He said he was grateful for the completion of the Program’s restructuring this past year.  The PrSW has also welcomed new funds from the UK to establish an innovative pilot for offering much needed local currency solutions – an addition to the PrSW toolkit. 

The establishment of the new Business Investment Financing Track (BIFT) allows the Program to scale up and integrate its work, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. GAFSP launched the BIFT on a pilot basis on October 1^st, 2024, taking finance for food and nutrition security in low-income countries to a higher level as it seeks to unlock affordable private and climate finance for smallholder farmers, producer organizations, innovative startups, and micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the agri-food sector. 

Shah also noted that, besides restructuring the GAFSP, 2024 was “another year of doing impactful and meaningful projects.” He highlighted recent PrSW investments in Pula in Kenya and Pearl Dairy in Uganda, which are boosting climate resilience, as well as nutrition and food security. Pula, an award-winning IFC-investee, has partnered with over 70 insurance companies since 2015 to reach more than 15 million farmers. Agriculture insurance provides farmers with financial protection against production losses caused by drought, unpredictable weather systems due to climate change, pests and diseases. The joint IFC and GAFSP Pearl Dairy project directly supports 10,000 farmers in vulnerable and remote rural areas with market access and technical support. 

These are just a few of the more than three hundred projects under the GAFSP umbrella. Sixty percent of funds have supported projects across Africa, approximately 25 percent to projects in South and East Asia, and 10 percent to projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Reflecting on a decade of food security milestones

For James Catto, Director of International Development Policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee and Chair of the Private Sector Window Donor Committee, “GAFSP has really focused action on climate, biodiversity, nutrition, and gender equality.”

“One of the real accomplishments of GAFSP, throughout its history,” he said, “is the ability to serve as a powerful and effective mechanism for deepening cooperation across the multilateral development banks, and the international financial institution system, on a wide range of priorities related to food security and agriculture and smallholder farmers. We’re building a bigger, more inclusive table.”

The Program has offered a rare focus on smallholder farmers that has evolved into broader and deeper support. “Not only do we have civil society’s voice at the table, but also smallholder farmers. Both are represented in GAFSP’s governance, along with other key development actors in the food and agriculture space,” Hayward said.

“The key milestone in the evolution of GAFSP is the focus on what we used to call the ‘missing middle,’” said Radio Save, Chair of the Private Sector Window Donor Committee of GAFSP and Senior Private Sector Development Adviser and Lead on Sustainable Agriculture at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. 

“This focus has evolved in support of producer organizations, because that is something unique that didn’t exist before,” Save said. “It was natural considering GAFSP’s focus on the smallholder farmers. As they evolve, they organize into these producer organizations. That, to me, is a real milestone.”

Looking Ahead: Vision to 2030

The world is not on track to end hunger for all by 2030. Compounding crises require immediate relief as well as long-term solutions to reverse the drivers of food and nutrition insecurity. GAFSP’s call to action is to implement innovations and catalyze investments that improve the sustainability and build the long-term resilience of agriculture and food systems in the poorest and most vulnerable countries. GAFSP investments continue to help governments carry forward their food and nutrition security agenda and objectives.

“We clearly see the potential of GAFSP as the ‘go-to’ partner as it continues its role as a platform that helps the entire system reach smallholder farmers,” said Catto. “Impact areas include climate, the food and gender nexus, innovative financing tools, or nutrition sensitive interventions… GAFSP support can accelerate the adoption of innovative tools that help farmers become more productive and resilient and prosperous going forward.”

Save added: “It looks like one of the best innovations could be with the new BIFT. In the context of large investments in agriculture and food production, the new track could help unlock finance for investments in local currency. This is an innovation and an achievement.” 

Shah also vouched for local-currency financing as the next frontier for GAFSP, both in the short-term and long-term. “This is the most sought-after financing in low-income countries,” he added. Local currency can mean better project credit and less risk, as it directly supports community needs in the currency they work and live in.  Shah continued: “We’re hoping to see a lot of this financing in the future.”