Towards Ambitious Transitions: Catalyzing Finance and Action for Regenerative and Agroecological Food Systems
Across countries, regions and communities, food systems are under profound strain. Climate change, biodiversity loss, rising hunger and malnutrition, and deepening inequities are not distant risks; they are lived realities for farmers, fishers, Indigenous Peoples, food producers and workers around the world. Industrial food systems are responsible for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet only around 1.5% of public climate finance currently supports sustainable, regenerative and agroecological pathways. At the same time, governments worldwide spend more than $635 billion every year on harmful agricultural subsidies—over 60% of which distort markets and undermine soil, climate, and community health. The current volatile geopolitical context, combined with a slash in public spending in many countries and overseas development assistance, is upending and dismantling essential local food infrastructure in many places around the world.
However, solutions are not scarce. Agroecology and regenerative approaches—rooted in ecological principles and practices, local knowledge, and diverse territorial contexts—are already demonstrating their potential to restore ecosystems, strengthen livelihoods, and nourish communities.
For instance, while at an agroecology research convening in Kenya last year, I visited the impressive Bio Gardening Innovations (BIOGI) farmer training center in Elnuni village, Vihiga County, where agroecological principles are translated into direct engagement of smallholder farmers, with a focus on women, improving livelihoods through sustainable practices such as bioinput development, farmer-led field trials, seed saving and dissemination, and cooperative organizing. What amazed and inspired me was how peer-to-peer learning was connected to national, continental, and international networks such as PELUM Kenya, the African Food Sovereignty Alliance, and the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming.
Despite these thriving organizations and networks, industrial, energy-intensive, fossil fuel-based food systems persist. Amongst food systems actors, there remains a central tension — intensify industrial systems to “feed the world” or transform food systems to reflect an ecological future where food is produced in a way that enhances and supports ecological processes. Our work at the Global Alliance for the Future of Food has exposed the negative impacts of industrial food systems and built the evidence base for ecological food systems that are feeding the world, and that are having positive social, economic, health, and environmental benefits.
A Strategic Collaboration Rooted in Principles-Based Philanthropy
As an Alliance of philanthropic foundations working with members and partners on food systems transformation, our efforts through the years have consistently highlighted the evidence of and need to scale sustainable agriculture and food systems—through agroecology, regenerative agriculture, organic farming, natural farming and Indigenous food ways. With broad and growing commitment from our members and partners to work on Regenerative & Agroecological Food Systems Transitions (RAFT)—a strategic collaboration among philanthropic foundations and regional partners—we have elevated immediately investable opportunities that align finance and action for regenerative and agroecological food systems transitions. An initial scoping in 2023, captured through our report, Cultivating Change, resulted in a greater understanding of funding flows, of partner and philanthropic priorities, of foundation strategies, and critical levers of change, and resulted in an ambitious call to action to leverage the 10x investment required to accelerate and scale regenerative and agroecological transitions.
Philanthropic foundations involved in RAFT came together with a shared analysis:
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Prevailing funding flows and finance are not aligned with the principles for and realities of agroecological transitions. Capital flows remain fragmented, risk-averse, and disconnected from the long-term, place-based processes that regeneration requires.
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The levers required for systemic impact—ecosystem coordination; financial integration; technical assistance; market development; policy, advocacy and communications; research, data and evidence—need to work in concert to effect change and increase impact.
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Too often, promising initiatives struggle to move beyond pilots, while farmers, fishers, food producers and communities shoulder disproportionate risk.
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In a resource-constrained environment, it is imperative that funders and partners work together differently.
Over 2025, this collaborative work was focused in Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, India, Europe, and the U.S. Midwest, supporting planning partnerships and philanthropic roadmaps that reflect local and national priorities. A key feature of RAFT is that it centers territorial and landscape realities, recognizing that transition pathways are inherently contextual.
After 18 months of research and engagement, planning partnerships that engaged 75 organizations and hundreds of people, we have distilled the following learnings that can inform others interested in planning for regenerative and agroecological transitions.
# 1 Place-based approaches: We took a grounded approach, and worked at the landscape-level with local partners who have decades of agriculture and food systems expertise. Local partners and community-based organizations worked to develop priorities and implementation plans, and elevate investable opportunities. Building on this experience on-the-ground, connected to grassroots organizations and movements, and drawing on Indigenous and traditional knowledge, this place-based approach ensured that transition plans are contextually relevant and have the highest possible opportunity for impact and success. Strong local partnerships are critical to ensure the work can evolve, adapt and endure over time. Learning across these experiences was a key component of the process.
# 2 Transition planning: Drawing on the literature about food systems transformation, investment strategies and scaling approaches, we applied well-known transition frameworks. These frameworks outline how effective transition plans require strategies and approaches that are grounded in long-term transformational visions while remaining responsive to local realities and inclusive of incremental efforts. The local context and political economy in each region is unique, therefore, transition planning must reflect national and local priorities and processes.
# 3 Levers for systemic impact: Impactful and durable change requires a systems approach that integrates multiple strategic levers. Through a series of workshops with funders and practitioners, these six levers—ecosystem coordination; financial integration; technical assistance; market development; policy, advocacy and communications; research, data and evidence—were identified as crucially important for regenerative and agroecological transitions at scale. Partners, organizations, and funders working on one or several of these levers can increase their impact through well-organized coordination and thoughtful planning. For example, an initiative to help farmers transition to regenerative, diversified crop production systems will increase its potential by coordinating with parallel initiatives that enhance value chain infrastructure, develop new markets, and shift consumer demand.
# 4 Strengthened coordination: Although each region has its own specific context and needs, coordination was a critical gap in all cases. Effective transitions require coordination across ecosystems, markets, and finance. Coordination increases impact and success by moving from duplication and disconnection to synergy and integration.
# 5 Collaborative finance and action: Current finance and action for regenerative and agroecological food systems are fragmented and holding back efforts to transition 50% of global agriculture and food systems by 2040. We learned that financial coordination is underfunded and efforts are incremental and disconnected; timeframes are short and not responsive to community needs; and opportunity and readiness are not aligned with available capital structures, sizes, and risk profiles. Addressing this fragmentation is a critical element for realizing the 10x investment needed. Funding—from philanthropy, bilateral and multilateral donors, DFIs, and governments—must be linked and leveraged intentionally, to increase impact and to catalyze new interest and investments from diverse capital holders.
What We Found
Working with the Intersectoral Forum for Agroecology and Biodiversity, Murang’a County, PELUM Kenya, Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development, Dalberg Advisors and others, the analysis found that in Kenya, small investments totalling $70m could catalyze the $3.5-4.5bn needed to transform the entire country’s food system to be more equitable, inclusive, and resilient through implementation of the Kenyan and Murang’a County government's Agroecology Strategies. The investments lay out a comprehensive plan to strengthen smallholder farmer knowledge, expand the availability of bioinputs, and develop markets for agroecological products.
In Tanzania, working with the Tanzania National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy’s Implementation Task Force, Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movements, Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development, Dalberg Advisors and others, we learned how initial investments of around $40m could help leverage the $8.5-10.9bn needed to make the country’s farming and food systems more climate resilient and ensure food and nutrition security for all. Coordinated investments would help ensure a just transition for Tanzanian smallholder and family farmers, fishers, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
These investment priorities were developed by food and farm leaders in Kenya and Tanzania to support research, training, bio-input and seed system development, and strengthen local and regional markets. From these priorities, the cost of transition was estimated.
The work of local partners in Tanzania, Kenya, India, Brazil, Europe, and the U.S.Midwest shows that there are many pathways and solutions available to reduce emissions and improve resilience and livelihoods. Our work also shows that to be successful, these pathways and solutions must reflect the priorities of communities. That’s why our analysis details investment opportunities identified by smallholder farmers, community-based organizations, and governments, while also encouraging collaborative finance from different funders.
To transform food systems, we need to link and connect investment and resources across the following priorities. Doing so will help ensure funding reaches the farmers, fishers, food producers and entrepreneurs that are at the heart of transforming our food systems, for the benefit of people and the planet:
(1) research, training, and technical assistance;
(2) transition finance;
(3) business investment; and
(4) coordination across actors, organizations and markets to ensure finance is connected across capital holders, grants, public spending and loans.
RAFT’s most significant outcomes have been relational as much as technical. By convening funders, practitioners, farmer organizations, civil society organizations, intermediaries, financiers and policymakers in mixed teams, RAFT surfaced assumptions, power dynamics, and blind spots that often remain implicit.
This journey has not been without challenges. Aligning diverse funders requires ongoing effort. Power imbalances between capital holders and practitioners, and between different forms of knowledge, remain persistent tensions. Measurement also poses challenges. Agroecological transitions generate multiple, interrelated benefits that resist simple attribution, yet funding and investment continues to prioritize narrow indicators and short timelines.
RAFT reflects a growing recognition within philanthropy that funding projects alone is insufficient. Supporting transformation requires patience, humility, and collaboration across scales and sectors.
Opportunities to Engage and an Invitation to Collaborate
RAFT’s work highlights the importance of continued coordination and regional and local leadership by aligning different forms of capital, policy tools, and technical support around shared transition pathways. This includes engaging governments, development finance institutions, and private sector actors in ways that reinforce rather than dilute agroecological principles.
Building on the foundations established in earlier phases of work, the next steps will focus on aligning finance, action, and learning to support implementation at scale across diverse regional contexts.
Since its inception, RAFT has brought philanthropic partners and regional actors together to demonstrate that viable, investable pathways for regenerative and agroecological transitions already exist. The next phase of work will strengthen the governance, coordination, and funding architectures required to move from planning to implementation—anchored in place and connected across regions and global systems. Three objectives moving forward include:
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Deepen regionally anchored transitions in Brazil, India, Kenya, Tanzania, the U.S. Midwest, Europe and beyond by stabilizing ecosystem and finance coordination roles and supporting implementation in priority landscapes.
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Activate systemic levers—including policy, markets, research, and finance—within regions and across geographies, informed by shared learning and practice.
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Advance the collaborative funding architecture that enables alignment among philanthropic, public, and private actors, and accelerates the flow of capital toward regenerative and agroecological food systems.
Over the coming years, RAFT aims to demonstrate tangible progress in priority countries and landscapes, strengthened regional coordination and governance, active and visible investment pathways, and a clearer model for how philanthropy can work collectively and with others to support regenerative and agroecological food systems transitions. This work would not be possible without the Agroecology Coalition and other organizations, institutions, and networks who are working to create the enabling conditions where agroecology and regenerative approaches can flourish.
In a time of profound uncertainty, regenerative and agroecological transitions offer not a single solution, but a way of working within planetary boundaries and by centering smallholders, fishers and food producers and their livelihoods.