Supporting Responsible Investments in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI)

The FAO Elearning Academy offers several online courses on responsible investment in agriculture and food systems. All courses are self-paced, freely accessible online and in downloadable format. The color codes specified on the right of this page indicate the main target audience for each course. Take a look and find out what suits you best.

This course focuses on the screening phase of the investment assessment process. It explains what screening and due diligence are and why they are such important policy instruments for governments seeking to attract, promote and regulate responsible investment in agriculture and food systems, and avoid investment that causes or contributes to harm. The course also provides practical information on the way a screening process should be designed and implemented and describes some of the barriers to uptake and implementation that must be overcome in order for screening to be most effective.

2 hours of learning.

This course analyses the gender gap in agrifood systems, particularly the reasons why women are disadvantaged compared with men in starting and expanding their own agribusinesses and in benefiting from the economic opportunities offered by large-scale agricultural investments. The course aims to provide guidance to governments on issues to consider and actions to be taken to create an enabling environment that empowers women to engage in agricultural entrepreneurship and promotes more gender-responsive agricultural investments that can benefit women and men equally. 

2 h 40 m of learning.

Course series: Creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems

This course illustrates the importance of responsible investment in agriculture and food systems for sustainable development, as well as the scope and content of the CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI). It also analyses the features of an institutional, policy, legal and regulatory environment that fosters responsible investment, and it identifies the main actors who play a role in the process of creating such an enabling environment.

3 hours of learning. 

Available in Arabic, Spanish, French and Chinese.

This course, which is part of series of three, provides guidance to conduct an analysis and gap identification for the creation of an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems. Specifically, it describes how to analyse current institutional, policy, legal and regulatory frameworks and compare them with the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI) through a context-specific and inclusive multi-stakeholder process.

1 h 30 m of learning.

Available also in French

This course, which is part of a series of three, provides guidance on driving reforms that strengthen policy, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks for responsible agricultural investment (RAI). Specifically, the course provides support to design the reform strategy, establish multistakeholder consultation processes for decision-making and enhance the role of regulatory processes in creating an enabling environment for responsible agricultural investment.

1 h 30 m of learning.

Available in French.

This course is intended to complement the series of three courses “Creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems - Fundamentals - Analysis – Reform”. It aims to provide guidance on youth-specific issues that should be taken into consideration when creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.

1 h 30 m of learning.

Available in Arabic and French

This course is intended to help private investors plan and operate responsible investments by applying the “Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems” (CFS-RAI). The course includes also an assessment tool that allows investors to evaluate their company’s compliance with the CFS-RAI Principles.

2 h 30 m of learning.

Available in French and Spanish.

This handbook provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the role that members of parliament and parliamentary advisors can play in the creation of reliable, coherent, and transparent “enabling environments” in the range of areas related to investment in agriculture and food systems. It offers two different paths: a short version with “must know” information, specifically targeting parliamentarians, and a long version with more detailed information, conceived for advisors.

1 h 45 m of learning.

Available in French and Spanish.