FAO works with the Government of Liberia and private sector actors to attract responsible investments in agriculture through a new screening tool
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, has begun the conduct of the face-to-face component of the Blended Learning Programme on "enhanced screening for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems” at the Farmington Hotel, in Monrovia, Liberia.
Investment screening is one of the policy mechanisms a government uses to pursue questions of viability of a proposed investment. A government does this by conducting due diligence on the prospective investor and investment to gather information and analyze whether the proposal will lead to a responsible investment in agriculture and food systems. That is, an investment that performs in three directions: economic profits, environmental sustainability and beneficial to society.
The five-day workshop is being held in two phases, with 15 government participants attending from Monday, November 7-9, 2022; while 30 business representatives will attend from Thursday November 10-11, 2022.
Responsible investment does not occur in a vacuum, but requires a strong enabling environment that “sets the scene” by providing clear rules, processes, and mandates. Governments have the primary responsibility to provide such enabling environment through the development or reform of policies, laws and incentives that promote, facilitate and regulate investments.
Participants to the workshop are Liberian policy makers and technical government staff, who constitute members of the recently created Multi-Stakeholder Platform on responsible investment in agriculture (MSP). The MSP aims at enhancing coordination and dialogue among actors involved in agricultural investment in the country. In its first phase, it is constituted by various ministries and agencies of the Liberian Government, as well as private sector actors in agricultural investment of Liberia. Eventually civil society actors will be also integrated.
The learning programme is aimed at strengthening capacities of state and non-state actors to apply the Principles for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems (CFS-RAI Principles). The Principles were developed following an inclusive multi-stakeholder process in the UN Committee on World Food Security.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, FAO Representative in Liberia Mariatou Njie, described the learning programme as another milestone in FAO's efforts to enhance the capacities of members to promote more responsible investments; and that the initiative is part of a multi-year programme implemented with support from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Madam Njie said, she was honoured to open the face-to-face event which is a direct follow up to the learning programme “creating an enabling environment for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems”, organized last year by FAO.
“One of the three pillars of the Liberia National Action Plan developed as part of that programme is to mainstream the CFS-RAI Principles into existing policies and processes,” she explained.
According to the FAO Liberia Country Representative, the programme aims to contribute to the implementation of that pillar, working together with you – members of the RAI Multi-Stakeholder Platform – which was also launched during that same programme.
At the end of the workshop, the participants are expected to develop a draft screening tool for Liberia, an achievement Madam Njie says she strongly looks forward to seeing from the outcomes of the collective work of the participants. “FAO is committed to supporting you in identifying ways to ensure the uptake and application of the tool.”
The learning programme was organized after the COVID-19 pandemic, when progress made to reduce poverty and hunger was severely jeopardized, with an FAO estimate putting undernourishment in the Liberian population to 38.9 per cent.
Workers, particularly young women and men, during the pandemic, lost their jobs and farmers incurred substantial income losses, situations which led to increased poverty globally as estimated by the World Bank after the pandemic.
To change the situation, Madam Njie noted that FAO is committed to supporting its members in “building back better,” and that in Liberia, “building back better” requires more responsible investments in agriculture and food systems, the principal sources of income and employment.
Learning goals of the programme include the importance of thorough investor and investment screening towards enhancing responsible investments in agriculture and food systems, understanding the roles, responsibilities and rights of key stakeholdersin the context of investment screening in Liberia, and analyzing the current screening processesand policies in Liberia and identify potential gapsin relation to the CFS-RAI Principles.
Others are identifying entry pointsto enhance investmentand investor screening in Liberia, initiating the adaptation of a FAO-developed RAI screening toolto the Liberian context, and preparing an action plan to implement the RAI screening toolin Liberia.
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Video: Engaging youth in responsible investment in agriculture in Liberia and Sierra Leone