FAO Regional Office for Near East and North Africa

FAO Hosts Regional Workshop to Tackle Agrifood Financing Gaps in the NENA Region

©FAO

20/01/2025, Tunis

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concluded its four-day Regional Capacity Building Workshop and Conference on “How to Finance the Transformation of Agrifood Systems?” in Tunis, Tunisia. The event brought together policymakers, international financial institutions, private sector leaders, and technical experts to address the critical need for innovative investments in agrifood systems across the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region.

A Critical Turning Point for Agrifood Systems

With hunger and malnutrition reaching record levels in the region, the workshop provided a platform for participants to explore strategies for transforming agrifood systems to promote sustainability, resilience, and equity. Discussions centered on addressing the region’s alarming food insecurity crisis, with hunger in the NENA region reaching its highest levels and over 75 million people projected to face hunger by 2030. The region also suffers from a triple burden of malnutrition, including undernutrition, child overweight/adult obesity. In addition, almost one-third of the region’s population could not afford a healthy diet in 2022

Dr. Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO’s Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative, highlighted the importance of transformative efforts, stating: “We need to think out of the box and focus on repurposing existing public support to agrifood systems, make the regulatory systems more enabling for innovative financing mechanisms, and enhance public-private partnerships.”

Key Highlights of the Workshop

The workshop featured extensive dialogue on innovative financing mechanisms such as green bonds, results-based financing, and concessional capital. Participants explored ways to repurpose public agricultural support to foster healthier and more sustainable food systems. Through interactive sessions, they learned how to develop actionable, investable projects using the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative and other FAO tools (Rural Invest, ExACT, and GLEAM), providing practical frameworks for future implementation.

The conference’s final day emphasized private sector engagement, with stakeholders discussing the role of public-private partnerships in closing the financing gap. This collaboration is seen as essential to ensuring the transformation of agrifood systems in the NENA region.

During the conference, participants launched the Transformational Impact Partnership (TIP), a platform designed to provide financing mechanisms to facilitate strategic investments, grants, and blended finance instruments for transforming regional agrifood systems. It builds on the 2024 Cairo Declaration on Financing the Transformation of Agrifood Systems, which called for collaborative efforts to enhance additional financing—particularly private investments—into regional agrifood systems. It also proposes a collaborative financing mechanism led by beneficiary governments in partnership with development and financing entities.

Way Forward

The event concluded with the adoption of a Regional Action Plan for Financing Agrifood Systems Transformation, a roadmap that outlines the next steps for mobilizing resources and fostering regional cooperation. As a direct outcome of the workshop, FAO reaffirmed its commitment to supporting member states in addressing food insecurity and malnutrition.  FAO aims to continue facilitating dialogue and providing technical expertise to ensure the region’s agrifood systems are sustainable, inclusive, and resilient.

The FAO Regional Capacity Building Workshop and Conference marks a significant step forward in tackling the pressing challenges of hunger and malnutrition in the NENA region. By focusing on innovative financing and collaborative partnerships, the event has paved the way for transformative action.