EBRD’s Private Sector for Food Initiative
FAO Investment Centre’s partner, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) released a new report this week, the Private Sector for Food Security Initiative Annual Report 2015, as part of its continuing efforts to address the global challenge of ensuring food security by promoting the role of the private sector in increased and sustainable food production.
According to the report EBRD mobilized €7 million for technical assistance and policy dialogue in the agribusiness sector, complementing EUR 770 million invested through 51 projects in 2015 alone.
The report was prepared as part of EBRD’s Private Sector for Food Initiative which combines the Bank’s own investments with technical assistance and support for reforms to help enhance food security across the countries where EBRD invests and to improve food quality standards and animal welfare practices.
The Initiative sets incentives to encourage private sector involvement in support for policy reform to improve the regulatory environment and the overall business climate and to promote efficiency within the industry.
Together with FAO’s Investment Centre, the Bank is working to support the development of agricultural cooperatives in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region to maximise their impact on rural employment and the participation of young people and women in the economy.
“There is a strong convergence between FAO’s strategic objective to support inclusive and efficient agrifood systems and the bank’s approach to investment in the agrifood sector,” explained Emmanuel Hidier, FAO senior agricultural economist. “We are glad to work together at country level and strengthen policy-investment linkages through our joint work, to achieve quality impact at scale and create an enabling policy environment for private sector investors.“
The 2015 Report stresses that finance alone is not always enough to achieve private sector development in markets across the EBRD region. SMEs often face difficulties accessing the know-how that will help them enhance their productivity and business performance.
“More will be done to create stronger links between producers and modern value chains to introduce innovative practices, increase the addition of value and manage environmental risks,” said Iride Ceccacci, Principal Economist for EBRD.
Read the full report here