Report highlights inspiring stories of innovative investments in local regenerative food initiatives that generate positive results for communities and nature
Published 05-24-22
Submitted by Global Alliance for the Future of Food
Creative Finance Strategies to Catalyze Food Systems Transformation
May 24, 2022 /CSRwire/ -The Global Alliance for the Future of Food and Transformational Investing in Food Systems Initiative (TIFS) today released a comprehensive new report that gives investors a roadmap of creative finance strategies that support entrepreneurs, farmers, activists, and social movements, and help to transform food economies towards healthy, equitable, and renewable systems.
The report, Mobilizing Money and Movements: Creative Finance for Food Systems Transformation, showcases six food-focused initiatives that have incorporated unique investment strategies that blend a spectrum of financial capital to stimulate social enterprise and achieve sustainable, equitable, and secure food systems. Launched to coincide with the opening of the African Agroecological Entrepreneurship & Territorial Markets conference in Kampala, Uganda, the report also builds on the Global Alliance’s “Beacons of Hope” project, which showcases global initiatives that are working to achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient food systems.
Initiatives highlighted in the new report include:
Creative finance strategies and levers of change
The report details five strategies that organizations use to catalyze transformative food systems change, including:
It also outlines “levers of change” that the initiatives deployed to inspire action and direct funding from a range of policymakers, social entrepreneurs, bilateral and multilateral donors, social purpose investors, philanthropic groups, and others interested in contributing to food systems change. They are:
Rex Raimond, Director, Transformational Investing in Food Systems (TIFS) Initiative said: “In recent years, there has been a vital transformation within the financial sector, driven by the Paris Agreement net zero commitment, the rapid growth of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and a promise from a growing number of investors to realize the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. While this progress is welcome, finance leaders must go further. This report calls on the investment community – impact investors, fund managers, public donors, and philanthropic grantmakers – to think in new and different ways about how to bring about the urgent, transformative change we need.”
Lauren Baker, Deputy Director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food said: “As the world faces interrelated crises—from conflict and climate change to biodiversity loss and food insecurity— the stories in this report provide hope and prove it’s possible to generate social, environmental, and economic value at the frontlines of food systems transformation. These initiatives are visionary, yet also highly practical and grounded in place and culture.
“And they illustrate the nature of investments that can create healthy, nutritious food systems, promote soil health, and curb climate change. They urge us to ensure financial flows and investment dollars prioritize holistic and cooperative approaches that meaningfully engage all actors in food production, distribution, and consumption.”
The Global Alliance for the Future of Food is a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working together and with others to transform global food systems now and for future generations. www.futureoffood.org
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