PRESS RELEASE — 1 June 2022
The Good Food Finance Network (GFFN), a collaborative network inspired by the UN Food Systems Summit, recently held its first Good Food Finance Week.
The week of technical meetings brought together leaders and experts from a range of sectors including finance and policy to find solutions to some of the greatest threats to our food security systems, from conflict to climate, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Good Food Finance Week also sought to promote a future of healthy, sustainable, and inclusive food investments and policies, recognising that some of the key challenges we face lie in unlocking public finance and private investment in low-income countries.
One key proposal emerging from the week is a Co-Investment Platform to drive more investments to climate resilient food production and enable expanded access to affordable, healthy and sustainably produced foods.
The Platform will be designed to crowd in both private and public finance, and to become a center of gravity, connecting existing funds, institutions, and networks, in and around our food systems in order to unlock massive shifts toward climate-aligned food system finance for farmers, cities, and other actors.
The Platform will address challenges such as:
- Shifting to climate-smart production;
- Improving rural livelihoods and nutrition outcomes;
- Making urban food consumption healthier and more sustainable;
- Slashing food waste and loss.
The Co-Investment Platform will help to mainstream climate-aligned good food finance, development, and enterprise.
The GFFN has also been supporting a group of public and private financial institutions and agri-food corporates (the so-called High Ambition Group) in setting and implementing ambitious, measurable and time-bound targets, contributing to a transition towards more sustainable food systems. The targets will include no-deforestation efforts, climate change mitigation and adaptation, nature positive ambitions, healthy diets, food security, resource efficiency, circular economy, human rights, and gender equality, among others.
Two co-chairs have recently been announced as high-level leaders representing public, private, and multilateral sectors: Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Wiebe Draijer, CEO of Rabobank. They will provide strategic guidance and serve as champions of the GFFN.
Wiebe Draijer, GFFN co-chair and CEO of Rabobank, said:
“We must act now. The war in the Ukraine and the food crisis that is unfolding in front of our eyes cause an ever-greater urgency for good food finance. For us as investors and financiers of sustainable food systems, this means developing products that facilitate this transition.”
Rebeca Grynspan GFFN co-chair and Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said:
“The Good Food Finance Network is about generating the same shifts of mind-sets when it comes to food finance that we are witnessing with energy finance. It’s no less urgent and I will do all I can to contribute to bringing this about.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About the Good Food Finance Network
The Good Food Finance Network (GFFN) is convened by the EAT Foundation, FAIRR, Food Systems for the Future, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The Network works in close collaboration with the World Bank, Rabobank, S2G Ventures, UNEP FI, PRI, the GEF, Just Rural Transition, and other supporting partners. It will build on and take forward the finance outcomes of the UN Food Systems Summit, and is currently working to develop a multi-year Action Agenda to identify, deploy, and mainstream critical financial innovations to drive the transition to healthy, sustainable food systems.
Contact
For additional information about the GFFN please contact: secretariat@goodfood.finance
For additional information about the Leaders Dialogue or Catalyst Groups please contact:
Leaders Dialogue
Current and former UN officials, and leaders in public, private, and multilateral finance, addressed converging and compounding food security threats posed by climate, COVID, and conflict-related disruptions. Aligning emergency response with long-term sustainability must be a top global priority, supported by knowledge sharing, filling in data gaps, and alignment of capital flows with small-scale actions that benefit people, nature, and fiscal stability.
Joe Robertson – joe@eatforum.org
Public Finance
With the world facing a perfect crisis through Climate, Covid, and Conflict, resilient sustainable food systems are needed more than ever. More than just short-term solutions, we need systemic/inclusive change. By repurposing harmful government support policies, we can transform our food system and make it just, healthy, and resilient.
Kathryn Mortimer – Kathryn.mortimer@fairr.org
Investors
The Investor Catalyst Group will continue to highlight investment opportunities in sustainable food systems – alternative protein, aquaculture, agrologistics and cold chain and various techniques to reduce food loss and waste among them – either in the form of direct investment, impact finance, blue, green or climate bonds, or through an experienced impact asset manager.
Ben Valk – ben.valk@rabobank.com
Data systems
The workshop on Data Systems explored challenges related to planetary boundaries, human health, nature loss, and emergency pressures from climate, COVID, and conflict. Participants highlighted the need for complex evolving integrated data systems to properly assess risk, value returns on investment, and provide targets, flexible funding to start-ups and critical intermediaries.
Joe Robertson – joe@eatforum.org
Incentives and De-risking
WBCSD convened a roundtable on the role of public and private sector finance in incentivising sustainable business practice, kicking off the work of the GFFN Incentives and De-risking Catalyst Group. Food companies and agri-businesses, and public and private sector financial institutions discussed the barriers to adopting sustainable practices in the food sector, and the role of financial and non-financial instruments in enabling companies to overcome these, identifying the most valuable areas for the Incentives and De-risking Catalyst Group to focus on.
Victoria Crawford – crawford@wbcsd.org
Targets and metrics
Experts highlighted that many tools, metrics, and frameworks exist to assist in the transformation of food systems finance. Workshop participants outlined relevant initiatives facing comparable challenges, showing the need for a space to share lessons and understand complementarity in the metrics area. This group will be a non-competitive space to identify the gaps and barriers as well as address priorities for action by suggesting metrics and tools to measure progress towards sustainable food systems. An initial survey during the workshop showed that support is most needed in being able to track progress on biodiversity, resource efficiency, and socio-economic impacts.
Alena Cierna – alena.cierna@unep-wcmc.org
High Ambition Group
The High Ambition Group is a leadership initiative by different types of financial institutions and agri-businesses working on setting and implementing ambitious targets that contribute to a transition towards more sustainable food systems. The targets being set are in the most relevant impact areas for each organization, including no-deforestation efforts, climate change mitigation and adaptation, nature positive ambitions, healthy diets, food security, resource efficiency, circular economy, human rights, gender equality, among others.
Vanesa Osuna – vanesa.rodriguezosuna@un.org
Good Food Finance Network 