SAFIN Annual Progress Report 2019

For the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN), the year 2019 was a time of learning from experience and from dialogue. By December, a substantial body of experience and knowledge was in place in the Network’s priority areas: one, the Network’s learning agenda for the use of blended finance for agricultural investments, and two, its signature Investment Prospectus (IP) process, which seeks to align partners’ portfolios around a shared understanding of investment opportunities and financing needs in specific value chains or food systems.

On the blended finance front, we produced a landscape report and nine case studies documenting good practice. We also organized or participated in several learning and policy dialogue events in different parts of the world. On the IP front, we completed three prospectuses and numerous in-country consultations with stakeholders in agriculture and in finance. We also prepared two scoping reports and conducted a workshop focusing on improvements in the IP process.

All this was done thanks to collaboration among SAFIN partners, particularly the anchors of the IP country pilots, those co-leading collaborative workstreams and those with a mandate for knowledge-sharing in agri-SME finance, such as the secretariats of the regional agricultural credit associations. The leadership provided by the members of the SAFIN Steering Committee, including its chairperson, was of pivotal importance.