IFAD Call for Proposals: Private Sector for Food Systems

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IFAD Call for Proposals: Private Sector for Food Systems. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is offering grants to strengthen partnerships between the private sector and smallholder producers to stimulate investments in inclusive and climate-resilient agricultural value chains.

IFAD Call for Proposals Objectives

Selection of an institution to co-design and implement the regional grant ‘Private Sector for Food Systems (PS4FS)’ through an open competitive selection. The selected entity will participate in the co-design and implementation of the project, fostering effective collaborations between private financial institutions, governments, value chain actors, financial institutions, food system actors, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), with the goal of advancing sustainable and inclusive rural development. This will be achieved by:

Undertaking a sub-regional feasibility study (country(ies) TBD) to stimulate and promote the potential development of risk sharing mechanisms (e.g., investment platforms) that cater to farmers’ access to finance, which can be leveraged by both IFAD and mission aligned stakeholders (investors/FIs, off-takers, value chain actors). The approach of such study is of a public good and would not be limited to IFAD interventions only.
Establishing an innovation challenge fund to provide financial incentives for banks that develop and implement successful lending models for women entrepreneurs with the aim to foster a collaboration between the public sector, private financial institutions and women-owned SMEs to create a supportive financing ecosystem, including setting up advisory services to help women-owned SMEs with loan application processes.
Analyzing and supporting 3P/4Ps models, farmer organization classification and graduation models, matching grant engagements and other mechanisms of interaction with the private sector to promote and drive additional private sector investment in inclusive climate-resilient and smart agriculture and food value chains.
Building the capacity of IFAD’s Project Management Units (PMUs) to identify, monitor and implement these initiatives and design internal processes to draw on this new capacity, and ensure effective and efficient analysis of potential private sector partners.

The organization shall propose an appropriate strategy and viable mechanism to achieve these objectives, ensuring the efficiency and sustainability of the initiative.

This grant aims to catalyze private sector partnerships with smallholder producers and their organizations, to stimulate private sector investments in inclusive climate-resilient and smart agriculture and food value chains. The chosen theme aligns seamlessly with IFAD13 priorities and IFAD’s Regular Grant Policy, the forthcoming IFAD Private Sector Strategy, IFAD’s proven expertise in the Mekong region and the unique needs of private sector-oriented projects in the Asia-Pacific Region. This alignment manifests in several key dimensions:

Focus on innovation. The grant will place a significant emphasis on innovations, spanning technology, processes or practices. It will actively promote the development of risk-sharing platforms and support the creation of innovative and accessible financial products, including VCF products, tailored for women-owned SMEs.
Climate-Smart agricultural productivity and inclusive value chains. The grant aims to encourage private sector investment in inclusive climate-resilient and smart agriculture and food value chains, encompassing investments in traceability, market and pricing transparency, and monitoring climate-related investments.
Capacity building. By leveraging on the existent Programme of Loans and Grants (PoLG) of IFAD, the grant will build the capacity of IFAD’s PMUs to identify, implement and monitor these initiatives.

Eligibility Criteria for IFAD Call for Proposals

The proposing entity is required to possess a minimum of 5 years of hands-on experience in the following areas:

Legal capacity: the organization must be legally registered in an IFAD Member State.
Project Management and Implementation: demonstrated expertise in managing and executing projects specifically aimed at enhancing rural development, promoting financial inclusion, and fostering inclusive food systems. This includes experience in designing, coordinating, and evaluating project activities that support small-scale farmers and rural communities.
Facilitating Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration: a proven track record of successfully facilitating collaboration among diverse actors, such as government institutions, value chain actors, financial institutions, investment funds, commercial banks, rural banks, credit cooperatives, microfinance institutions, companies working with small-scale producers, and international cooperation actors. Experience in the design and implementation of Innovation Challenge Funds will be positively evaluated.
Development of feasibility studies of investment platforms, ideally in topics related to rural development.