This technical note was written by the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) as part of the project “AgrInvest-Food Systems: Enabling inclusive and efficient private sector investment in agri-food systems”, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the ECDPM. The AgrInvest-Food Systems Project (AgrInvest-FS) aims at attracting private investment into agrifood systems aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by leveraging public funds. The note applies a systematic approach to the five agrivalue chains over the four countries covered in the AgrInvest-FS project, to identify relevant financing instruments and relevant types of financing institutions, which could potentially be interested in financing a segment of the value chain.

This catalogue aims to improve the dissemination and outreach of FAO’s knowledge products and overall publishing programme. By providing information on its key publications in every area of FAO’s work, and catering to a range of audiences, it thereby contributes to all organizational outcomes. From statistical analysis to specialized manuals to children’s books, FAO publications cater to a diverse range of audiences. This catalogue presents a selection of FAO’s main publications, produced in 2023 or earlier, ranging from its global reports and general interest publications to numerous specialized titles. In addition to the major themes of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, it also includes thematic sections on climate change, economic and social development, and food safety and nutrition.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted food security issues and nutrition gaps in Asia and the Pacific, where various risks and fragilities have continually affected the food and agriculture sector. There is a clear need to integrate sustainable management of natural resources, nutritional considerations, and the economic dimensions of food supply chains to enhance resilience and mitigate climate change. This publication explores how innovative financing and transformative knowledge solutions can help address the financing gaps and other challenges of food systems in the region.

Understanding the capacity of food systems to undertake a transformation towards sustainability requires understanding how resources stream in and out of the systems. As complex socio-economic structures, food and agricultural value chains are important means for channeling resources, knowledge, and agency in and out of rural areas. Given their prominent role on the development agendas, there is mixed evidence as to what extent value chains and their actors can contribute to improving the livelihoods in poor rural and urban areas. In order to shape sustainable living places, transformative capacities and good governance are important mainstays. Transformative agri-food value chains are robust and often act as the sole transmission belt for returning capital, resources and identity back into vulnerable areas. Moreover, domestic or regional chains may provide urban consumers with fresh quality food that also contributes to regional identity.

Agrifood systems in the Near East and North Africa are characterized by increasingly degraded natural resources and vulnerability to climate change, rapid population growth and protracted crises. In addition, the region has been affected by conflict that has further exposed the fragilities and worsened the challenges already faced by communities. Conflict negatively affects the poverty rate, the economic capacity and functioning of agrifood value chains and people’s ability to produce, distribute and access food. In volatile operating environments, resources, government spending and private investment are frequently diverted or reduced, with lasting impact on agri-food value chains and consequently nutrition and food security. Uncertainties inherent to these contexts can further undermine the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of agri-food value chain development interventions, programmes and projects.Investigating the connection between sustainable, resilient agrifood value chain development and the unique characteristics of the highly volatile situations in which they are operating, these practitioner guidelines propose a four-step approach for selection, analysis and design of agrifood value chains in conflict prone and conflict affected contexts. The approach aims to strengthen the resilience of agri-food value chains through systems-based solutions, adopting a context-sensitive programming approach and ensuring an adaptive programming effort through a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework, to facilitate testing and scaling-up.

Finance and logistics services for agricultural value chains based on technological innovations exist in several LMICs, but they are not often extended to small holders or SMEs working in the agricultural midstream. We consider the constraints to adoption of those services faced by smallholders or SMEs. Finance and logistics improvements hold promise for increased employment, but research is needed to understand where employment gains are most likely. All value chain innovations must carefully consider possible equity-efficiency tradeoffs to ensure change does not negatively affect poor and vulnerable populations.

Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to the world’s food systems. Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events threaten agricultural production and the biodiversity and ecosystem services that underpin agriculture. Within food systems, climate change affects processing, storage, transport, and retailing of food and affects our food environments. These growing climate risks impact food security, nutrition, and human health, as well as equity and livelihoods, with poor food producers and consumers hit hardest. They make food systems a riskier source of income and reduce the availability of food — worsening poverty and inequity, disrupting livelihoods, and contributing to hunger and malnutrition. At the same time, food systems are failing to provide healthy diets for all, and are generating one-third of human-caused greenhouse gases. Solutions must address this complex nexus of problems. Climate change adaptation and resilience-building efforts for food systems must be accelerated to reverse growing malnutrition, ensure that all people can access healthy diets, and provide sustainable livelihoods. At the same time, efforts to transform food systems work to reduce their environmental footprint. Farmers and small businesses along food value chains in low- and middle-income countries will have to adapt their practices to a climate marked by extreme weather events and changing seasonal patterns in order to meet growing and changing food demand, while also contributing to mitigation. Support for this critical transformation requires not only the development, dissemination, and adoption of appropriate low-emissions, climate-smart technologies and practices, but also a focus on the policies, institutions, governance, and behavior change that can promote sustainable, inclusive food systems.