75% of Africans cannot afford a healthy diet and 80% depend on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and informal markets for their daily diet. But SMEs producing and marketing healthy foods such as milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit, are inadequately served by banks and lenders and often have limited managerial skills. Without these key ingredients for success, they are unable to expand operations and market reach and therefore limited to contribute to make nutritious, safe foods more available and affordable.
This Nutrition for Growth (N4G) side-event explores a new initiative, with a blended finance approach, backed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Eleanor Crook Foundation, Incofin Investment Management and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). This first nutrition impact fund, the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F), aims to catalyse private sector financing to help scale up the production and sale of locally produced nutritious foods in Sub-Saharan Africa. It thereby intends to address malnutrition, while also considering gender equity and environmental sustainability.
The session will showcase the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility, by exploring its blended finance design, its offering beyond financing, as well as its impact framework and tools. Mr. David Dewez, Managing Partner at Incofin Investment Management, and Dr. Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director at GAIN will jointly speak to this topic. They will be joined by the following speakers:
- Mr. Shawn Baker, Chief Nutritionist, US Agency for International Development (USAID)
- Ms. Winnie Wandimi, Director, Wimssy Limited
- Mr. Jesse Corradi, Managing Director, Africa, US International Development Finance Cooperation
- Mr. Songbae Lee, Agriculture Finance Team Lead, US Agency for International Development (USAID)
- Roberta Bove, Nutritious Foods Financing Program Lead at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) will moderate this event.
Videos
For more videos, please visitour youtube channel