Public Development Banks manage two thirds of all formal finance into the agricultural sector. Recent global summits encouraged partners to leverage this public capital to make our food systems greener and more inclusive. In response, the leading regional and national PDBs launched a platform to learn and collaborate together as they each progress financial services aligned to food systems transformation.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute over half of most food economies. As highlighted by the report, “A Small Business Agenda for the Food Systems Summit”, they are quiet revolutionaries crucial to food systems transformation. They are vital to integrating smallholders to markets. They innovate and scale solutions for nutrition and sustainability. They create jobs for women, youth and rural communities.

Access to appropriate financial services is a fundamental constraint on food SMEs, especially across Africa and Latin America. Addressing this constraint offers an exciting opportunity for PDBs seeking to make food systems greener and more inclusive.

The Good Food hub will curate a “Food Systems Summit Dialogue” between the PDB Platform and food SMEs with the goals of:

• Inspiring PDB Managers about how financial services to SMEs can drive greener and more inclusive food systems
• Informing the PDB Platform’s emerging priorities to ensure they respond to the needs of SMEs.
• Educating SMEs on how to benefit from the public capital managed by PDBs.

Register for the event here: https://bit.ly/PDB_Coalition