Financing the Transformation of Food Systems: A Flow of Funds Approach

As mentioned, there are no estimations for food systems as a whole; that work is being undertaken by the financial groups of the UNFSS Hub with support from other institutions.12 Therefore, after looking at overall budget constraints (as done in the previous section) the next step in the analysis of the financing of food systems is to try to estimate the values of the individual six financial flow. [...] Expanding the current levels of funding from banks and investors for the transformation of food systems requires understanding and lifting the systemic barriers that limit the supply of financial sources and services, particularly for agriculture, small farming enterprises and SMEs in food systems, and the poor and vulnerable (women, disadvantaged ethnic groups, and youths). [...] In the banking systems the main issues to be addressed include the sources of funding, the types of institutions, and the lack of adequate financial instruments. [...] Countries need to have the institutional arrangements to design and implement comprehensive plans/programs for the transformation of food systems, articulating the National Pathways delineated at the UNFSS and the National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) of the Paris Agreement within the negotiations under the UNFCCC. [...] The UN secretary-general announced at the UNFSS the creation of a UN coordination hub in Rome (including the financial group co-chaired by IFAD and the World Bank) and the appointment of UN country coordinators to help manage the work of the UN organizations around national programs of food systems transformation.