Investments - UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

ADVANCING PUBLIC AND PUBLIC-PRIVATE INVESTMENTS IN TANDEM: A MAJOR CHALLENGE

Numerous investment actors are constrained by their particular mandates to operate only within the public sector or only among the private sector. Accordingly, experiences of financing both publically and privately in tandem are gained by few organisations under operational settings. They represent a major challenge because it requires that the organizations adopt and designs new behavior, which require new skills regarding inclusive finance.

The question that arises then is how to optimize the perspectives of effective financing of the food security through the public and public-private sectors?

10 key issues that tackle Investments in tandem of food and nutrition security

This overview summarizes a series of 10 Notes on key issues associated with advancing in tandem with public and public-private investments that tackle food and nutrition security and accentuates the experiences of UNCDF in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Note 1

The first note sets out the development context of financing food in Africa, around three high-level messages:

To make progress on tackling the Food and Nutrition Security crisis currently affecting a quarter of Africans, action is needed on both inclusive economic growth and on social protection.
Boosted public finance still encounters structural barriers... and private finance has become the largest finance source.
Finance of agriculture and food is a policy orphan. There is an as yet underdeveloped case for a mix of public and private finance. And for private finance where the public sector has a role to play.

Note 2

Note 2 proposes a series of options, components and models used by various partners such as IFPRI, IFAD and UNCDF and leading all to the food security and agricultural development.

Note 3

Note 3 sets out the distinctive contribution that F4F is making in advancing the finance of food, and summarizes the domains of the two main programmatic approaches - Local Development Finance and Local Finance Initiative - by which UNCDF will (by their deployment in tandem) be implementing F4F.

Note 4

Note 4 clarifies that the Public Sector is not a single entity, and performs an array of functions into classes of public infrastructure (that will differ by country) through different structures of institution (depending on how different countries have progressed with decentralization), all leading to a diverse array of public financing channels.

Note 5

Note 5 is an extended note that summarizes UNCDF's Local Development Fund experiences in local food and nutrition security drawing from a pool of evidence from 15 past and ongoing UNCDF country-level interventions in sub-Saharan Africa.

Note 6

Note 6 compiles key findings from seven recent assessments and programmes (DFID, IFAD, AgDEVCO, FAO/OECD, GAFSP/IFC, PPIAF and EBRD) - that inform on experiences from private sector engagement in agriculture - as an essential complement to public finance, as a key means for levering private capital, and concerning the particular partnerships under PPPs within the agricultural domain.

Note 7

Note 7 proposes 4 Building Blocks towards a mixed Financing Framework:

A Virtuous financing cycle - generalized flows
Financing of FSN pathways that lead to returns on investment
Towards disbursement channels for Goods and Services
Six possible Investment Windows

Note 8

Note 8 proposes a F4F Approach to be adopted in its engagement at country-level.

The Approach responds to lessons (some strategic and some operational) and builds in flexibility to allow for F4F's distinctive characteristic, namely its mixes (of FSN pathways, of social and economic impacts, of both LDF and LFI Programmes and of Public and Public-Private finance).

Stage 1 targets a critical Strategic Pre-Investment actions. Stage 2 sets out the already established steps for operational implementation of both LDFP and LFIP.

Note 9

Note 9 raises some issues pertinent to the Pre-Investment stage at Territorial level, namely the importance of triggering a process to stimulate an investible pipeline for both public and public-private finance, leads to a Call for Proposals that is open, and as pre-cursor to that Call is underpinned by a Territorial Food Security Strategy and Investment Plan.

Note 10

Note 10 proposes some potential candidates for future F4F KM products.