📋 Tender Overview
Recognising the gap in financing sustainable and resilient food systems globally, this multi-donor, public pri-vate partnership initiative is designed to catalyse private-sector investment in food systems, including from Swiss investors. By leveraging private investments and providing technical assistance to small and medium agribusiness enterprises, rural financial intermediaries and farmer organisations, the project promotes new income opportunities and better services for smallholder farmers and their application of more sustainable and nutrition-sensitive farm practices.
Country/region Topic Period Budget
Global
Agriculture & food security
Agricultural financial services
Agricultural co-operatives & farmers’ organisations
Agricultural services & market
01.05.2025 - 30.04.2029
CHF 6’670’000
The project in brief
Background The latest SOFI report (FAO, 2024) reports that 733 million people, or one in eleven globally, experienced hunger in 2023; in Africa, 20.4% of the population faced hunger. 2.3 billion people faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023, while in Africa, 58% of the population was moderately or severely food insecure. Globally, 2.8 billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022. Smallholding farmers play a crucial in achieving SDG2 (zero hunger) and ensuring more sustainable and resilient food systems. Globally, smallholding employ a labour force of 1 billion people and feed many more. In Africa specifically, family farming contributes 80% of food production and employs between 60 and 70% of the population. Women cover 60-80% of the continent’s agricultural labour input. It is smallholders who are the custodians of land and local ecosystems, but they are increasingly forced to deal with high market volatilities, and the negative consquences due to conflicts or climate change. Meanwhile, the financing gap for ending hunger and at least some forms of malnutrition runs to hundreds of billions of dollars (FAO, 2024). Recognising the importance of private initiative in agriculture and food systems, this project seeks to stimulate private capital, mainly through so-called impact fund managers.
Objectives Smallholders improve their livelihoods and resistance to shocks and stresses while contributing to food systems which are based on the long-term, sustainable management of natural and human resources within sustainable agrifood systems, with broader and more equitable participation of society.
Target groups Direct beneficiaries: around 250 agribusiness enterprises, farmers’ organisations, and rural financial intermediaries which have business transactions with many smallholder house-holds. End beneficiaries: at least 1,000,000 small-holder farmers using at least one offered solu-tion with 5,000,000 smallholders indirectly benefitting from the support provided through SSNUP partnerships.
Medium-term outcomes Livelihoods – Smallholder households use new/improved financial services, capacity building se
