I arrived in Washington for the Spring Meetings of
@WorldBankGroup, with a clear message: scaling finance for food security is critical for macroeconomic stability and part of the architecture of defense.
Yesterday, I spoke at a high-level discussion on innovative financing alongside partners including
@acfusa,
@GAFSPfund, and the Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security.
The constraint is not solutions - it is scale.
Food security sits at the intersection of development, stability, climate resilience and economic growth, yet small-scale producers at the first mile remain underfinanced despite delivering a significant share of the world’s food and absorbing global shocks.
Impact at scale requires also to work together with the private sector through the right toolbox, instruments and incentives. As an
#IFI,
@IFAD is working to close this gap by convening partners and assembling finance across regions and institutions, mobilizing blended finance, crowding in public and private capital, and building pipelines of investable rural economies.
At this moment, we must move decisively beyond perpetual crisis response toward systems-level transformation, linking immediate needs with long-term structural change and placing smallholder farmers, rural communities, and fragile contexts at the centre of global strategies to deliver lasting food security, stability, and peace.
#FinancingTheFirstMile #WBGMeetings