responsAbility Climate-Smart Agriculture & Food Systems Funds (FMO-61442)

Financial Institutions
  • Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 17.50 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 17.50 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Oct 24, 2022

Disclosed by Bank Aug 25, 2022

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As of October 2022, the initial disclosure information (below) is no longer on the FMO website. For updated project information, please refer to the original disclosure link.

According to the FMO website:

The recently launched Climate-Smart Agriculture & Food Fund is a USD 200mln close-ended debt fund established by responsAbility in collaboration with CGIAR and anchor investor KfW.

The Fund's strategy is to provide long-term financing along with technical assistance to Agri SMEs under four investment themes: 1) sustainable intensification of production, 2) value adding and efficient processing and logistics, 3) sustainable and inclusive retail and food brands, and 4) climate technology and solutions providers. The financing will target transactions in the Agri space focused on reducing climate change risk and GHG emissions as well as on promoting sustainable increase in yields. FMO will participate in the senior tranche in the second closing.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL RATIONALE

Because of the broad regional focus (global mandate), as well as a broad agricultural sector focus (investments are expected in climate technology and retail mostly in Asia Pacific, and production and processing mainly in Africa and Latin America), the Fund's E&S risk categorization is 'Private Equity risk category A'. This is the category for funds that intend to invest >15% of their portfolio in high risk (e.g. category A or B+ as defined for Direct Investments) according to FMO's Sustainability Policy. It should be noted, however, that category A investee companies are not likely to be expected, and that the size of investments is relatively small (average loan sizes of USD 6mln). E&S risks most likely to be encountered at the investee companies are expected to be linked to PS1 to 4, and 2 and 6 potentially indirectly through the supply chain, as well as risks related to the heightened human rights contexts in some areas of operations. ResponsAbility has developed a strong E&S management system which will be applied at fund level and requires its team to incorporate and record E&S analysis throughout the entire investment process and aligns with FMO E&S requirements, including compliance with (i) the IFC exclusion list, (ii) local environmental, health & safety and labour laws and regulations, and (iii) IFC Performance Standards and ILO Core conventions.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Project contacts not provided at the time of disclosure.

 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

As part of FMO's ex-ante disclosure (disclosure of transactions before contracting), you can send requests or questions for additional information to: disclosure@fmo.nl

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW). A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism

How it works

How it works