MCE Empowering Sustainable Agriculture Fund LLC (FMO-61973)

Regions
  • Africa
  • East Asia and Pacific
  • Latin America and Caribbean
  • South Asia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
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.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
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."
Voting Date
Oct 4, 2023
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
MCE Empowering Sustainable Agriculture (MESA)
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Agriculture and Forestry
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 10.00 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 31, 2023

Disclosed by Bank Jan 24, 2023

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

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.

According to the Bank’s website, MCE Empowering Sustainable Agriculture ("MESA" or the "Fund") is a recently established 9-year close-ended debt fund that aims to scale economic opportunities within local communities, enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farmers, and empower women throughout the agricultural sector in emerging markets. MESA will seek to provide capital to gender-inclusive agribusinesses throughout their lifecycle, either through direct lending or through financial services providers. The Fund is a wholly owned subsidiary of MCE Social Capital ("MCE"). The fund manager, MCE, is a U.S.-based non-profit impact investing firm with a solid 15+ years of track record.

FMO funds will be lent out to agricultural-focused SMEs with significant exposure to women, and rural and agricultural-focused tier 2 and 3 financial service providers in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

The proposed facility provides an opportunity for FMO to support MESA in straightening the financial infrastructure for smallholders and rural MSMEs in emerging markets.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - MCE Social Capital Parent Company -

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.

FMO
The Netherlands
+31 70 314 96 96
info@fmo.nl

FMO
South Africa
+27 11 507 2500
joburg-office@fmo.nl

FMO
Kenya
nairobi-office@fmo.nl

FMO
Costa Rica
sanjose-office@fmo.nl

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