10 October 2023 | 14:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
This is an invitation-only event.

This workshop will feature diverse, innovative leaders in food systems transformation — from which all of us have much to learn. We’ll also share a framework we developed for understanding finance as a critical tool for donors and philanthropists to understand how they can best support food systems transformation.

As you know, to transform agriculture is to get to the heart of all the most urgent crises of our time: food insecurity, poverty, ecosystem destruction, and the climate crisis. Oftentimes, well-intended solutions with a singular focus like profit or carbon, can reinforce business-as-usual practices, rather than address systemic issues through an interconnected approach.

At a time of heightened financial and global uncertainty, and an endless stream of headlines showing the failures of past solutions, we must rethink how we leverage capital for the future we want.

Organized by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, A Growing Culture, Transformational Investing in Food Systems Initiative (TIFS), and Integrated Capital Investing, this workshop will explore how capital holders can better partner with food/social movements and food entrepreneurs, in order to maximize impact, and support a socially just transformation of food systems. Drawing upon the Mobilizing Money and Movements: Creative Finance for Food Systems Transformation report, this workshop will share the stories of:

• Ahilan Kadirgamar: a rural sociologist who leads a cooperative development bank in Sri Lanka providing inclusive financial products
• Sylvia Banda: a food entrepreneur in Zambia promoting Indigenous cuisine and food preservation
• Jon Jandai: a seed saver in Thailand creating a fair business model for farmers, and
• Mark Watson: an investor in the United States creating an integrated racial justice capital fund for farmers

Participants can expect to learn about the role of capital in financing food systems transformation across social, economic and political spheres. Moreover, we will share a newly developed specialized framework for evaluating programs, investments, and opportunities that can be used to navigate financial strategy in food systems change.

EVENT INFORMATION

Date: 10 October 2023
Time: 14:00 UTC (check your local time here)
Location: Virtual
This is an invitation-only event.