FAO Launches Innovative Finance Initiatives in Latin America

FAO’s Office for Latin America and the Caribbean presented four initiatives that combine innovative financial mechanisms to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems across the region. These mechanisms, which include blended finance, green and climate bonds, guarantee and first-loss funds, and public-private partnerships, aim to mobilize and multiply investments by combining various funding sources and distributing risk. Their goal is not to replace traditional cooperation but to strengthen and expand it to achieve greater impact.

The initiatives were introduced during the opening of FAO Transforma 2025: Unlocking Finance for Agrifood Systems Transformation, a platform designed to integrate technical expertise, context-specific financing pathways, political will, and strategic positioning to advance concrete projects aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiative promotes FAO’s vision of Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment, and a Better Life, ensuring inclusivity across all actions.

At the event, Rene Orellana, Assistant Director-General, FAO and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasized the urgency of aligning financial flows to drive change. “Today we are gathered around a central and urgent issue: how to unlock, align, and leverage financial resources to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems. Without more agile and innovative financial mobilization, it will not be possible to achieve the structural change that the region and the world need,” he said.

He added that this edition of FAO Transforma was created to strengthen capacities, promote partnerships, and turn innovation and knowledge into investment and concrete action. “It is a space designed to build joint solutions that generate real impact in our territories and rural communities,” Orellana stated.

The four initiatives highlighted were focused on biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban and peri-urban areas of Chile; innovative financing and sustainable investments for transforming agrifood systems and achieving the SDGs in the Caribbean; ecosystem-based adaptation and climate resilience in the Central American Dry Corridor and the arid zones of the Dominican Republic; and the transformative impact of the Agrifood Systems Transformation Accelerator in Suriname.

FAO continues to strengthen its agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean by fostering strategic dialogue on how cooperation and innovative financial mechanisms can accelerate and sustain agrifood systems transformation. The organization seeks to reinforce its technical, facilitation, and coordination roles to ensure long-term, inclusive progress in the region.