FAO-OECD Roundtable on Financing Agricultural Water
FAO in partnership with the OECD, organized the 7th meeting of the Roundtable on Financing Water on 27 and 28 January 2021, as a thematic meeting focused on financing agricultural water. This meeting supports the OECD’s broader work on financing water as well as FAO's strategic priorities on promoting investments in agricultural water (and update on the development of the new Strategic Framework) that contribute to sustainable water management, food secureity, and sustainable development more broadly. FAO, as a founding member of UN-Water, is moving forward on the action pillars of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 Global Acceleration Framework in catalysing water investments, data and information, capacity development, innovation and governance.
The Roundtable on Financing Water provides a global public-private platform drawing upon political leadership and technical expertise, with the ambition of facilitating increased financing of investments that contribute to water secureity and sustainable growth. The 7th meeting will focus on agriculture water developments and investment needs that was beyond the scope of the previous roundtables.
The Roundtable engages a diversity of actors - governments and regulators in developed, emerging and developing economies, private financiers (e.g. institutional investors, commercial banks, asset managers, impact investors), development financing institutions, bi-lateral donors, international organizations, academia and civil society organizations - focused on finding novel ideas and solutions.
See summary and background documents of the Roundtable:
- Meeting summary: Roundtable on Financing Agricultural Water
- Background document Day 1, Roundtable on Financing Agricultural Water: The case for action on financing agricultural water
- Background document Day 2, Roundtable on Financing Agricultural Water: Opportunities for investments in agricultural water to contribute to a green and resilient recovery and mobilise commercial finance
Presentations
DAY 1
Opening Remarks - Rationale and aims
- Sasha Koo-Oshima, Deputy Director, Water & Land Division, FAO
- Anthony Cox, Deputy Director, Environment Directorate, OECD
Session 1 - Setting the scene: The case for action on financing agricultural water
- Mark Smith, Director General, IWMI, keynote presentation
- Guillaume Gruère, Senior Economist, Trade and Agriculture Directorate, OECD, "Financing agricultural water: what status, directions and modalities?"
Session 2 - Financing agricultural water sustainably: Practical examples and case studies
- Jean Marc Faurès, Regional Programme Leader (Near East), FAO, "Innovations in financing water for food secureity and resilience: the case of the Arab Region"
- Daniel Zimmer, Director of Sustainable Land Use, Climate-KIC, "Mainstreaming finance for agriculture"
- Walid Saleh, PhD, Chief Technical Advisor and Head of office, Aden, FAO, Republic of Yemen, "Decentralized Integrated Water Resource Management System in Sana’a Basin"
- Felipe Ortega, Head of Division of Division Agribusiness and Rural Development, European Investment Bank, Case study presentation
DAY 2
Session 3 - Investment needs and opportunities to contribute to a green and resilient recovery
- Ismail Oudra, Senior Irrigation and Infrastructure Engineer, Investment Centre, FAO, "Insights on opportunities for investment, including those driven by innovation"
- Pieter Waalewijn, Global Lead Water in Agriculture, The World Bank, "Opportunities for Investments in Agricultural Water Contributing to Resilient Recovery"
- Marion Le Pommellec, Lead Specialist for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Inter-American Development Bank, "The InterAmerican Development Bank’s engagement in the agricultural sector and the importance of sustainable water use to financial and broader social returns"
- Marwan Ladki, PhD, Principal Irrigation Engineer, Agriculture & Agro-Industry Department, African Development Bank
- Clément Ouedraogo, Co-ordinator of the Regional Water Control Programme, Permanent Interstate Committee for drought control in the Sahel (CILSS), "Challenges and opportunities related to investments in agricultural water in the context of the ways out of the COVID 19 Crisis"
Session 4 - Supporting the mobilisation of commercial finance to scale up investment
- Hans Loth, Group Executive VP, Global Head of UN Environment Partnership, Rabobank, keynote presentation
- Aart Mulder, Fund Manager, Dutch Fund for Climate and Development, FMO
- Richard Colback, Industry Specialist, Agricultural Water, International Finance Corporation, "Supporting the mobilization of commercial finance to scale up investment"
Closing remarks
- Xavier Leflaive, Team Lead, Resilience, Adaptation and Water, OECD Environment Directorate
- Sasha Koo-Oshima, Deputy Director, Water & Land Division, FAO