donor mapping: climate change and agriculture activities
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Donor Mapping: Climate Change and
Agriculture Activities
November 2013
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | November 2013 Page 1 of 48
Acknowledgements
Meridian Institute gratefully acknowledges the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the
participation of the organizations and individuals who took part in the interview process.
About Meridian Institute
Meridian Institute is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people solve problems,
make informed decisions, and find solutions to some of society’s most complex and
controversial issues. Meridian’s mission is accomplished through applying collaborative
problem-solving approaches including facilitation, mediation, and other strategic consultation
services. Meridian works at the local, national, and international levels and focuses on a wide
range of issues related to natural resources and environment, energy, and climate change,
agriculture and food security, sustainability, global stability, and health. For more information,
please visit www.merid.org.
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation supports work that expands opportunity and strengthens resilience
to social, economic, health and environmental challenges—affirming its pioneering
philanthropic mission since 1913 to promote the well-being of humanity.
The Foundation operates both within the United States and around the world. The Foundation's
efforts are overseen by an independent Board of Trustees and managed by its president through
a leadership team drawn from scholarly, scientific, and professional disciplines. For more
information, please visit www.rockefellerfoundation.org.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | November 2013 Page 2 of 48
Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................... 3
Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Donor Profiles ............................................................................................................................................. 5
African Development Bank (AfDB) ............................................................................................ 6
Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) ................................................................................... 8
Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) ....................................................... 10
David and Lucile Packard Foundation .................................................................................... 12
Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development Canada (DFATD) .............................................. 14
Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID) .................... 16
Ford Foundation ......................................................................................................................... 18
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation ...................................................................................... 20
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) ............................................................................... 21
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) ................................................... 23
McKnight Foundation ................................................................................................................ 25
The Rockefeller Foundation ...................................................................................................... 27
Skoll Foundation ......................................................................................................................... 29
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture ................................................................. 31
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) .......................................... 33
World Bank Agriculture and Environmental Services .......................................................... 35
World Bank BioCarbon Fund .................................................................................................... 37
Donor-Identified Trends ......................................................................................................................... 39
Meridian Observations ............................................................................................................................ 42
Possible Areas for Future Exploration .................................................................................................. 47
Report Authors and Contact Information ............................................................................................ 48
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | November 2013 Page 3 of 48
Executive Summary
During the summer of 2013 Meridian Institute interviewed seventeen donors funding climate
change and agriculture activities, including multilateral, bilateral, and philanthropic funders.
This effort was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and was intended to provide a
landscape overview of the nature of the activities being supported by the range of donors
interviewed. Meridian used the information provided in these interviews to assemble two-page
donor profiles that have been reviewed, edited, and approved by the interviewees. These
profiles describe donor activities along four categories:
Climate change and agriculture activities,
Financing for climate change and agriculture,
Geographic emphasis, and
Donor evolution over time.
The donors provided significant additional information that was not captured in these profiles,
which was broken into donor-identified substantive and funding trends. Donor-identified
substantive trends included: climate change mainstreaming across existing donor programs;
elevation of gender issues; growing interest in landscape-scale, integrated approaches; and
increased availability of and access to high quality data.
Donor-identified funding trends include: bilateral donors collaborating to engage multilateral
implementation partners; increasing activity by small philanthropies alone and in collaboration
with others; public-private partnerships that combine grantmaking with investments of money
and technology; shifting relationship between traditional development assistance and results-
based payments; and growing private sector interest in long-term supply chain sustainability.
Following the donor profiles and donor-identified trends, Meridian drew conclusions about the
available information through multiple lenses of analysis, including:
The significance of donors using shared terms, often with different definitions, in
describing activities,
Different donor entry points into the climate change and agriculture arena, and
The varying definitions and views of partnerships.
The assessment concludes with a collection of possible areas for future exploration, including:
A more complete characterization of donors and investors in the climate change and
agriculture space,
A more detailed examination of the meta-funding trends, and
Better accounting of the range and categorization of climate change co-benefits.1
1 Co-benefits are positive outcomes associated with a particular undertaking that occur in addition to the
planned benefit. For example, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or improved resilience to weather
disturbances achieved through implementation of on-farm practices intended to improve water quality.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | November 2013 Page 4 of 48
Overview
This assessment was motivated by a sense that there is a growing body of investment and
donor experience in agriculture and climate change, and that increased awareness of these
investments and experience could assist current and prospective donors better understand each
other’s work. For example, at the conclusion of a Meridian-convened Learning from Early
Experiences and Interventions Workshop in Rome, Italy in November 2012 participants, donors,
and implementers alike indicated that a lack of collective knowledge about what is being
funded and what lessons could be drawn from that funding is resulting in missed opportunities
for innovation and collaboration. They suggested that an improved, even rudimentary,
understanding of donor substantive and geographic emphases and identification of some
trends in financial support for climate change and agriculture activities could benefit many who
are active in this arena.
The project team conducted structured one-hour interviews with bilateral, multilateral, and
philanthropic donors; donor alliances; and other funders during the summer of 2013. The
interviews were organized to allow for maximum interaction and dialogue. Five overarching
questions guided the interviews:
This project was designed as an exploratory effort that focused on a cross-section of funders.
This assessment does not include the complete set of all donors engaged in climate change and
agriculture. In this regard the interviews confirmed that there is a broadening and increasingly
diverse community of donors and actors supporting climate change and agriculture work,
including the private sector, new and evolving public-private partnerships, small
philanthropies, emerging economy aid agencies, and impact investors.2
Many of those interviewed suggested that any potential further work should consider: 1)
including an even more diverse range of entities engaged in climate change and agriculture
2 Impact investing is a form of socially responsible investing in which investors channel funds into
companies or organizations to generate measurable social and environmental impact in addition to
financial returns.
1. What are the areas of emphasis of your organization’s climate change and agriculture
funding?
2. How long has your organization been funding climate change and agriculture
activities? How and why was it initiated?
3. Are there particular substantive or geographic areas of focus? Have these changed
over time?
4. What is the relative percentage of funding allocated to each of your organization’s
focus areas? Has this changed over time? Might it change?
5. Do you have any funding partners on these efforts?
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | November 2013 Page 5 of 48
funding and finance and 2) exploring emerging substantive and funding trends in greater
detail.
Donor Profiles
Meridian Institute conducted interviews with seventeen bilateral, multilateral, philanthropic
donors and donor alliances. The following profiles are designed to present a snapshot of the
work each donor supports across four categories:
The donor profiles, including all figures and percentages, were reviewed by the relevant donor.
Since many donors integrate their climate change and agriculture funding with other
priorities many funding numbers included in this assessment are approximations.
On the maps included in each profile, dots represent countries, stars represent regions where
projects are underway, and ellipses represent a global focus.
The donors profiled include:
o African Development Bank
o Climate and Land Use Alliance
o Climate Development Knowledge Network
o David and Lucile Packard Foundation
o Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and
Development (Canada)
o Department for International
Development (United Kingdom)
o Ford Foundation
o Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
o Inter-American Development Bank
o International Foundation for Agricultural
Development
o McKnight Foundation
o The Rockefeller Foundation
o Skoll Foundation
o Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable
Agriculture
o United States Agency for International
Development
o World Bank Agriculture and
Environmental Services
o Word Bank BioCarbon Fund
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
Geographic Emphasis
Donor Evolution
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | African Development Bank • November 2013 Page 6 of 48
African Development Bank (AfDB)
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is charged
with promoting sustainable economic development
and social progress in its 53 regional member
countries. AfDB’s objectives are aligned with the
United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
http://www.afdb.org/en/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
AfDB advances climate adaptation and resilience
through investments in sustainable development
including sustainable agriculture, water resources,
development, health, and climate risk reduction.
There are a number of points of intersection between
the AfDB’s work on agriculture and adaptation to
climate change:
Climate Change Action Plan: This plan spans
from 2011-2015, and rests on three pillars:
o low-carbon development;
o climate change adaptation; and
o a climate change funding platform that is
implementable through a variety of
financing options.
The plan operationalizes the AfDB’s Climate Risk Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy focused
on funding initiatives that promote and facilitate adaptation to climate change across multiple
sectors. This Strategy includes mitigating the economic costs of climate change on the African
agricultural sector. The Climate Change Action Plan includes measures to “climate-proof”
agricultural projects by screening for climate risks and improving climate resilience. The plan
also aims to develop carbon accounting to quantify and offset emissions related to agricultural
practices and seeks to build adaptive capacity throughout the African continent.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
AfDB provided $381.7 million to agriculture and food security programming in 2012. Since
AfDB’s funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation is mainstreamed across all
sectors, AfDB does not track how much of its agricultural programming includes climate
change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Multilateral
Founded: 1964
Composition: 53 African countries
(regional members), 24 non-African
countries (non-regional members)
Time Funding Climate Change and
Agriculture: Climate Change, 8 years;
Agriculture, 49 years
Total Annual Funding: $4.25 billion
(in 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding)
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Mitigation
Adaptation
Climate-resilient agriculture
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | African Development Bank • November 2013 Page 7 of 48
Geographic Emphasis
African Continent (53 countries):
Infrastructure development in energy,
agriculture and environment, water,
and sanitation
Donor Evolution
AfDB has been funding initiatives
related to crop irrigation, livestock
development, forestry and plantation agriculture since its founding in 1964. The creation (2008)
and operationalization (2011) of the Climate Risk Mitigation and Adaptation strategy represents
a concerted shift toward implementing a focus on climate in investments for agricultural
development, among other initiatives.
AfDB recently launched a Ten Year Strategy for 2013-2022 which includes two objectives:
o inclusive growth and
o transition to green growth.
Agriculture and food security is one of three areas of special emphasis within this strategy. To
implement the Ten Year Strategy, AfDB will continue its work to leverage funding streams to
meet the financing demands for low-carbon and climate-resilient development in Africa,
including in the agricultural sector.
The star represents the region in which this donor supports climate
change and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | CLUA • November 2013 Page 8 of 48
Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA)
The Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) is a
collaborative initiative of the ClimateWorks
Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
Ford Foundation, and Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation that seeks to catalyze the potential of
forested and agricultural landscapes to mitigate
climate change, benefit people, and protect the
environment. The bulk of CLUA’s programming is
related to reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation in developing countries, including
the role of conservation, sustainable management of
forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks
(REDD+).3
http://www.climateandlandusealliance.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
From its inception 3.5 years ago CLUA has been
funding agriculture and climate change in two areas:
Agriculture as a driver of deforestation: Funding
focuses on both supply and demand for palm oil,
paper, and pulp in Indonesia, and soy and
livestock in Brazil. Demand side funding
emphasizes the introduction of sustainability into
supply chains and the avoidance of sourcing key
commodities from areas with high rates of
deforestation. On the supply side, CLUA funds in-country action to improve sustainability
for several key commodities.
Agriculture emissions (separate from forests): Several members of CLUA (primarily the
Packard Foundation) invest in US-based measures to encourage offsets for greenhouse gas
emissions and change on-farm practices.
3 REDD+ was introduced at the 13th Conference of Parties in 2007 as part of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia. REDD+ a mechanism to
develop policies to curb emissions from deforestation and forest degrading activities and to enhance
forests’ capacity to remove greenhouse gases through afforestation and reforestation in developing
countries. More information about REDD+ is available at: http://www.un-redd.org.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Alliance of philanthropic
foundations
Founded: 2010
Composition: Alliance between:
David & Lucile Packard
Foundation
Ford Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation
ClimateWorks Foundation
Time Funding in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 3.5 years
Total Annual Funding: ~$50 million
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~25%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Agriculture as a driver of
deforestation
Greenhouse gas mitigation
Biofuels development
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | CLUA • November 2013 Page 9 of 48
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
Approximately 25% of CLUA’s funding profile is
related to agriculture and climate change. This is equally
split between drivers of deforestation, agricultural
emissions, and biofuels.
Geographic Emphasis
Brazil: Agriculture as a driver of deforestation for soy
and livestock production; biofuels (supply-side)
Indonesia: Agriculture as a driver of deforestation for
palm oil; biofuels (supply-side)
United States: Mitigating greenhouse gas
emissions by incorporating conservation
measures into US agricultural producers’
practices; biofuels (both supply & demand
sides)
Global: Climate and land use, including
eliminating forest and peat land conversion
and degradation, and REDD+
Donor Evolution
Historically, CLUA has primarily concentrated funding efforts related to REDD+. A recent
external review of CLUA’s programs identified agriculture as a “missing piece” of the
Alliance’s overall grant making portfolio. As a result, several CLUA members have shifted
resources more specifically to agricultural practices in addition to forested landscapes, a trend
that will continue in the coming years. For example, the Packard Foundation has shifted
resources to invest $10 million per year to work on greenhouse gas emissions mitigation from
agriculture, and the Moore Foundation is shifting its historical approach of biodiversity to
drivers of deforestation, taking a commodity-based approach. CLUA is also investing in an
effort to identify existing opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
Climate
and Ag
25%
Other
Initiatives
75%
The dots represent countries in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities. The ellipse represents a global focus.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | CDKN • November 2013 Page 10 of 48
Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)
The Climate & Development Knowledge Network
(CDKN) is an alliance of organizations with a hub in
London and implementing partners in Latin America
and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. CDKN is funded
by the United Kingdom Department for International
Development (DFID) and the Netherlands
Directorate-General for International Development
(DGIS). CDKN supports decision-makers design and
deliver climate compatible development by
combining research, advisory services, and
knowledge management on four strategic themes: 1)
climate compatible development strategies and plans;
2) improving developing countries’ access to climate
finance; 3) strengthening resilience through climate-
related disaster risk management; and 4) supporting
climate negotiators from least developed and most
vulnerable countries. CDKN works in partnership
with decision-makers in the public, private, and non-
profit sectors nationally, regionally and globally.
http://cdkn.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
Agriculture and food security are cross-cutting
themes spanning 35 of CDKN’s projects focused on
climate compatible development. Twenty-six of these
are research projects implemented by partnerships
between research institutions, ministries, universities,
and non-governmental organizations. Nine are
technical assistance projects administered through
government channels. The projects on climate
compatible development through an agriculture lens
span several categories:
Climate-smart agriculture: Three projects apply
the triple-win of adaptation, mitigation, and
economic benefits and social development.
Ground-level adaptation: Fourteen projects explore how to adapt to climate change in the
agriculture sector, particularly at the community and local levels. For example, how to
bridge and appreciate commonalities between indigenous and scientific knowledge.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Alliance of
organizations
Founded: 2010
Composition: Funding partnership
between:
United Kingdom Department
for International Development
Netherlands Directorate-
General for International
Development (DGIS)
Alliance managed between several
implementing partners:
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
(PwC)
Fundación Futuro
Latinoamericano
INTRAC
LEAD International
Overseas Development
Institute (ODI)
SouthSouthNorth
Time Funding Climate Change and
Agriculture: 3 years
Total Funding: £72 million over 5
years (2010 – 2015)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~5%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Climate-smart agriculture
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | CDKN • November 2013 Page 11 of 48
Adaptive capacity: Thirteen projects directly or indirectly investigate the conditions
necessary to improve adaptive capacity at community, sub-national and/or national level to
achieve food and water security and ecosystem service improvement.
Biodiversity, ecosystem services, and food and water security: Eight projects examine the
link between water, food, energy, and climate security; measure changes in resilience to
climate impacts on those factors; and explore innovative mechanisms to promote improved
land management.
Poverty alleviation: Eight projects center directly on delivering adaptation and poverty
alleviation in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries through improved agricultural
practices and encouraging land use and land management strategies that enhance carbon
storage.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
CDKN is jointly funded by the UK Department for International
Development (DFID) and the Netherlands Directorate-General
for International Cooperation (DGIS). CDKN has disbursed £4
million to date for projects related to climate change and
agriculture.
Geographic
Emphasis
CDKN’s work on
climate compatible
development tied to agriculture is based in
eastern Africa. A number of projects are also in
Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as
South and South-East Asia.
Donor Evolution
CDKN is a five-year program initiated in 2010 and scheduled to conclude in 2015. The theme of
agriculture and food security emerged during the second year of CDKN’s operations and
continues to evolve based on project developments. CDKN draws from lessons generated from
ongoing and past projects to develop its portfolio of work. An important element of CDKN’s
strategic approach to informing decision-making is knowledge management. CDKN clearly
communicates about ongoing work by publishing stories, policy briefs, and blogs with up-to-
date information and analysis. Continual knowledge management helps CDKN draw lessons
from work and present those lessons for external review and use. This is a primary tenet in
CDKN’s belief that key messages, research, policy-making, and communications are mutually
beneficial.
Other
Activities
~85%
Climate
and Ag
~5%
The stars represent regions in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Packard Foundation • November 2013 Page 12 of 48
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The Packard Foundation uses the lens of science to
support work to improve the human condition and to
restore the planet’s health. The Foundation works
primarily on issues related to improving the lives of
children, enabling the creative pursuit of science,
advancing reproductive health, and conserving and
restoring the earth’s natural systems.
http://www.packard.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The Foundation’s agriculture strategy was one
component of a 2008 commitment to provide $500
million over seven years to support work on climate
change mitigation. Approximately $100 million of that
commitment is dedicated to land use mitigation
opportunities. The Foundation’s work on agriculture
and climate includes three core activities:
Biofuels Policy and Markets: The Foundation’s work supports the creation of a global set of
biofuels sustainability standards, encouraging government and industry to implement those
standards, and reforming policies incentivizing the development of unsustainable biofuels.
These efforts were designed to ensure that the growing interest in biofuels does not result in
increased GHG emissions and does not have other negative impacts on the environment
and food security.
Climate Policy and Practice: The Foundation provides funds to develop protocols for
measuring reductions in agriculture emissions and incorporating agricultural offsets in
GHG compliance markets. This work is focused on the California cap-and-trade program.
Food and Farm Policy and Practice: This work includes research and advocacy to maintain
and increase funding for conservation programs included in the US Farm Bill, to support the
inclusion of emissions mitigation as a component of conservation, and to promote reform of
policies resulting in increases greenhouse gas emissions.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Philanthropic
Foundation
Founded: 1964
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 5 years
Total Annual Funding: $252 million
(grants awarded in 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~4% ($10
million USD annually)
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Emissions mitigation
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Packard Foundation • November 2013 Page 13 of 48
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
The Foundation’s annual budget of approximately $10 million to
fund its agriculture work is evenly divided between biofuels,
climate policy, and U.S. food and farm policy.
Geographic Emphasis
Global: Biofuels
United States: Climate Policy and Practice
& Food and Farm Policy and Practice
Donor Evolution
To date, the Foundation’s support for climate change and agriculture has had the goals of
reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen pollution caused by agricultural practices
in the United States and by biofuels production globally. The Foundation has resources allotted
for agriculture and climate programming through the end of 2014 when its seven-year
commitment to support climate change mitigation initiatives will conclude. The work on
biofuels and climate policy will remain largely the same during this time period, while the
United States federal farm policy work is likely to be scaled back.
In the future, the Foundation will reallocate some of the resources previously directed toward
federal farm policy work in two new areas: 1)support for supply chain approaches to
agricultural emissions reductions from agriculture and 2) increased support for international
efforts to reduce emissions from agricultural practices. This international approach will include
close coordination with Packard’s partners in the CLUA (see above) and may involve greater
attention to palm oil production in Indonesia and exploration of other opportunities to reduce
emissions from agriculture. The Foundation’s funding for climate and agriculture beyond 2014
is yet to be determined.
Other
Initiatives
96%
Climate
and Ag
4%
The dot represents a country in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities. The ellipse represents a global focus.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | DFATD • November 2013 Page 14 of 48
Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development Canada (DFATD, formerly Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA)
In 2013, Canada established the Department of
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD)
merging the former Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) with the Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).
DFATD is charged with directing and implementing
Canada’s international development and
humanitarian assistance programs in addition to its
foreign affairs and international trade functions.
Canada applies three cross-cutting themes to its
development programming: increasing environmental
sustainability, advancing equality between women
and men, and helping to strengthen governance
institutions and practices. The first of these themes is
the one most directly related to funding for the issue of climate change and agriculture.
http://www.international.gc.ca/international/index.aspx?lang=eng
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The information below details historic CIDA funding activities given the transition taking place
during the writing of this report. Historically there have been several specific channels through
which Canadian development assistance has sought to impact climate change and agriculture.
This has primarily included adaptation and productivity with little emphasis on mitigation:
DFATD’s Food Security Strategy: This work is focused on meeting sustainable agricultural
development targets smallholder farmers in developing countries, and includes climate
change considerations. Programming includes adaptation for smallholder agriculture,
climate-smart agriculture, and climate finance, among other topics.
Fast Start Financing Initiatives: In 2009, Canada pledged C$1.2 billion over 3 years (2010-
2012) to fund fast-start climate change programming initiatives deployed through a range of
partners. Approximately 26% of the fast start funds (or C$312 million) have been dedicated
specifically to adaptation, forestry, and agriculture-related projects.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
CIDA allocated climate funds through bilateral, multilateral, and partnership program
channels. CIDA’s bilateral approach related to food security has traditionally been responsive to
grantees’ interest and need. CIDA’s multilateral climate funding has largely been channeled
through large climate change funds administered by multilateral institutions.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Bilateral
Founded: 1968 (CIDA); 2013 (DFATD)
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: >10 years
Total Annual Funding: C$3.2 billion
(for 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding)
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | DFATD • November 2013 Page 15 of 48
In 2012/13, 21% of CIDA’s annual budget of C$3.2 billion was channeled into food security
programming. In the past 4 years (2009-2014), an average of about C$320 million (or 40% of all
food security disbursements) has been annually allocated to sustainable agricultural
development, which includes a climate change lens.
Geographic Emphasis
Sustainable Agricultural Development:
Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America,
Southeast Asia
Fast Start Financing Initiatives: Latin
America/Caribbean, Sub-Saharan
Africa, South Asia, East Asia/Pacific
Donor Evolution
CIDA adopted an environmental sustainability policy in 1992 and managed the Canada Climate
Change Development Fund from 2000 to 2005 with a budget of C$100 million over 5 years. The
Department recently adopted the new OECD climate change adaptation policy marker to better
examine climate change spending under different programs including food security and
agriculture-related initiatives.
The stars represent regions in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | DFID • November 2013 Page 16 of 48
Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID)
The charge of the Department for International
Development of the United Kingdom (DFID) is to
promote sustainable development and eliminate
world poverty. DFID funds education, health, social
services, water supply and sanitation, government
and civil society, economic activities, environmental
protection, research, and humanitarian assistance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/depar
tment-for-international-development
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
DFID’s work on climate change and agriculture is
directed through several mechanisms:
International Climate Fund (ICF): This is the UK’s
fund designed to provide climate finance. Up to
50% of the ICF is targeted at helping the world’s
poorest populations adapt to climate change,
including through CDKN (see above). The balance
of the ICF is used to support investments in low
carbon development (30%) and forestry (20%).
Many of the activities funding adaptation are
related to agriculture and food security.
Evaluation and Indicators: DFID partnered with several other organizations4 to jointly
develop a Food Security Learning Framework. DFID aims to undertake similar work to
demonstrate useful thematic indicators on agriculture. DFID is building on this to develop
thematic indicators on adaptation and agriculture for the International Climate Fund. These
will be used for impact and strategic evaluations.
Research funding: DFID supports the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) including a research program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food
Security. DFID also supports bilateral programs that include research on climate change and
agriculture. One example is a joint program with the International Development Research
Centre on the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia. DFID also
4 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD), Millennium Challenge Corporation, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), US Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank, and World Food Programme.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Bilateral
Founded: 1997 (formerly it was the
Overseas Development Administration)
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 20 + years (early
1990’s)
Total Annual Funding: £6.7 billion
(overall) and £1.4 billion (capital) in
2011-2012
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding)
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Climate-smart and climate-
resilient agriculture
Adaptation with a focus on co-
benefits
Sustainable intensification
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | DFID • November 2013 Page 17 of 48
supports research into the sustainable intensification of agriculture including the
development of the new agriculture technology, products and knowledge needed to combat
future threats to the global food system including climate change. This includes work on the
development of metrics and research on the trade-offs involved in sustainable
intensification, support to transformative approaches such as support to C4 rice and water
efficient maize for Africa.
Country programs: DFID has a devolved structure, and under its country programmes
supports projects at a national level that incude support to climate change, food and
nutrition security.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
The ICF was designed to provide £2.9 billion for climate-related issues between 2011 and 2015.
Agriculture comprises a significant component of the 50% of ICF funds targeted at helping the
world’s poorest populations adapt to climate change. DFID’s flagship investment is £150
million to IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program (ASAP). DFID also supports
the role of private sector in development through public-private partnerships focused on
improving farmers’ access to markets and
developing agricultural value chains.
Geographic Emphasis
Global: Focus on Africa and South Asia through
multi-lateral investments.
Climate-smart and Climate Resilient Agriculture:
Southern Africa, South Asia, and Brazil
Donor Evolution
DFID has been funding work related to climate
variability and research programs through the
CGIAR and other institutions for several decades. DFID established a natural resource research
program 1992, which included an implicit understanding of the connection between climate
variability and agriculture. DFID began explicitly financing agriculture projects through a
climate change lens in the 2000’s, including supporting the founding the CGIAR research
program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security in 2010. Also in 2010, DFID began
to work specifically on climate change in the context of agriculture and forestry through the use
of climate financing. DFID will continue to develop metrics and performance indicators for the
ICF to track the results and impact of investment. DFID is also developing the “Future Fit
Initiative” to determine what strategic shifts in key sectors, including food, are needed to
respond to the challenges of climate change and resource scarcity in achieving development
objectives.
The stars represent regions and the dot represents a country in which this
donor supports climate change and agriculture activities. The oval
represents a global focus.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Ford Foundation • November 2013 Page 18 of 48
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation works toward four goals
through its programming: strengthen democratic
values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote
international cooperation, and advance human
achievement.
http://www.fordfoundation.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The primary focus of Ford’s climate work is on
REDD+. Ford organizes all its funding around
initiatives. Three of these initiatives relate to
agriculture, including climate change:
Expanding Community Rights Over Natural
Resources: Improves natural resource policies and
programs to provide poor and marginalized
groups with access and ownership over natural
resources, including land-use planning and
development
Climate Change Responses that Strengthen Rural Communities: Addresses flawed policies
in order to better promote sustainable land and resource management to help mitigate
climate change (note: funding allocated through this initiative is almost entirely channeled
through CLUA, and is largely related to REDD+ policies)
Expanding Livelihood Opportunities for Poor Households: Centers on developing value
chains and improving delivery systems.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
These three initiatives together, which comprise all of Ford’s grant making
related to climate change and agriculture, comprise roughly 6% of Ford’s
annual $478 million in grants.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Philanthropic
Foundation
Founded: 1936
History of Granting in Climate
Change and Agriculture: 3 years
Total Annual Funding: ~$478 million
(in FY 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~6%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Biofuels development
Land use, tenure, and rights
Resource management
Climate
and Ag
6%
Other
Initiatives
94%
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Ford Foundation • November 2013 Page 19 of 48
Geographic Emphasis
Expanding Community Rights Initiative: Mexico and Central America, Brazil, East Africa, India,
Indonesia, China
Climate Change Responses Initiative: Indonesia
Expanding Livelihood Opportunities Initiative: Mexico and Central America, West Africa, East
Africa, Southern Africa, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia
Donor Evolution
Ford Foundation has been involved
in international agriculture since the
early 1960’s when Ford partnered
with the The Rockefeller Foundation
in supporting preparatory activities
leading to the founding of the
CGIAR in 1971 and other initiatives
during the Green Revolution. Ford’s
efforts shifted to agricultural systems
in the 1970’s to take into account
more diverse and resource-poor areas. Ford began supporting work on forestry and related
issues in the early 1980’s. Until Ford’s current initiatives were created in 2010 the foundation
did not have any specific programmatic emphasis on climate change.
Joining CLUA (see above) allowed the Foundation to enter the climate change granting space
through aligned grant making. This allowed Ford to incrementally grow their climate change
funding over time. Funding to address climate change and food security concerns may continue
in the coming years.
The stars represent regions and the dots represent countries in which this
donor supports climate change and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Moore Foundation • November 2013 Page 20 of 48
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation seeks to
advance environmental conservation, scientific
research, and patient care, both globally and in the
San Francisco Bay Area. The Foundation’s
combination of programs and initiatives are guided
by a set of core values including impact, integrity,
disciplined approach, and collaboration.
http://www.moore.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The Moore Foundation does not currently have any
initiatives specifically on climate change and
agriculture. The Foundation’s work on conservation
practices has positive climate change outcomes, but
not with an explicit agricultural lens. Many efforts are focused on mitigating impacts from
drivers of deforestation. The Foundation’s Environmental Conservation program includes
conserving biodiversity and climate function in the Amazon Basin and fostering
environmentally sound land use practices. The Foundation is a member of CLUA (see above)
and therefore specific strategies related to land use change, specifically drivers of deforestation
in Brazil, are aligned with CLUA’s strategy.
Geographic Emphasis
Andes/Amazon Region: Maintaining
biodiversity
Donor Evolution
As part of its work in alignment with
CLUA, the Moore Foundation
provided short-term funding to
support early capacity-building work
on REDD+ in preparation for the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in
Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009.
The Foundation is currently looking into developing a program on sustainable agriculture,
specifically on beef and soy production in South America. This program will include work to
minimize the habitat impacts of producing these commodities.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Philanthropic
Foundation
Founded: 2000
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: N/A
Total Annual Funding: ~$300 million
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding as work is not
currently organized as such)
The star represents a region in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | IDB • November 2013 Page 21 of 48
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is the
leading source of development financing for Latin
America and the Caribbean. IBD has a strong
commitment to achieve measurable results, increased
integrity, transparency, and accountability. IDB
supports economic development by lending to central
governments, provinces, municipalities, private firms,
and non-governmental organizations through a wide
range of programs and topics.
http://www.iadb.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
IDB’s primary goal for agriculture projects is to
accelerate growth of agricultural output in Latin
America and the Caribbean and to promote
sustainable management of natural resources. IDB has
financed projects addressing aspects of climate change
for decades. The 2010 Ninth General Capital Increase
for IDB included a Bank-wide mandate to dedicate
25% of funding to support the region’s adaptation to
and mitigation of climate change by 2015. This emphasis applies IDB’s three primary
instruments for administering agriculture-related funding:
Specific Investment Loans: As IDB’s primary financing mechanisms, these loans support
operations with large, interdependent components. These include climate change
considerations early in project design, like factoring potential emissions mitigation
opportunities in planning irrigation drainage projects.
Policy-Based Loans: These loans focus on catalyzing reform or institutional changes, rather
than directly financing on-the-ground initiatives.
Technical Cooperation: These loans finance institutional strengthening activities that
provide tools and training to translate lessons learned in one area or region to others. One
example is translating techniques for low-emissions production of commodities in Brazil for
European organic food markets to other countries, like Paraguay.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
IDB’s lending for Agriculture and Rural Development is cyclical and shifts from year to year.
For example, in 2011 IDB approved $623 million for agriculture projects and in 2012 approved
$134 million. While many of these projects had direct or indirect links to climate change, IDB
does not catalogue financing specifically related to climate change and agriculture.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Multilateral
Founded: 1959
Composition: 48 member countries
(including 26 borrowing members)
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: ~5 years
Total Annual Funding: $11.4 billion
(lending and grants in 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding)
Terms Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Adaptation to climate change
Mitigation of emissions
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | IDB • November 2013 Page 22 of 48
Geographic Emphasis
IDB’s funding is channeled to its 26
borrowing members throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean.
Donor Evolution
IDB has been funding activities that
indirectly address climate change for
decades. IDB has responded to the
growing global concern about climate change by explicitly committing to fund climate-related
activities across programs, including agriculture. Climate factors are being mainstreamed into
many IDB-funded projects, both by adopting measures to adapt to changing climate patterns
and by scaling techniques to mitigate emissions. IDB has supported projects with climate
change mainstreamed into the project design in Argentina and Uruguay, and several others are
under development. The Bank will continue to fulfill its mandate for 25% of funding for
adaptation and mitigation by 2015, and will place particular emphasis on mitigation,
adaptation, and sustainable practices.
The star represents a region in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | IFAD • November 2013 Page 23 of 48
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
The International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) is a specialized agency
of the United Nations that combats rural
hunger and poverty in developing countries
through a combination of low-interest loans
and direct assistance.
http://www.ifad.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
IFAD addresses a wide range of rural policy
issues from gender to community-driven
development and has established one primary
program to fund climate change and
agriculture.
Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture
Programme (ASAP): This program was
launched by IFAD in 2012. It channels
climate and environmental finance to
smallholder farmers to bolster resilience to
climate risks. ASAP is a multi-year and
multi-donor program with the objective of improving the resilience and adaptive capacity of
at least 8 million smallholder farmers in the face of rapidly changing environmental
conditions. The program is a new source of grant co-financing for existing IFAD agricultural
projects, adding activities related to climate risk management. Through ASAP, IFAD is
driving a major scaling-up of successful “multiple-benefit” approaches to smallholder
agriculture, seeking to improve production while simultaneously reducing and diversifying
climate-related risks.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
ASAP has mobilized $330 million since the program’s establishment in
2012. This represents approximately 12.5% of IFAD’s annual lending and
granting budget of $1 billion. As of 30 September 2013, US$ 102 million
have been programmed for ASAP-supported initiatives at country level.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Multilateral
Founded: 1977
Composition: 172 member states (a full list is
available at
http://www.ifad.org/governance/ifad/ms.htm)
Time Granting in Climate Change and
Agriculture: 2 years
Total Annual Funding: ~ $1 billion
Percentage of Funding for Climate Change
and Agriculture: ~12.5%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate Change
and Agriculture Activities:
Climate-resilient agriculture
Multiple-benefit adaptation approaches
Climate-smart agriculture for
smallholders
Other
Initiatives
87.5%
Climate
and Ag
12.5%
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | IFAD • November 2013 Page 24 of 48
Geographic Emphasis
The program is focused on the world’s poorest
and most vulnerable countries. Mozambique
was the first project approved by the IFAD
Executive Board in September 2012; 25 new
ASAP investments are in an early or advanced
stage of design, including countries from
Asia (Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Nepal), West and Central Africa (Mali,
Nigeria, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Gambia, DR Congo, Cote d’ Ivoire), East and Southern Africa
(Tanzania, Madagascar, Uganda, Lesotho, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi), Latin America (Bolivia,
Nicaragua), Near East/North Africa (Djibouti, Yemen, Sudan) and Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan).
Donor Evolution
IFAD’s funding has historically centered on poverty alleviation with agricultural development
as an important component. IFAD began considering how to include climate change six years
ago and developed a specific strategy relating to the impacts of a changing climate on
smallholder production. IFAD developed a specific environmental strategy four years ago and
subsequently developed a climate-specific strategy that was implemented and operationalized
two years ago. Since the IFAD Climate Change Strategy was adopted in 2010, the organization
has developed a number of processes and tools to integrate climate risk management and
adaptation more systematically in its country strategies and operations.
It is working with representatives from interested partner countries to incorporate sustainable
agricultural intensification, land and water management and environmental stewardship into
its programming. ASAP is an instrument to scale up resilient practices while facilitating the
exchange of knowledge and experiences between countries over the long term.
The solid dot represents a country in which this donor supports climate
change and agriculture activities. The hollow dots represent projects in
development.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | McKnight Foundation • November 2013 Page 25 of 48
McKnight Foundation
The McKnight Foundation aims to improve quality of
life for present and future generations and funds
initiatives supporting children and youth, the
Midwest region and communities, the environment,
the arts, neuroscience research, and international
efforts. McKnight’s primary geographic focus is the
state of Minnesota, United States.
http://www.mcknight.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
One of McKnight’s programs employs an explicit
agricultural approach and has climate co-benefits.
Another program concentrates on water quality and
has indirect impacts on both climate and agriculture.
Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP):
McKnight funds collaborative research with
developing country agriculture research center
scientists, university-based scientists, scientists
from CGIAR centers, farmers, and development practitioners in 12 countries through a
community of practice model.5 The program focuses on agro-ecological intensification
encompassing approaches to agricultural and food systems that bolster farmers’ resilience to
climate change impacts and mitigate agricultural emissions through ecological production
systems.
Mississippi River Program: This program is intended to restore the water quality and
resilience of the Mississippi River including mitigating nitrogen and phosphorous runoff
from agricultural states on the northern part of the river. Many of the practices encouraged
through this strategy have climate mitigation co-benefits but the program does not directly
account for these impacts.
5 McKnight defines communities of practice as sets of regional grantees that collectively work to support
a specific goal or outcome.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Philanthropic
Foundation
Founded: 1953
Time Funding Climate Change and
Agriculture: ~ 10 years through an
explicit agriculture focus
Total Annual Funding: $85 million
(in 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~7.3%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Agro-ecological intensification for
Collaborative Crop Research
Program (CCRP)
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | McKnight Foundation • November 2013 Page 26 of 48
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
McKnight’s funding for CCRP specifically supporting agro-
ecological intensification included $6.2 million for direct grants in
2012. This funding was jointly provided by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation and the McKnight Foundation, and accounted
for approximately 7.3% of the Foundation’s total grant payout of
$85 million in 2012. This funding did not apply to the Mississippi
River Program.
Geographic Emphasis
Collaborative Crop Research Program:
Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania,
Mozambique, Malawi, Mali, Burkina Faso,
Niger, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
Mississippi River Program: Midwest
United States (this program is not
specifically related to agriculture and
climate change, but has indirect benefits)
Donor Evolution
McKnight initiated a food security program in 1983 that has evolved with McKnight’s learning
approach. In the early 2000’s the Foundation established a clear focus on sustainable
agricultural systems. In 2009 McKnight formalized the CCRP emphasis on agro-ecological
intensification. Additionally, the Foundation recently established a new Midwest Climate and
Energy program to work on clean energy policy, communities, and a resilient economy. The full
scope of the Midwest Climate and Energy program including any work on agricultural systems
is still in development.
Other
Initiatives
~92.7%
Climate
and Ag
~7.3%
The dots represent countries in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | The Rockefeller Foundation • November 2013 Page 27 of 48
The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation seeks to achieve its vision
through work aimed at meeting four goals: Revalue
Ecosystems, Advance Health, Secure Livelihoods, and
Transform Cities.
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
Historically, the Rockefeller Foundation has been
heavily involved in projects related to agriculture and
climate change through projects like the Alliance for a
Green Revolution in Africa and the Building Climate
Change Resilience Initiative. Recently, Rockefeller has
expanded its focus from working on climate smart
agriculture to the broader aim of resilience.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
(2007-2012)
Since 2007 the Rockefeller Foundation has given approximately $6.5
million per year or 5% of annual giving to climate change and
agriculture-related projects. Future funding levels for this work will
be determined through strategic planning processes in 2013-14.
Geographic Emphasis (2007-2015)
East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda): Outreach
from smallholder farmers and national agricultural research entities.
West Africa (Ghana): Carbon mapping
Donor Evolution
The Rockefeller Foundation has
funded agriculture in different forms
throughout the foundation’s 100-year
existence. In 2007 the foundation
established dedicated funding for
climate change and agriculture as a
part of its Building Climate Change
Resilience Initiative. This initiative
funded work related to integrating
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Philanthropic
Foundation
Founded: 1913
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 5 years (2007 – 2012)
Total Annual Funding: ~$140 million
(in 2010)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~5%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Climate-smart agriculture
Other
Initiatives
95%
Climate
and Ag 5%
The dots represent countries in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | The Rockefeller Foundation • November 2013 Page 28 of 48
climate change considerations into agricultural research, examining how carbon markets might
apply capital and technical expertise to drive climate-smart agriculture, and implementing
practices that included both adaptation to climate change and mitigation of emissions by
demonstrating low carbon intensity and sequestering carbon. This stream of funding was
consolidated in 2012.
The Rockefeller Foundation will continue to fund several legacy projects with ties to climate
change and agriculture through grant term completion. While the scope of some future projects
may include climate change and agriculture, climate change is likely to be mainstreamed into
Rockefeller’s work on Resilience and Revaluing Ecosystems.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Skoll Foundation • November 2013 Page 29 of 48
Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation was created to drive large scale
change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating
social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help
solve the world’s most pressing problems. The
Foundation defines social entrepreneurs as society’s
change agents, creators of innovations that disrupt the
status quo and transform the world for the better. The
Foundation identifies organizations and programs
that are already bringing positive change to the world
and empowers them to extend their reach and deepen
their impact.
http://www.skollfoundation.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The Skoll Foundation does not have a program that
focuses explicitly on agriculture and climate change.
However, the foundation’s areas of emphasis have
many ties to climate change adaptation, emissions
mitigation, improved land tenure, and other practices
through the Foundation’s emphasis on fostering social entrepreneurship. The Skoll
Foundation’s work includes conducting independent analysis to inform grant making in some
areas with high relevance to the intersection of climate change and agriculture. For example, the
Foundation recently commissioned a study about catalyzing smallholder investment finance to
identify strategies to increase production and encourage sustainable management of natural
resources. Several examples of areas where the Foundation provides resources that indirectly
result in agriculture and climate change-related changes include:
Addressing drivers of deforestation in the Amazon: Identifying and enabling creative
solutions for farming and ranching to improve land stewardship that also result in
emissions mitigation.
Sustainable municipal management: Facilitating robust, transparent land use planning for
cattle and soy production and enabling small-scale producers to obtain land titles with
indirect emission mitigation benefits.
Sustainable value chains and market development: Working with small farmers to finance
beneficial practices and develop access to markets. This includes providing finance for small
farmers in Africa and Latin America to implement climate-resilient practices with a long-
term supply chain lens.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Philanthropic
Foundation
Founded: 1999
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 14 years (indirectly)
Total Annual Funding: ~$48 million
(Grants awarded in 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding)
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
N/A (focuses on investing in social
entrepreneurship)
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Skoll Foundation • November 2013 Page 30 of 48
Reducing extreme poverty for smallholder farmers: Implementing low-cost technologies to
improve agricultural production for smallholders with an indirect emissions mitigation co-
benefit such as mitigating emissions from diesel-powered irrigation systems through drip
irrigation systems.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
The Skoll Foundation provides funding through Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. These
are typically grants of $1 million over a three year period. The Foundation has dispersed over
$115 million through this program since 1999 and more than $403 million overall including
through Program Related Investments. Several Skoll awards may be concentrated in a
particular area among organizations working on similar issues (e.g., drivers of deforestation in
the Amazon). This funding is not typically targeted to a particular issue or effort, but rather
provides core support to help grantees build systems and maximize impact.
Geographic Emphasis
Latin America: Addressing drivers of
deforestation, sustainable municipal
management, sustainable value chains
Africa: Sustainable value chains and
reducing extreme poverty for
smallholders
South Asia: Reducing extreme poverty
for smallholders
Donor Evolution
The Skoll Foundation will continue to invest in organizations working to create innovative
solutions to some of the world’s most intractable problems that can be applied at a broader
scale. The Foundation will continue to seek strategies to maximize impact and improve
sustainability through empowerment. Several of the projects the Skoll Foundation supports
demonstrate the indirect benefits this approach can have for climate change and agriculture
outcomes (e.g., reduced greenhouse gas emissions achieved through support to sustainable
municipal land management, or improved resilience to climate change factors achieved through
support to market and value chain development).
The stars represent regions in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Syngenta Foundation • November 2013 Page 31 of 48
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Syngenta Foundation’s mission is to create value for
resource-poor small farmers in developing countries
through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the
activation of value chains. The Foundation works
with partners in developing countries and emerging
markets to help small farmers become more
professional growers, focusing on areas with potential
for significant agricultural expansion.
www.syngentafoundation.org
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
Syngenta Foundation acts as an incubator of scalable
solutions for sub-commercial smallholder farmers6 by
building partnerships and facilitating knowledge
transfer. Climate change considerations are implicit in
many of the projects the Foundation supports. The
Foundation prioritizes work based on farmers’
business needs using the frame of sustainable
intensification to guide three types of investments:
Knowledge: Focusing on agricultural services and
transfer of knowledge, including developing
improved extension programs.
Tools: Supporting progress in agricultural research and development by improving
technology and product development.
Opportunities: Promoting policy change, financial mechanisms, market development, and
thought leadership to improve the institutional environment in which farmers operate.
Syngenta Foundation explicitly supports climate change and agriculture by investing in the
World Bank BioCarbon Fund to direct more of the Fund’s resources toward agriculture.
Syngenta Foundation’s funding structure is highly partnership-based. Some examples of
successful partnerships include:
Partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and
Syngenta Corporation to develop drought tolerant maize varieties for small farms in South
6 Sub-commercial smallholder farmers are not actively engaged in selling their goods in a marketplace.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Corporate Foundation
Founded: 2001
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 12 years
Total Annual Funding: $17 million
(2013 budget)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: N/A (does
not track climate and agriculture
designated funding)
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
N/A (The Foundation considers the need
to empower farmers to adapt to and help
mitigate the effects of climate change as
central to any strategy of agricultural and
rural development. A key element of this
is ‘payment for environmental services’
which in turn calls for conducive policies
and project design).
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | Syngenta Foundation • November 2013 Page 32 of 48
Asia. This project leverages CIMMYT’s phenotyping capacity and Syngenta’s genotyping
capacity to generate mutual gains from different organizational strengths.
Ag Partner XChange, a partnership with the GATD Foundation, which works to improve
global capacity for public-private partnerships that engage small-scale farmers.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
Syngenta Foundation deploys funding to sustainably improve productivity in primary
production and help small farmers earn income from their crops. The Foundation emphasizes
bringing emerging technologies to a scalable point and to broadly disseminate key knowledge
useful to farmers. Public-private partnerships are a primary mechanism for Syngenta
Foundation to conduct this work. These partnerships combine the resources and capabilities
needed to address farmers' problems including those resulting from climate change. The
Foundation’s budget for 2013 is $17 million.
Geographic Emphasis
Syngenta Foundation provides funds
to develop knowledge, tools, and
opportunities for smallholders in
India, Bangladesh, Vietnam,
Indonesia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali,
Honduras, Brazil, and Peru.
Donor Evolution
Until recently, Syngenta Foundation
was working to develop a portfolio of proven innovations and is now moving to scale these
approaches by incubating businesses. Syngenta Foundation will continue to pursue maximizing
impacts, building capacity, and applying a business innovation lens. The Foundation’s activities
will have climate-relevant impacts by promoting technological advances to adapt to climate
change effects in specific geographies.
The Foundation will continue to invest in the BioCarbon Fund in order to identify new markets
for smallholders participating in carbon credit generation and continue to promote technologies
like no- or low-till agriculture, improved nutrient use efficiency, and seed development. The
Foundation will seek to scale its investments beyond pilot projects and pursue opportunities
like making agricultural carbon a main-stream source of regular farmer income.
The dots represent countries in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | USAID • November 2013 Page 33 of 48
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) is the United States federal agency
responsible for administering foreign aid to support
economic, humanitarian, and development assistance.
USAID has programs across many sectors including:
agriculture and food security; democracy; human
rights; governance; economic growth and trade;
education; environment and global climate change;
gender equality and women’s empowerment; global
health science, technology and innovation; water and
sanitation; and crises and conflict resolution.
http://www.usaid.gov/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
USAID administers several programs with links to
food and climate within the Bureau for Democracy,
Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, the Bureau for
Food Security, and the Bureau for Economic Growth,
Education and Environment. USAID leads two
government-wide presidential development initiatives that have a more explicit link between
climate change and agriculture.
Feed the Future: Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security
initiative, helps partner countries develop their agriculture sectors in order to spur
economic growth and trade to increase incomes and reduce hunger, poverty, and under-
nutrition. Led by USAID, Feed the Future is a whole-of-government initiative that
capitalizes on the resources and expertise of ten federal agencies. Feed the Future efforts
promote agriculture sector growth, improved nutrition, and climate-smart development.
Some Feed the Future programs include adaptation and mitigating emissions that
contribute to global climate change.
Global Climate Change Initiative: USAID is also a leader in the U.S. Government’s Global
Climate Change Initiative (GCCI) which focuses on three areas: clean energy; sustainable
landscapes; and adaptation. GCCI prioritizes agriculture work that builds resilience to the
impacts of climate change and promotes farming systems which reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions and sequester carbon.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Bilateral
Founded: 1961
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: ~ 13 years
Total Annual USAID Funding: $21.8
billion (Total funding for USAID
managed and partially managed
accounts in FY 2012)
Percentage of USAID Funding for
Climate Change and Agriculture: 6%
in FY 2012
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Climate-smart agriculture
Sustainable intensification
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | USAID • November 2013 Page 34 of 48
Financing for Each Activity
Combined funding for Feed the Future in FY 2012 totaled $972.7 million. USAID funding for
GCCI in FY 2012 totaled $348 million.
Geographic Emphasis
Feed the Future: Bangladesh, Cambodia,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti,
Honduras, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali,
Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal,
Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
Global Climate Change Initiative:
The Global Climate Change Initiative’s
funding focus is aligned with USAID’s
target aid regions, including Latin America, the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast
Asia. The Initiative allocates funding for specific countries based in three focus areas: Clean Energy
programs in countries projected to significantly increase GHG emissions; Sustainable Landscapes
programs in countries with globally important forests; and Adaptation programs in least developed
countries, small island developing states, and glacier-dependent countries.
Donor Evolution
Since its founding, USAID has played a major role in combatting global hunger through food
assistance as well as agricultural development programs primarily on research and technology,
capacity building, markets and credit access. At the 2009 G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy,
President Obama laid the foundation for Feed the Future when he pledged to invest at least $3.5
billion over three years to enhance global agriculture and food security with several cross-
cutting areas, including gender integration and climate-smart development. This initial U.S.
commitment helped to leverage more than $18 billion from other donors. In 2012, the G8, in
partnership with African governments, established the New Alliance for Food Security and
Nutrition, which places a special emphasis on nutrition, private sector investment and policy
improvements in Sub-Saharan African countries. The U.S. contributes to the New Alliance in
part through its Feed the Future activities.
USAID first established a global climate change team in 1990 that supported a range of
agriculture-related activities including modeling and capacity building. In recent years, USAID
has renewed its focus on climate change, food security, and resilience, including the Global
Climate Change Initiative. USAID leads ongoing discussions as part of a Climate-smart
agriculture (CSA) working group, which helps design CSA capacity for USAID staff and
implementing partners. USAID also leads the U.S. government’s participation in Tropical Forest
Alliance 2020, a public-private partnership to reduce the tropical deforestation associated with
commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef, and paper and pulp.
The stars represent regions and the dots represent countries in which this
donor supports climate change and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | World Bank • November 2013 Page 35 of 48
World Bank Agriculture and Environmental Services
The World Bank provides financial and technical
assistance to developing countries. The Bank is
focused on reducing global poverty by providing
policy advice, research and analysis, and supporting
capacity development across sectors.
http://www.worldbank.org/
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The World Bank supports hundreds of projects with
climate and agriculture components all over the globe.
The Bank is in the process of cataloguing activities
within the realm of crop and livestock agriculture,
forestry, and grassland management to identify which
of the three principles of climate-smart agriculture
each project delivers: 1) productivity; 2) resilience;
and 3) mitigation.
This effort will help fill existing information gaps and
assist in determining how best to structure and
operationalize ventures that capitalize on
opportunities to combine and manage tradeoffs
between these principles.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
The Bank provides low-interest loans, interest-free credits, and grants
to developing countries. The Bank also facilitates financing through
trust fund partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donors that
address needs across a wide range of sectors and developing regions.
In 2012, the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development and International Development Association) lent $7.1
billion for mitigation measures and $4.6 billion for adaptation across
all sectors (e.g., energy and mining, finance, transportation). $852
million or 12% of the mitigation lending was channeled specifically to
the agriculture, fishing, and forestry sectors. $1.33 billion or 29% of
adaptation lending supported those sectors. This combined $2.2
billion of lending to support mitigation and adaptation activities for
agriculture, fishing, and forestry accounted for approximately 6.2% of
the Bank’s overall lending portfolio of $35.3 billion.
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Multilateral
Founded: 1944 (IBRD); 1960 (IDA)
Composition: The World Bank is
composed of two institutions:
The International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD), with 188 member
countries; and
The International Development
Association (IDA), with 172
member countries
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: Directly, ~5 years;
indirectly since founding
Total Annual Funding: $35.3 billion
(in 2012)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~6.2%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Climate-smart agriculture
Other
Initiatives
93.8%
Ag and
climate
6.2%
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | World Bank • November 2013 Page 36 of 48
Geographic Emphasis
The World Bank has a global lending
portfolio for its climate and
agriculture-related activities.
Donor Evolution
The publication of the 2008 World
Development Report on Agriculture
for Development led to an explicit
Bank-wide emphasis on food security, landscapes, and policy mechanisms, including the
interplay between climate change and agricultural production.
One of the pillars of the Bank’s plan to catalyze climate action is supporting climate-smart
agriculture (CSA). The Bank plans to help build an Action Alliance that promotes the triple win
of CSA: increasing yields and income; making farms more resilient to climate change; and
reducing emissions from agricultural practices. The Bank will publish a Climate Action Plan in
early to mid-2014 that will establish an overall strategy for addressing climate change through
World Bank programming. Each sector will produce operational guidelines to align with this
strategy. The guidelines for climate and agriculture activities will be informed by the ongoing
cataloguing effort to better identify projects related to the three principles of climate-smart
agriculture.
The ellipse represents a global focus.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | World Bank BioCarbon Fund • November 2013 Page 37 of 48
World Bank BioCarbon Fund
The World Bank BioCarbon Fund was the first carbon
fund established to focus specifically on land use. It is
a public-private sector initiative designed to mobilize
financing to help develop and implement projects that
sequester carbon in forest and agro-ecosystems. The
BioCarbon Fund pays for land-based carbon
emissions reductions mostly from projects
implemented on degraded lands in developing
countries. Its funding throughout the last decade has
helped develop infrastructure needed to pilot
transactions in a growing land-use carbon market.
https://wbcarbonfinance.org/BioCF
Climate Change and Agriculture Activities
The BioCarbon Fund supports activities focused on
restoring degraded lands and sequestering carbon in
fuel wood production, timber production, assisted
natural regeneration, plantation installations, forest
restoration, and conserving forests through REDD+. A small portion of the BioCarbon Fund
supports agricultural activities specifically. Some afforestation and reforestation projects have
also included agriculture although the carbon crediting has been for the forest component.
Sustainable Agricultural Land Management: BioCarbon Fund supports projects that
promote the adoption of sustainable land management techniques to revive or increase the
productivity of agricultural systems. These techniques include cover cropping, crop
rotation, mulching, compost management, agroforestry, and use of organic fertilizers. The
use of these practices has increased crop yields and increased resilience to climate change on
degraded lands. The BioCarbon Fund developed the first-ever carbon accounting
methodology for Sustainable Agricultural Land Management practices.
Financing for Climate Change and Agriculture
Since its creation in 2004, the BioCarbon Fund has allocated
approximately $90 million to various land-use projects. 1.8% of this
funding has supported sustainable agricultural land management
and .6% has supported agroforestry initiatives. Agricultural-related
funding with a mitigation component comprises 2.4% of the
BioCarbon Fund’s portfolio.
There are currently six governments and public entities and 11
private companies investing in the BioCarbon Fund although not all
Quick Facts
Donor Type: Multilateral
Founded: 2004
Time Granting in Climate Change
and Agriculture: 5 years
Total Funding: $90 million over 16
years (2004-2020)
Percentage of Funding for Climate
Change and Agriculture: ~2.4%
Term(s) Used to Describe Climate
Change and Agriculture Activities:
Sustainable agricultural land
management
Resilience
Mitigation
Other
Initiatives
97.6%
Ag and
Climate
2.4%
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture | World Bank BioCarbon Fund • November 2013 Page 38 of 48
of these partners have contributed to the portion of those funds that are deployed for
agricultural projects.
Geographic Emphasis
Sustainable Agricultural Land
Management: Kenya
Agroforestry: Costa Rica, Democratic
Republic of Congo
Donor Evolution
The BioCarbon Fund is building on its past successes by establishing a new tranche to
incentivize better land management at the landscape level, combining
afforestation/reforestation, REDD+, agriculture, and biomass energy activities into an integrated
approach to mitigate climate change, enhance food security, and increase the resilience of local
communities and environments at a much larger scale.
The BioCarbon Fund will continue working through its model of results-based payments using
emission reductions as a basis. The next tranche of BioCarbon Fund resources is currently being
assembled. It is expected that the share of funding devoted to supporting sustainable
agricultural land use activities will increase.
The dots represent countries in which this donor supports climate change
and agriculture activities.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 39 of 48
Donor-Identified Trends
In addition to providing insight into their own organization’s portfolios supporting climate
change and agriculture interventions, many interviewees identified emerging substantive and
funding trends they felt might be useful to share with others.
Substantive Trends
Climate Change Mainstreaming: Many donors are mainstreaming climate change across their
existing programs. By factoring climate change into project design from the outset these donors
build climate response measures into all planned interventions. Donors indicated that when
applied to agriculture projects, this mainstreaming approach fosters a better understanding of
how climate change impacts agricultural productivity and how agricultural activities contribute
to greenhouse gas emissions.
Gender Considerations: Several donors observed that gender and women’s issues are gaining
increased attention in the climate change and agriculture arena. There is growing recognition
among donors that climate change disproportionately affects women and their families and that
women are critical to implementing solutions to address climate challenges in the agricultural
sector and at the farm level. Empowering women in the agricultural sector to address the
challenges created by a changing climate is of growing interest for many donors.
Landscape and Integrated Approaches: Historically agriculture, forests, and land use changes
have been viewed, managed, and funded separately. Many of those interviewed noted an
unfolding interest in landscape scale interventions by governments, policy makers, the private
sector, donors, and other stakeholders. They observed that on-the-ground realities demand
more integrated approaches to ensure more complete implementation and to account for
successful land-use activities that currently fall through the cracks of existing policy,
management, and financing mechanisms. Interviewees indicated that there may be
opportunities to re-shape some of the rules about land-based carbon accounting, which could
facilitate the development of greater diversity in land-use projects.
High Quality Data and Access: Several donors pointed out that improved farmer access to
credible, useful, and timely agricultural and climate data could have a potentially
transformative effect on livelihoods and production. Providing smallholders with access to
weather data, basic mapping, market information, and other tools may help these farmers
mitigate risks and become more climate-friendly. Many, including private sector companies, are
generating this type of data and exploring how to make it freely or inexpensively available to
smallholder farmers and others through a variety of means including mobile and smartphone
technology.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 40 of 48
Funding Trends
Bilateral Donors Collaborating with Multilateral Donors for Implementation: Several of those
interviewed suggested a trend of bilateral donors increasingly using multilateral donors as a
complementary implementation mechanism to directly funding climate change and agriculture
through their own programs. The rationale behind this consolidation differs across donors. For
example, some indicated that this approach provides greater opportunities for scalability while
others noted that it helps to mitigate some of the risk associated with undertaking significant,
large scale new projects.
Proliferation of New, Smaller Donors: In a parallel trend, there appears to be a growing
number of smaller donors in the climate change and agriculture funding space. Their
interventions range from acting alone to working in concert with other smaller donors, with
social venture companies, or as part of larger public-private partnerships. Some of the small
funders have been supporting innovative pilot projects that might be perceived as too small-
scale or too risky to attract funding from larger traditional donors. Some of these funders
provide startup funds to incubate projects and help connect and leverage the strengths of other
organizations working in a particular arena. There is an opportunity for these donors’ activities
to complement and inform those of larger bilateral donors and multilateral donors.
Traditional Development Assistance and Results-Based Payments: Several of those
interviewed indicated that there is an evolving understanding, appreciation, and, at times,
complimentary utilization of traditional development assistance and results-based payments.
Traditional development assistance in this context means financial aid in the form of grants
intended to support the economic, social, environmental, and political development through
specific projects or activities (i.e. programmatic funding). Results-based payments link donor
disbursements to the recipient’s achievement of mutually agreed upon and sometimes
independently verifiable results. Donors interviewed emphasized that although these are
sometimes framed as contrasting approaches, in practice there is often overlap between them
and they do not necessarily need to be conceptualized as a dichotomy. Donors frequently
employ both approaches to achieve positive changes in agriculture, forestry, land-use, and
development. Results-based payments do not always focus exclusively on the final outcome
(e.g., greenhouse gas emissions reduction). Instead, many donors are increasingly supporting
results-based financing for activities that range from institutional capacity-building to
intermediate outputs (e.g., number of trainings conducted or new technologies implemented in
a certain time period). Results-based approaches have yet to be used in the land use/agriculture
space to the extent they have been drawn upon in the other sectors (e.g., health, education,
transportation) but are attracting greater attention.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 41 of 48
The Evolving Carbon Market: The carbon market system was initially developed by the private
sector to access carbon credits through the UNFCCC climate finance mechanism.7 These credits
were initially limited to reforestation by market rules. Deforestation, forest degradation, and
agriculture were viewed as uncertain and having limited policy, political, or technical support.
Consequently, most early work on land-based carbon was initiated in the form of pilot projects.
A few donors suggested that in the future the private sector may engage more actively as land
use accounting and policy rules are re-shaped and there may eventually be an expanded role
for carbon credits from agriculture.
Private Sector Supply Chain: National and global companies, including large commodity, food,
agriculture, and consumer goods firms that drive demand for raw materials, have begun to
review the environmental and social implications and long-term viability of their supply chains.
In some cases agricultural activities in the supply chain are drivers of deforestation. A growing
number of companies are reviewing current land practices that increase climate vulnerability of
natural and human systems associated with sourcing commodities and other inputs to their
products. Companies’ pursuit of predictable supplies that also meet policy standards and public
goals may encourage innovation in sourcing materials and the use of best practices. These
activities may complement and perhaps redirect future donor investments in this space
7 For more information about UNFCCC climate financing, see
https://unfccc.int/cooperation_support/financial_mechanism/finance_portal/items/5824.php.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 42 of 48
Meridian Observations
Many of the details included in the donor profiles (above) represent a shortened, but vetted,
summary using the individual donors’ own written information or a validation of Meridian’s
description based upon the interview conducted. This information has been reviewed and
revised by each donor and the reader should have confidence in its accuracy.
The following section comprises Meridian Institute’s analysis of the information shared during
interviews. It does not represent the view of any particular donor.
Donor Descriptions of Activities
Donors use a number of concepts and terms to describe the activities they support related to
climate change and agriculture (e.g., adaptation, sustainable intensification, mitigation,
resilience). Some donors do not explicitly define what particular terms or concepts mean to
them in the context of their funding strategies. This is not unusual given the interplay and
interdependencies of the complex set of issues inherent in the climate change and agriculture
space and range of scales–from the farm to policy levels. However, this lack of consistent use of
concepts can pose a challenge in matching particular terms or concepts with particular
outcomes or funding levels across donors.
For example, it appears that in some cases donors use different terms (e.g., adaptation and
resilience) interchangeably while others make a distinction between what appear to be similar,
related, or overlapping concepts. Some donors may also interpret the same term to embody a
range of diverse or differing principles or practices based on each donor’s history or
perspective. Several donors characterize the term resilience differently based on contextual
factors that are not always clearly defined (e.g., resilience in the context of sustainability at the
farmer level or resilience of an entire agricultural system to the impacts of climate change), for
example.
This different use of concepts and terms creates a challenge in understanding and conveying
each donor’s funding activities in juxtaposition with others. In addition to communication
challenges, the lack of consistent language and interpretation of concepts should cause readers
of this report should use caution when drawing comparative conclusions.
Donor Entry Points
Funders support work with implications for climate change and agriculture at international,
national, regional, community, and farm-level scales. These activities range from on-the-ground
projects to policy-level interventions across multiple sectors, spanning a variety of scopes,
focuses, and entry points.
Based on the interviews conducted, there appear to be four broad categories that characterize
different entry points donors use to fund climate change and agriculture activities. These entry
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 43 of 48
points affect the relative ease or challenge of isolating the amount of funding each donor is
committing to agriculture and climate change activities.
Direct Agriculture Support with Climate Change “Add-on”: Many donors have long-
standing programming explicitly focused on agricultural development. Some of these
donors are adding a climate change component to existing agricultural programs and
projects. In some cases the climate change “add on” is explicit and donors can easily
point to the relative increment of agricultural development support dedicated to climate.
Direct Agriculture Support with Climate Change Integrated: Other donors who have
historically funded agricultural development have integrated climate co-benefits into
existing programs and projects without explicitly accounting for the added funding
level.
Direct Climate Change and Agriculture Support: Some donors have established explicit
funding streams to support activities directly relating to climate change and agriculture.
In some cases these are new, standalone programs with independent budgets.
Indirect Climate Change and Agriculture Support: Some donors have named priorities
that are neither climate change nor agriculture (e.g., social entrepreneurship, water
quality, energy efficiency). However, some of the activities these donors support either
directly or indirectly result in positive climate change and agriculture impacts.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 44 of 48
Donor Entry Points: The figure below demonstrates the effects of applying a climate change and agriculture lens to several examples
of funding streams with direct and indirect focus on climate and agriculture. Using this frame can improve understanding of how a
range of donor activities can result in contributions to climate change and agriculture from indirect entry points.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 45 of 48
Geographic Areas of Focus
Each dot in the figure below corresponds to a specific country in which donors support efforts related to climate change and
agriculture. Hollow dots correspond to planned efforts. Each star corresponds to a general region where work is underway. These
regions include Central America, Caribbean, North America, South Asia, Southeast Asia/Oceania, East Asia, East, West, Southern
Africa, and, where indicated by donors, the entire African continent.
This map does not represent every project that each donor is funding, but provides an overview of the general regions where
each donor’s activities are focused, and some specific countries where indicated by donors.
AfDB
BioCF
CDKN
CLUA
DFATD
DFID
Ford
IDB
IFAD
McKnight
Moore
Packard
Rockefeller
USAID
Skoll
Syngenta
World Bank
Donors with globally -
oriented strategies
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 46 of 48
View of Partnerships
During the course of the project the team discovered that many of the donors interviewed use
the term partners in very different ways. Some refer to grantees or country recipients of
sustained funding as partners, while others use the term primarily to describe co-funders (e.g.,
other philanthropies and other bi-laterals) who can amplify the effects of investments. Some
donors (e.g., CLUA) utilize formal coordinated grant making strategies to align funding, while
others form ad hoc alliances to address specific needs.
The growing prevalence of public-private partnerships, impact investing,8 and other multi-
institutional funding approaches will further the diversification and evolution of donor
partnerships. The formation of targeted alliances that leverage the individual strengths of
donors in concert with others may increase donor flexibility and help improve positive impacts
of funding for climate change and agriculture.
Throughout the interviews several donors pointed to existing networks and alliances of donors
that are emerging in the climate change and agriculture space. This list, while not exhaustive,
may serve as a reference point for others interested in learning more about information sharing
and coordinated approaches to grantmaking.
Existing Donor Networks
Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF): SAFSF is an international network of
84 donors that works to foster communication, shared learning, and information exchange
about issues connected to sustainable agriculture and food systems.
Climate and Energy Funders (part of Consultative Group on Biological Diversity): The Mission
of the Climate and Energy Funders Group is to expand the field of climate and energy
philanthropy, and to promote collaborative, strategic grant making among its members.
European Environmental Funders Group (EEFG): The EEFG is a network of European
foundations active in the fields of environment, sustainable development and climate change. It
provides a platform for learning, networking and the identification of synergies with a view to
developing common activities.
Global Donor Platform for Rural Development: The Global Donor Platform for Rural
Development is a network of 34 bilateral and multilateral donors, international financing
institutions, intergovernmental organizations and development agencies. Members share a
common vision that agriculture and rural development is central to poverty reduction, and a
conviction that sustainable and efficient development requires a coordinated global approach.
8 See footnote 2 above.
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 47 of 48
Possible Areas for Future Exploration
Over the course of this effort, many interviewees suggested that further mapping could be
useful since so much of the relevant donor landscape remains unexplored. They cited the
potential benefits of better understanding what other donors are doing to calibrate their own
strategies and to identify opportunities for greater impact through potential coordination or
collaboration. While the donor profiles included in this report provide an overview of some
donors’ activities, funding levels, geographic focus, and evolution over time, a further
assessment could delve more deeply into the complexities of these donors’ and others’
approaches.
Several areas of possible further exploration were identified:
A more complete characterization of donors and investors in the climate change and
agriculture space:
o Broader group of donors and donor types: In the last decade, the climate change
and agriculture donor arena has diversified and now increasingly includes: aid
from emerging-economies; public-private partnerships; social ventures in
research; and impact-investors. Donors and implementers would benefit from a
more comprehensive understanding of these new actors to inform their activities
and identify potential traditional and non-traditional partners. Additionally, a
more comprehensive donor mapping effort could include a larger group of
“traditional” donors—bilateral donors, multilateral donors, and philanthropies.
o Deeper analysis of donor activities: Donors and implementers would benefit
from a more in-depth analysis of donor activities. This could include the
application of more rigorous quantitative and qualitative methodologies to
inform a more sophisticated and complete overview as well as an analysis
pinpointing critical gaps.
Meta-funding trends:
o Complementarity between consolidation collaboration of bilateral donors &
proliferation of smaller donors: Further assessment could explore the nature and
impacts of the parallel funding trends of bilateral donors increasingly pooling
their funds into larger multilateral institutions for implementation and smaller
donors supporting the development and pilot testing of innovative agriculture
practices often coinciding with innovative funding and investment approaches.
Exploring these trends in more depth could help identify how these groups of
donors might complement and build on each other’s work and bring new
information to bear on addressing climate change and agriculture as well as
mechanisms to pilot activities and take them to scale.
o Movement toward landscape approaches: A diverse set of donors is increasingly
considering integrated or landscape approaches in their funding and investment
activities related to agriculture, deforestation, and land use change. Improved
Donor Mapping | Climate Change and Agriculture • November 2013 Page 48 of 48
understanding of this trend could yield valuable insights about how to pursue
this approach in the policy context and on the ground.
Better understanding of co-benefits: During the interview process, the Meridian team
learned that while some donors focus the entry point of their programming on a
particular concept (e.g., adaptation) it may be possible to integrate co-benefits (e.g.
mitigation, livelihood improvements, increased resilience) into overall project design
and accounting. Since climate change benefits and activities are often interrelated there
may be opportunities to understand and measure co-benefits that result from donor
funding even if these benefits are not overtly referenced. Identifying strategies to
catalogue these relationships could prove helpful as donors continue to mainstream
climate change factors into their overall funding portfolios and apply integrated,
multisectoral lens to their grant-making strategies.
This project was undertaken and supported with the understanding that as a first effort, this
assessment is by definition an incomplete overview landscape of donors supporting agriculture
and climate change activities around the world. The purpose of this assessment was to uncover
useful trends, provide enough information to motivate further investigation, and offer even
modest insight into the status of the current funding landscape that might inform further
inquiry. This report: described the primary substantive and funding trends of seventeen donors;
summarized how each donor described their activities, emphases, and approach to funding
climate change and agriculture activities; and identified key trends and information gaps
associated with this funding space. We hope this report helps the participating donors and
implementing partners learn about approaches others are taking, elicits questions about these
approaches, provides insight into the evolution of donor’s approaches, and motivates others to
engage in this critical area of work.
Report Authors and Contact Information
Meridian Institute would like to once again thank the donors who participated in this
assessment and The Rockefeller Foundation for its support of this undertaking.
With any questions regarding this assessment, please contact:
Michael Lesnick, Ph.D. Kristy Buckley Robyn Paulekas Selena Elmer
Senior Partner Senior Mediator Mediator Project Associate
Meridian Institute & Program Manager & Program Associate & Fellow
+1-202-256-5900 Meridian Institute Meridian Institute Meridian Institute
mlesnick@merid.org +1-202-701-0956 +1-970-513-8340 x 235 +1-202-354-6445
kbuckley@merid.org rpaulekas@merid.org selmer@merid.org
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