While nutrition initiatives in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have traditionally been supported with public funding (via donors and/or local governments), a major potential financial resource remains untapped: private sector investment.
The Nutritious Food Financing Facility (N3F) is one attempt to change this. The N3F was initiated by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to catalyze private sector innovation in nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa.
USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) is interested in identifying and supporting appropriate mechanisms through which businesses, specifically small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) working in the nutritious food space, can better access financing to increase the availability and affordability of safe and nutritious foods and scale their operations.
RFS and USAID Advancing Nutrition (USAID AN), drawing upon the expertise of USAID AN Consortium Partners GAIN and the University of California at Davis (UCD), are collaborating on a review of the N3F to understand how this financing mechanism can enable SMEs in LMIC to increase their access to financing for nutrition.
This webinar provided a platform to introduce the N3F mechanism and share the outcomes of the program review. Webinar participants were given the opportunity to make additional observations, contributions and ask questions. Members of the nutrition community, investors, donors, academics, and representatives from the food industry all tuned in to the event. A total of 176 attendees joined from over 70 different countries.
Webinar Recording
Webinar Resources
- Access the slide deck (PDF, 1.22 MB)
- View webinar transcript (PDF, 96.9 KB)
- View answers to attendee questions (PDF, 96.9 KB)
Speakers
Songbae Lee (moderator), is an Agriculture Finance Team Lead at the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.
Stella Nordhagen, PhD, is a Senior Technical Specialist on the N3F Programme at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.
Stephen Vosti, PhD, is an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California at Davis.