Publication of the Africa Agriculture Trade & Investment Fund Annual Report 2020
The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) is pleased to serve as the Technical Assistance (TA) Facility Manager for the Africa Agriculture and Trade Investment Fund (AATIF) and now proud to share the release of the AATIF 2020/21 Annual Report. In 2020, the spread of COVID-19 across the world enforced many new challenges and called for practical and immediate action from both the AATIF fund and the TA Facility. The TA Facility Manager continues to remain flexible and pragmatic throughout the ongoing pandemic whilst advocating for innovative solutions to keep the supply chain moving.
An example of the AATIF TA Facility’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and highlighted in the AATIF Annual Report, is a project that was developed to monitor and assess the impact of the pandemic on smallholder farmers related to AATIF investees and pipeline companies in specific value chains across Zambia, Kenya, and Cote d’Ivoire. One of the main findings from the study is that the enforcement of governmental health and safety measures (e.g. road closures, social distancing, closure/restrictions of schools/hospitality) brought the most significant negative impact on smallholders’ production and domestic trade activities. This was found across all countries and value chains but with mixed level of resilience among the different actors within the value chains.
In 2021, the TA Facility project portfolio is anticipated to grow alongside the AATIF fund and the Common Fund for Commodities, acting as the AATIF TA Facility Manager, endeavors to continue working diligently to adapt to the ongoing and post-COVID-19 pandemic by continuing to provide technical support to agribusinesses and financial institutions across Africa that ultimately benefit smallholder farmers and eventual alleviation of poverty for the participants.
Image credit: The Africa Agriculture Trade and Investment Fund