Building Resilient Food Systems

Khalid Khadduri — Director, Business Development, Private Sector & Trade Finance Operations, OPEC Fund for International Development
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Innovation and integration are key to building resilient food systems. In Africa, for example, new technologies and digitalization are helping farmers with weather forecasts and crop yields. That data is in turn shared with banks, allowing farmers to gain easier access to financing. We’re therefore seeing more and more integration of small-scale farmers into the entire system. 

That is what we want to explore in this session: How to improve resilience across the entire value chain, from the smallholder in the field until the finished product is shipped out. In other words: How through innovation — be it technological, financial or operational — can we build more resilient and sustainable food systems to prevent a repeat of the pressures we’ve faced over the last couple of years? 

This event will target private sector players, private sector-focused development finance institutions and representatives from companies involved in building innovative and resilient food systems. It’s all interlinked.

Our panelists include:

• Khalid Khadduri: Director, Private Sector and Trade Finance Operations, OPEC Fund 
• Pieternel Boogaard: Director, Agribusiness, Food and Water, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO)
• Gianpiero Nacci: Director, Sustainable Business and Infrastructure, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
• Volli Carucci: Director of Resilience and Food Systems, World Food Programme (WFP)
• Moderator: Amjad Abdula, Head of Partnerships, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

In April 2023, the OPEC Fund provided a US$50 million loan to Banco Continental S.A.E.C.A. for on-lending to SMEs in Paraguay. As part of the OPEC Fund’s Food Security Action Plan, the investment covers the financing needs of farmers and livestock SMEs, which form the core of Paraguay’s economy and labor force.