AGRA to Spotlight Sustainable Business Models, Partnerships, and Investments Driving Transformation in Africa at the 54th World Economic Forum

Nairobi, 15^th January 2024: The 54th Annual Meeting of The World Economic Forum will take place at Davos-Klosters from 15th to 19th January 2024. The week-long event themed ‘Rebuilding Trust’ provides a crucial space to focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency, and accountability.

The forum has incorporated an SDG tent set up to serve as a meeting point for organisations to accelerate impactful change and contribute to delivering on the UN’s sustainable goals. Here, data, knowledge and best practices related to the SDGs will be showcased, empowering participants to understand their role in bringing about positive change during the UN’s Decade of Change.

AGRA will host a special event at the SDG tent on Tuesday  16th January 2024, 12:30 – 14:00, focused on highlighting the movers and shakers of transformation and how sustainable business models are delivering on Africa’s climate agenda.

The AGRA-led session will reflect on the business models, partnerships and investments that are delivering on the nexus of Africa’s food systems, climate action and job creation.

Esteemed participants will include H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General, African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Rt Hon. Tony Blair, Executive Chairman, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and Hon. Francis Gatare, Chief Executive Officer, Rwanda Development Board.

Global industry leaders, such as Yara International, Bayer Foundation GAIN, and SNV will also contribute to the conversation.

Speaking ahead of the event, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President, AGRA, emphasized the urgency of working with public and private sector actors to scale up innovative business models and partnerships that can solve the climate and food insecurity problem that we are currently facing. “Our strategic plan sets out to catalyse the growth of sustainable food systems in Africa by influencing and leveraging partners to build a robust enabling environment where the private sector thrives, and smallholders are empowered to produce sufficient and healthy food whilst building resilience and managing the effects of climate change, said Dr. Kalibata, adding,“We are also keen to tackle the systemic constraints in access to finance and market and trade institutions in order to build strong agri-food markets and trade at the domestic, regional and continental level.”

The SDG tent sessionwill also be instrumental in identifying key priorities and actions ahead of the Africa Food Systems Summit (AFS) taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, in September 2024. 

To join the conversation virtually, register here (https://sdgtent.com/events/movers-and-shakers-in-transformation-how-sustainable-business-models-are-delivering-on-africas-climate-and-food-agenda/)

About AGRA

About AGRA

Founded in 2006, AGRA, formerly known as the Alliance for Green Revolution, is an African-led, African-based organisation that seeks to catalyse Agriculture Transformation in Africa. AGRA is focused on putting smallholder farmers at the centre of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives. As the sector that employs the majority of Africa’s people, nearly all of them small-scale farmers, AGRA recognises that developing smallholder agriculture into a productive, efficient, and

sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent.

For media interviews and enquiries: media@agra.org

About SDG Tent

The SDG Tent is an inclusive and collaborative partner-based community at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Driven by the belief that collaboration is the essence of change, the SDG Tent is an established meeting point and impartial open space – both offline and online, for business and civil society to accelerate impactful and urgent change and deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the benefit of people, communities and the planet.

Through partner-led events hosted by InTent, Philips, DSM-Firmenich, Bayer, Leidar, Salesforce,

Yara, AGRA, Arctic Basecamp, AT Scale, Upfield and UNFPA, among others, the SDG Tent will

showcase ideas, learning, innovations and thought leadership to progress the global debate while advocating for systemic change and fostering partnerships for action.

The SDG Tent is located on Promenade 139, outside of the security zone in Davos and will be held from 15-18 January 2024. All events can be found on www.sdgtent.com. Join the conversation at #SDGTent #BusinessForSDGs.