On the occasion of the spring meetings of the Paris Peace Forum held in Morocco on June 10, the French Development Agency (AFD), PROPARCO its subsidiary dedicated to the private sector, and INNOVX, a multi-sector company committed to the development of innovative and sustainable businesses and ecosystems, signed a strategic memorandum of understanding.
Contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this tripartite partnership, aligned with the strategic orientations of INNOVX, AFD, and PROPARCO, aims to strengthen cooperation and multi-stakeholder mobilization around strategic projects in Africa, with the ambition of addressing the continent’s food security challenges by sustainably developing its agricultural potential by 2050.
**Supporting the deployment of agricultural value chains for sustainable and inclusive growth**
This agreement is part of the AgriFinance Platform program, initiated and launched by INNOVX in October 2023 and sponsored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the OCP Group.
The platform works to structure and develop sustainable and resilient agricultural value chains across Africa, aiming to mobilize $800 million by 2030 through various financial instruments (loans, grants, guarantees, equity investments). Through the technical and financial support planned for 60 incubation and financing operations, the AgriFinance platform will contribute to the consolidation of more resilient and efficient agri-food value chains, the strengthening of skills through vocational training, the creation of sustainable jobs, and the increase of incomes for agricultural populations.
**A multi-stakeholder mobilization to transform African agriculture**
Through this memorandum of understanding, the AFD Group confirms its commitment within the coalition of partners supporting the ambition and activities of the platform, aiming to improve the performance of agricultural systems in Africa by strengthening the actors involved across the entire value chains, from upstream to downstream, and transforming producers’ practices.
Based on continuous strategic dialogue, sharing sectoral diagnostics, and intensifying interactions between local teams, the partnership aims to optimize synergies and complementarities between the action capacities and financial instruments of AFD, PROPARCO, INNOVX, and other platform partners, in order to meet financing needs and consolidate the various actors in agricultural value chains.
By signing this protocol, **Rémy RIOUX, Director General of the French Development Agency, reaffirms AFD and PROPARCO’s commitment to sustainable agricultural development in Africa**: *“This agreement aims to accelerate the necessary transformation of African agricultural systems to make them more efficient, improve yields, and reduce food losses, in order to contribute to our common goal of food security on the African continent. The ambition of the AgriFinance platform that we are joining is also to create opportunities for small producers and agricultural workers, particularly women and youth, by increasing their incomes and distributing the value created more equitably among the various actors in agri-food value chains.”*
**Youssef EL BARI, CEO of INNOVX**, stated: *“Our strategic partnership with AFD and PROPARCO reflects our shared commitment to developing sustainable and resilient agriculture, essential for food security on the African continent. This collaboration marks an important step in achieving our vision and ambition to develop innovative and sustainable businesses and ecosystems. Through the agricultural financing platform, AgriFinance Platform, recently developed by INNOVX, we support projects that realize this vision.”*
