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  • Publication | 2025

Annual Report 2024: Financing the future of food: A call to action: The catalytic role of ODA and blended finance

Global Food and Nutrition Security

Guided by the GDPRD and Shamba Centre for Food & Climate 2023 flagship report on Unleashing the Catalytic Power of Donor Financing to Achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2, the Platform convened donors and development actors in discussions on the changing landscape of official development assistance (ODA), the role of the private sector, and innovative blended finance mechanisms in financing agriculture and rural development.

The joint report’s key message is that every donor dollar has the potential to mobilize four dollars in commercial finance, if donors and development finance institutions (DFIs) take higher risks with their grants and lending. Emphasizing this message, the GDPRD organized a series of webinars on the fundamentals of development finance to help the development community better understand core principles of development finance and different donor approaches. In March 2024, the GDPRD and Shamba Centre released a supplementary Technical note, sharing detailed research, findings and recommendations from the enquiry. In response to one of the report’s recommendations, the GDPRD established its fourth thematic working group (TWG) in April 2024, on Sustainable/ Blended Finance for Food Systems. The group consists of bilateral and multilateral agencies, DFIs, impact investors and academics, with the overall goal of increasing transparency, developing benchmarks and building evidence to improve decision-making and more effective allocation of donor dollars.