Harvesting change: Innovative strategies for delivering food systems adaptation finance for local-level impact
In this brief for the African Food Systems Transformation Collective, Daniel Adeniyi offers guidance on how development partners and funding agencies can enhance mechanisms for delivering finance to the local level in Africa.
Summary
Despite growing demand for food system adaptation at the local level, only a small fraction of adaptation finance effectively reaches local actors. This brief explores key principles to enhance the delivery and absorption of adaptation finance to food systems, including subsidiarity, flexible funding, patient and predictable funding, scalability and replicability, horizontal accountability, risk-taking, partnership-building and sustainability.
The brief also offers guidance on how development partners and funding agencies can enhance mechanisms for delivering finance to the local level in Africa. They must integrate best practices such as engaging existing local governance systems, supporting local intermediaries, cocreating with local actors, institutionalising accountability and feedback processes, and facilitating direct access to funding.
Developing local ecosystems conducive to food systems adaptation finance absorption is essential, requiring capacity-strengthening support for local actors and improved local data availability. Partnership-building, including public-private collaborations, plays a crucial role in strengthening local financial and governance systems. Supporting microfinance institutions, cooperatives, producer organisations and small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) is key to enhancing financial access.
Digital innovations like blockchain and artificial intelligence can streamline adaptation finance delivery to local communities.
However, meaningful localisation of finance demands structural shifts in how funders operate. It requires
rebalancing power dynamics, reforming institutional frameworks, and adopting governance approaches that prioritise local ownership and agency. By embedding these principles and strategies, donors and
philanthropies can ensure that adaptation finance reaches the local level, fostering sustainable, inclusive and effective climate resilience within food systems.
