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The Agri-PDB Platform Team takes this opportunity to extend its best wishes to all members and partners for a successful and prosperous New Year 2026. With your continued support, we will further strengthen Public Development Banks through knowledge sharing, capacity building, and awareness-raising, while exploring new initiatives to advance inclusive, green, and sustainable food systems finance. Stay tuned for upcoming activities and opportunities for engagement throughout 2026. |
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3rd Working Group on Rural Financial InclusionA Practical Guide for PDBs: Applying Global Findex 2025 Data to Rural Finance |
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23 January 2026 | Online
The Agri-PDB Platform’s 3rd Working Group on Rural Financial Inclusion featured representatives from CGAP, the World Bank’s flagship programme on financial inclusion, and from the Institute of Peruvian Studies. The session aimed to equip Public Development Banks with a practical approach to use Global Findex 2025 (and microdata where available) to diagnose rural gaps, identify resilience vulnerabilities, and translate evidence into prioritized interventions. The Working Group opened with an overview of the potential for Agri-PDBs to leverage the Global Findex 2025 dataset. Key insights highlighted persistent credit gaps in rural areas, limited uptake of digital payments, the fact that only around one-third of agricultural payments are channeled through the financial sector, and a need for more insurance in rural areas. Building on this foundation, CGAP demonstrated, through the practical case study of India, how Findex data can inform PDB strategies, illustrating pathways to expand rural credit. The discussion also underscored the value of complementing Findex data with nationally representative surveys focused on smallholder financial needs, enabling a more granular understanding of demand and product design. Overall, the discussions highlighted that effective rural finance requires context-aware, data-driven, and bundled financial solutions that transform existing financial usage into greater resilience and sustainable growth. |
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FAO & Agri-PDB Platform Learning EventHigh Integrity Carbon Markets & Agriculture Finance: Building Capacity, Connection, and Action |
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| 28 January 2026 | Online
This webinar marked the launch of a new series dedicated to carbon markets. The introductory learning session examined the major step taken at COP29 in making international carbon markets under Article 6 operational, offering concrete opportunities for Public Developments Banks to diversify funding sources, support low-emission and climate-resilient agriculture, and scale sustainable projects through carbon-linked mechanisms. To set the scene, leading experts from FAO provided a comprehensive overview on carbon markets, covering key definitions, market types, and supply-and-demand dynamics, while underscoring the critical challenges related to quality and integrity. The presentation noted that emerging markets and developing economies face a climate financing gap of USD 2 trillion per day by 2030 to meet their climate targets and transition to cleaner energy systems. In that context, carbon markets offer a potential means of bridging this financing gap, with PDBs playing a key role, for strategic guidance, technical assistance, market integrity, risk management, or knowledge sharing, in the transition to low-carbon development through carbon markets by mobilising private capital and improving project bankability. Concluding the session, FAO outlined key challenges and risks PDBs may encounter in carbon markets, alongside enabling conditions and recommendations. These included: (i) provide clear market signals by integrating high-quality carbon credits into insitutional climate strategies; (ii) endorse the voluntary use of high-quality carbon credits as a complementary tool in addition to decarbonization strategy; and (iii) actively contribute to scaling up high-integrity carbon markets. |
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| | New video capturing highlights from Agri-PDB’s Peer-Learning Exchange between NABARD & MAIIC |
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| 3-7 November 2025 | Mumbai, India
In November 2025, the Agri-PDB Platform facilitated a peer-learning mission to India, bringing together the Malawi Agricultural & Industrial Investment Corporation (MAIIC) and the Indian National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), in collaboration with IFAD country office. Through institutional exchanges in Mumbai and field visits in Andhra Pradesh, the delegation explored how NABARD’s natural farming and climate-resilient investment approaches - particularly under the JIVA Programme - are restoring soil health, increasing crop diversity, strengthening rural incomes, and empowering communities, especially women. This South–South exchange highlighted the value of peer-to-peer learning among Public Development Banks in translating proven agroecological practices into effective financial services for farmers and rural communities, while providing practical insights to advance MAIIC’s agroecology-aligned investment planning. Building on the momentum of this mission, the Platform will continue advancing cross-institutional collaboration that supports more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable food systems across its global network. Watch our newly released video and relive the Peer-Learning Exchange between NABARD & MAIIC. |
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Looking ahead, from 8 to 12 February, the Agri-PDB Platform will participate in the 79th Executive Committee of APRACA and the 24th General Assembly and Regional Policy Forum, in Bangkok. In addition, the Platform will continue its learning series with upcoming webinars in February 2026 focusing on agroecology, key performance indicators, and biodiversity, further supporting PDBs in advancing nature-positive finance.
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| | Want to explore more about Agri-PDB Platform? Follow us on our website, YouTube and LinkedIn! |
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