Lao_Climate Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains

The Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Project is aimed at enhancing competitiveness of rice value chains in Khammouane, Saravan and Savannakhet Provinces,  and vegetable value chains in Vientiane Capital, Champasak and Sekong provinces. The project will improve climate resilience of agricultural infrastructure, and enhance crop productivity, diversification and commercialization. The project will help improve storage, processing, quality and safety testing capacity, and promote the use of biofertilizers and organic farming. It will strengthen technical and institutional capacity for climate smart agriculture (CSA) and create an enabling environment for climate-friendly agribusinesses to promote environmental sustainability and enhance profitability for farmers and agribusinesses.

To achieve the objectives, activities are to:

(i) Conduct a comprehensive landscape and key stakeholder analysis to determine implementation activities exist in green climate financing, and the key stakeholders involved in each including implementation agencies and donor partners. Determine what is required to remove financing aversion into green climate projects. Analyse potential incentives for financial institutions to increase lending to green climate finance projects. Include research with UNCDF, the GCF Consortium (Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, and Wildlife Conservation Society), USAID, DFAT, AFD, and other stakeholders;

(ii) Design a training program for financial institutions including banks/MFIs to understand environmental and climate screening criteria, and to evaluate loans against these criteria. Training topics could include: (a) What is green lending - identification, benefits and opportunities; (b) Awareness of green climate financing projects and the Cambodia Climate Fund (CCF) operations and requirements; (c) Integration of green climate finance criteria into current credit application process; and (d) reporting on the credit guarantee;

(iii) Plan, organize and facilitate a financial institution training and workshop on green climate friendly investments in Lao PDR, in coordination with other stakeholders;

(iv) Design and manage bank climate friendly financing accreditation process. This accreditation process will ensure that banks have climate friendly criteria included in their credit application process. These accredited banks will then become eligible for CCF lending for them to onlend to climate friendly projects;

(v) Conduct ongoing field visits with banks to review potential green financing projects. Conduct ongoing awareness workshops and accreditation seminars, as needed;

(vi) Consult and coordinate with all stakeholders including the Government, environmental supporting NGOs, financial lenders, and the private sector;

(vii) Strengthen linkages, trust and shared understanding between lenders, borrowers, and input and services providers regarding climate friendly investment opportunities;

(viii) Deliver regular project reporting on a quarterly basis on results achieved, specific roadblocks and challenges, and next steps;

(ix) Support expansion of newly tested crop-insurance models; and

(x) Support procurement and installation of infrastructure to provide accurate and reliable weather information in focus provinces for the Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project.