GREEN INCLUSIVE REGIONAL AGROBUSINESS FUND (GIRAF)
Purpose: Accessible financing for low-carbon and climate-resilient livestock and agrobusiness value chains created (FIL component).
Activity 1: Provision of accessible low-carbon and climate-resilient agrobusiness loans and credit guarantees to herders’ cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises. This includes:
- Lending window 1, to provide low-carbon and climate-resilient agrobusiness loans through qualified participating banks for small and medium-sized enterprises in partnership agreements with herders’ cooperatives and herders engaged in sustainable rangeland management, or promoting advance processing, commercial and logistic investments for retail and exports; and other forms of economic diversification.
- Lending window 2, to provide direct low-carbon and climate-resilient agrobusiness loans to qualified medium- and large-scale enterprises which are involved in livestock production, processing, distribution and marketing, and export. The enterprises to qualify must have business plans that include a clearly articulated approach for working and sharing their profits with herders’ cooperatives or herders engaged in sustainable rangeland management. They must also demonstrate congruence and consistency with the low-carbon and climate-resilient agrobusiness development plan (LCADP).
- A low-carbon and climate-resilient credit guarantee facility to provide low-carbon and climate-resilient credit risk mitigation for financial institutions participating in the project and to facilitate the acceptability of collateral substitutes to be developed as part of the project’s LCLVC financing schemes.
(d) A pilot lending window 3 to focus on low-carbon and climate-resilient microfinance to be channeled through savings and credit cooperatives (SCCs) to certified herders and their households. The pilot program will be expanded during tranche 2 to support livestock-related home-based businesses and microenterprises with plans to locate in the business incubators under output
Activity 2: Provision of innovation grants for low-carbon and climate-resilient livestock and agrobusiness value chains to qualified herders and small- and medium-sized enterprises. This includes low-carbon and climate-resilient innovation grants to provide business incentives designed to commercialize innovations leading to greener, more inclusive, and competitive LCLVCs.
