Forum on Analysis, Financing and Financial Inclusion for Agricultural, Rural and Food Systems Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Summary Document

On 6 and 7 May 2019, IFPRI and IICA, with the support of the Secretariat of the Network for Investment and Financing in Smallholder Agriculture (SAFIN) based at IFAD, organized a forum to discuss the experience of financing and financial inclusion for agricultural development. and food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The objective has been to build an agenda of issues to be analyzed in order to derive appropriate economic policy proposals in these areas. A background document for discussion was also circulated beforehand. Specialists from different countries were invited, representing public agencies, the private sector, including groups of agricultural producers, civil society, international organizations and non-governmental development finance organizations. The event began with a presentation by the Director General of IICA on the general situation of the agricultural sector in the region. The thematic sessions were organized with the following structure: (a) a general presentation to provide a framework for the discussion; (b) the proposal of different indicative questions for analysis; and 3) the interventions of the participants. Below, different aspects of the rich debate and analysis during the forum are summarized, basically following the structure of topics proposed in the agenda.