Private Sector & Development magazine articles

Financing international trade through the banking system is essential to facilitating trade between countries. While this type of financing is readily available in developed economies, certain Southern countries are experiencing chronic shortages. On the African continent, for example, the supply of essential goods, especially cereals, represents a specific challenge and is particularly dependent on trade flows (intercontinental as well as internal to Africa) which need to be facilitated to safeguard the Continent’s food security. This is exactly what Proparco’s Trade Finance guarantee programme aims to do.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the development of high-performance agri-food chains will be contingent on stronger smallholder farms. Training, advice, financing of agriculture, supply chain structuring and contractualisation: developing these critical functions must lead to the implementation of ambitious public policies. At a time when there is a new consensus around the goal of food sovereignty, strengthening agricultural policy is a priority. All players in the sector – particularly upstream and downstream businesses – will benefit from public investment focused on smallholder farms.

The financial sector is increasingly mainstreaming climate-related risks into its analyses, in particular through the action of the NGFS, an international network of central banks and regulators. Details and analyses from Jean Boissinot, Deputy Director for Financial Stability at Banque de France and Head of the NGFS Secretariat.