Speakers and dignitaries at the 6th World Congress on Rural and Agricultural Finance in New Delhi, India.
On 12-13 November 2019, the 6th World Congress on Rural and Agricultural Finance took place in New Delhi under the theme Rural and Agricultural Finance: Critical Input to Achieve Inclusive and Sustainable Development. The congress is jointly organized every three years by the Regional Agricultural Credit Associations – APRACA, AFRACA, ALIDE, CICA and NENARACA- to bring together their member institutions and other stakeholders to discuss topical issues related to their mandate.
This year’s event convened over 250 delegates from 54 countries who contributed to lively discussions about making agricultural and rural development more sustainable and inclusive for people living in poverty. Expert panel discussions explored topics such as risk management, insurance, digitalization and value chain finance.
The role of finance in enabling agricultural transformation towards climate resilience emerged as an issue of intense interest across regions, and so did innovations in value chain finance and ways to use new data and analytics that can profoundly transform how finance is designed and delivered for agricultural transformation, down to the level of poor rural households and small agricultural units.
The New Delhi Declaration, which was issued by the organizers, states their commitment to promote investment in agriculture and in sustainable food production systems, including by scaling up flows of private finance to low-carbon emission investments; encouraging public private partnerships to achieve food security; promoting rural economic diversification; harnessing geospatial and digital technologies and promoting chain finance also as an instrument for social and economic inclusion.
