About the event
The challenges related to making green finance available to the agriculture sector are particularly acute when it comes to small-scale farms and SMEs, which generally struggle also to access mainstream types of financing. One key obstacle to scaling up the mobilization and deployment of green finance to agri-SMEs is the complex process of weaving effective partnerships among the diverse range of actors who need to work together to mobilize, package, channel and manage financial investments for “green” transactions focused on SMEs.
This topic will be the focus of a half-day workshop taking place on 6 October 2021. This will consist of three interactive sessions, including two case study presentations of innovative partnership models, and one brainstorming session involving three breakout rooms to address questions for future research and learning in this area.
Speakers
Michael von During, Technical Specialist, SAFIN Secretariat
Michael has developed a career at the intersection of access to finance and agricultural development. His work in the impact investment space began with a focus on microfinance and SME lending. Michael spent several years at Cargill, working in the area of credit risk management for commodities trading. Since 2015, he has led the structuring of two innovative blended finance funds, including the WaterCredit Investment Funds, and IFAD’s Agri-Business Capital Fund.
Godefroy Grosjean, Climate Action, Global Leader Advisory Services, CGIAR
Dr. Grosjean currently leads research that supports public and private investors in designing and implementing climate strategies, and investments in climate-smart agriculture. Godefroy has more than ten years of work experience in technical assistance for climate policy, investment design and project implementation. He holds a Ph.D. in Climate Policy from the Technical University in Berlin and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Evan Girvetz, Principal Scientist and Global Programme Leader, Finance and Investments for Climate Action, CGIAR
Evan works as a principal scientist and the global programme leader of finance and investments for Climate Action at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. His research spans agricultural risk management, climate-smart agriculture, agricultural investment planning, and sustainable agricultural intensification. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Evan works on these global issues through innovative partnerships with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and key public sector partners, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, and USAID.
Felicity Spors, Head of Climate and Sustainable Finance, Gold Standard
Felicity has twenty years of international experience in climate finance. She has managed programmes ranging in value from USD 1 million to 750 million to deliver policy and finance innovation, carbon markets, and sustainable development solutions. Felicity worked for the World Bank for twelve years and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community for 3 years prior to joining Gold Standard. She currently leads Gold Standard’s work to define new ways to monitor, verify, and measure sustainable impacts to support credible and greater scale-up of both climate mitigation and adaptation.
Dorothée Herr, Manager, Ocean and Climate Change, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Dorothée joined IUCN in 2009 and now leads the Union’s international policy and private finance engagement on coastal and marine nature-based solutions. Along with a team of financial experts, she developed the Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility and has managed its implementation since 2018. Dorothée received her master’s degree in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University.
Steffen Entenmann, Head of Programme, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ)
Since 2021, Steffen leads the “More Job Opportunities for Palestinian Youth” project, which supports local universities in establishing more practice-oriented study programmes in close cooperation with the private sector. Between 2019 and 2021, he worked as an Advisor at the GIZ Programme Fund International Agricultural Research, covering topics related to climate change, integrated land use systems, and sustainable finance. He also chaired the GIZ-CGIAR Task Force on scaling innovations and solutions. Before GIZ, he worked as a researcher and lecturer on topics at the nexus of rural development and sustainable land use.
Mauricio Benitez, Sectorial Specialist, responsAbility
Mauricio has twenty years of financial experience, including ten years of field experience in Latin America and Africa. From 2012 to 2020, he was responsible for the underwriting and portfolio strategy of responsAbility’s sustainable food debt investments. During this time, he led the design and implementation of lending procedures for sustainable food funds, launched two dedicated funds and underwrote over USD 1 billion in loans in about fifty countries. Currently, Mauricio oversees the development of new investment solutions related to climate finance, sustainable food, and natural capital. He also acts as an investment committee member for sustainable food transactions.
Victoria Sabula, Chief Executive Officer, African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF)
Victoria leads strategic efforts to achieve a prosperous and enterprising rural Africa at AECF. The Fund provides catalytic funding, advisory support, and market linkages to early and growth-stage businesses in the Agriculture and Renewable Energy sectors across Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining AECF, Victoria served as General Counsel and Corporation Secretary at AGRA, providing strategic oversight on legal advisory, compliance, risk management, and governance.
Morgana Bourggraff, Senior Board Advisor, Innpact
At Innpact, Morgana supports the boards and investment committees of impact and blended finance vehicles focused on climate mitigation, agriculture, and MSMEs, as a personal advisor for fund governance and partnership development. She also provides advisory services in fund structuring and implementation and in partnership development. Morgana has worked in the Luxembourg fund industry since 2013 and holds a master’s degree in European and International Politics from the University of Edinburgh.
Andreea Nowak, Climate Change Adaptation Research Associate, World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the CGIAR Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
Andreea is a social science researcher with World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the CGIAR Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), leading research on performance tracking and measurement of climate adaptation actions under the UNFCCC process and in national policies and investments. She works closely with governments, development partners, and investors across Africa in the co-design of climate decision-support tools and evidence-based targets and metrics for climate change adaptation.
Richard Newman, Senior Sustainable Finance Specialist, CGIAR
As a Senior Sustainable Finance Specialist, Richard provides strategic and technical advice on sustainable finance, impact investing, and blended finance within food, land, and water systems in developing and emerging economies. Richard has more than ten years of experience in the public and private sectors, ranging from direct investing and corporate finance to sustainable finance advisory.
Tamer El-Raghy, Managing Director, Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF)
Tamer leads ARAF, a USD 58-million impact fund and the world’s first equity fund designed to build the climate resilience of African smallholder farmers. Tamer has more than twenty years of private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial, and innovation experience in Africa, the Middle East, the United States and Europe. Prior to this, Tamer worked with responsAbility as Head of the Agri-Food Private Equity Fund in Africa, where he co-led the structuring, due diligence and closing of transactions that impacted 35,000 smallholder farmers.
Eduardo Tugendhat, Leader, Natural Resources Financing Hub, Palladium
Eduardo spearheads Palladium’s catalytic work in the design and execution of inclusive growth strategies through commercial facilities structured to finance the transformation of natural business systems at scale. Mr. Tugendhat was Co-Founder and CEO of CARANA Corporation, now part of Palladium. He started his career at Arthur D. Little as a management consultant. He has worked in over seventy countries catalyzing private sector investments and transforming value chains across fourteen distinct sectors and industries, with particular expertise in food and agriculture.
Recordings
Webinar recording

Event Details:
Event dates: Oct 06, 2021, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM GMT+2
Location: Workshop
Organizer: SAFIN