The current COVID-19 crisis is bringing into sharp relief the vulnerability of agri-food systems and creating new challenges whose repercussions may be felt in the sector for a long time. Among other things, it is showing the limits of our capacity to anticipate shocks and is testing the risk management capacity of all actors active in supply chains, as well as in government, finance, and other sectors. In this context, many agri-SMEs are already suffering significantly from disruptions in supply chains and markets, causing cash flow problems. Many also lack the capital and capacity to undertake the investments that would be required to strengthen their resilience to the enduring crisis and prepare for its likely after-effects.
This is, therefore, an opportune time to take a closer look at the range of tools available in the area of agricultural risk management, and identify those that can be deployed both to address the current crisis, particularly from the agri-SME standpoint, as well as to prepare for its long term repercussions. Such an assessment will also serve to highlight the main gaps or areas where innovative products, delivery mechanisms, or complementary measures are needed. The convergence of interests and experiences of ILO, PARM and SAFIN around these issues provides an opportunity to address them with reference to practical experiences and examples.
Overall, the aim of the Live Talks Series is to assess the general offering and limitations of the agricultural risk management “toolbox” in light of the ongoing experience with COVID-19, from the perspectives of agri-SMEs and agri-lenders. Furthermore, the series presents practical learnings related to the use of specific tools and the impact achieved by both sets of actors (SMEs and lenders) through a review of case studies.
This webinar builds on the LIVE TALK 01: Risk management for agri-SME finance: addressing new challenges in the era of COVID-19, which was held on 24 September 2020.
This second session focuses on concrete examples of risk management tools that have been used by financial institutions and other actors to provide financial services to agri-SMEs during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The webinar opens with the presentation of case studies covering specific approaches: describing their original focus or intent, as well as any shift resulting from the pandemic, and sharing an assessment of their impact and lessons learned. This is followed by a Q&A session before closing with some key conclusions and takeaways from the case studies.
Explore the other sessions of the series:
Marise brings over three decades of diverse and robust experience with a wide array of businesses from large multinationals, start-ups to Funds. As General Manager of SCOPEinsight for the past six years, she has been leading a team of high-performing professionals to be efficient, productive, and effective. Prior to working with SCOPEinsight, she was COO/CFO to an emerging market investment fund, managing director of a start-up IT company and executive director of a financial communications firm. All these experiences prove to be relevant in her quest to transform the agricultural sector in emerging markets through the professionalization of agribusinesses. Marise holds an MSc Economics degree from Groningen University in the Netherlands.
Anilkumar SG is the Founder and CEO of Samunnati Financial Intermediation & Services Private Limited (Samunnati). Established in November 2014, Samunnati offers financial, co-financial and nonfinancial solutions to marginal, small and medium holders including farmers, agri enterprises and wholesale/retailers. Samunnati stands for collective growth, collective prosperity and collective elevation and in its journey of the last five years, focusing exclusively in Agri & Allied activities, has its presence in more than 54 value chains spread over 19 states.
Samunnati works with over 500 Farmer Producer Organisations that are collectively serving about four million predominantly small holder Farmers across India.
Anil is a career banker with over 28 years of experience in the areas of Rural, Retail and Agri Banking. He started his career with Canara Bank and then joined ICICI Bank. Over the last decade, Anil’s work was focused on creating newer institutions across the country and operating in the financially excluded markets with corresponding support structures for their capacity building. Prior to Samunnati, Anil was the Co-Founder & Trustee of IFMR Trust and the CEO of IFMR Rural Channels.
Anil holds a Masters in Management from Asian Institute of Management, Manila. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Symbiosis Institute of Management, Pune and a graduate degree in Humanities from Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Henry is a specialist in solving information problems across the market system that are constraining enterprises’ access to finance. Prior to joining CFI, Henry led product development for MIX Market, providing data and analysis services to investors in the Financial Inclusion sector. Previously at Sapient, Henry created information solutions for financial services clients including investment & commercial banks. Henry has also led and advised companies from startups to multinationals in building successful information products and customer-first teams.
Rachid Darago graduated with a master’s degree in international development from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul, South Korea. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computerized management and electronic business from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) in Canada. He has worked for over ten years on the management of long term development projects and programs. He currently works as the Project Manager for the Incentive Scheme for Agricultural Financing based on Risk Sharing (MIFA SA) where he leads the design and formulation of development projects, monitoring and evaluation schemes as well as performance reports, surveys and strategic development studies.
Pranav Prashad is the Senior Technical Officer at the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Impact Insurance Facility. He provides technical expertise on agriculture insurance, distribution and mobile services as well as use of technology in insurance.
Pranav Prashad has more than three decades of experience in insurance and business management. He has initiated and taken to scale agriculture and health insurance projects amongst low-income households in India, utilizing a diverse set of distribution channels and enabling the projects with technology.
At the Facility, Pranav has supported the successful introduction of weather index insurance products in Sri Lanka and index-related products for livestock in Kenya among other projects. He is also the lead author of the Facility’s paper looking as various ways mobile phone technology can help in building scale and efficiency in insurance operations.
He holds an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies and a bachelor’s honours degree in Economics, both from Delhi University, India.
Michael von During is the Technical Specialist for the SAFIN Secretariat housed at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome, Italy. A native of Geneva, Switzerland, Michael has developed a career at the intersection of access to finance and agricultural development. His work in the impact investment space covering both fund structuring and pipeline development, combined with his experience at Cargill, have afforded him a deep understanding of the risks faced by companies and investors in the agriculture sector, as well as the tools available to address them.
Ilaria Tedesco is an economist with over 13 years of experience in agriculture and international development in UN institutions (Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO, International Fund for Agricultural Development – IFAD) and university (Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich). Her experience has been mostly focused on cost-benefit and policy impact analyses, agricultural value chains, agricultural risk management and capacity building activities in Paraguay, Nigeria, Turkey, Oman, Mauritius, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Liberia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Niger and Zambia. She is currently Senior Technical Advisor for the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) at IFAD. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Tor Vergata (Rome, Italy).