
The Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced at the 2022 Doha Forum, a new strategic partnership called Nanmo, or “growing together” in Arabic.
Nimmo will invest in climate-adaptive agricultural tools and technologies to build resilient food systems and markets that provide nutrition, income, and economic opportunities to small-scale producers and their communities across the African continent.
QFFD and the Gates Foundation jointly pledged up to US$200 million toward agriculture, climate resilience, and economic development projects to support smallholder farmers on drylands on the African continent. These farmers are bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change and this partnership will aim to strengthen economies in sub-Saharan Africa in four key areas:
- Equity is a primary driver of inclusive growth
- Enterprise as a means of job creation and poverty alleviation
- Agriculture as a primary source of food, jobs, and income
- Access to technologies, financial tools, and emerging best practices as a driver of productivity, nutrition, and climate adaptation
The partnership will also seek to ensure that women small-scale producers can positively contribute to, and benefit from, decisions about how their communities grow food and create jobs.
The strategic partnership was announced by Bill Gates and Mr. Khalifa Al-Kuwari, Director General of QFFD, in the presence of Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman during a panel at the Doha Forum. It will support climate-adaptive tools, practices, policies, and markets as sustainable drivers of resilient food systems that provide nutrition, income, and economic opportunities to small-scale producers and their communities. It will also include systems-level research and country-level implementation to adapt to local environments.
One of the first projects funded by Nanmo will focus on improving the livelihoods of low-income women farmers in a number of African countries, working with the World Poultry Foundation to provide them with improved breeds of chicken for egg and meat production.
The partnership will also fund projects with a clear path to achieving impact across multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty alleviation, agricultural transformation, nutrition, and youth and women’s and youth economic empowerment. Investments like these are especially important at a time when the conflict in one part of the world can threaten food security across the globe.
The Gates Foundation has spent over US$5 billion since 2009 on advancing agricultural development to support the needs of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Stronger food systems for smallholder farmers are urgently needed to avert more serious hunger crises in dryland regions. This will help boost economies and improve the ability of farmers to respond and adapt to climate change.
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