Spotlighting four key achievements

Despite this new global context, the Shamba Centre has thrived. Since its launch in October 2022, the team at the Shamba Centre has worked to empower small and medium enterprises by:

• Encouraging companies of all sizes to invest in agriculture and food systems in low and middle income countries through the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge.

• Focusing on the country level engagement and helping governments and civil society understand how they can end hunger and malnutrition, improve the plight of small producers and take climate action through the advocacy of the Zero Hunger Coalition and research from Hesat2030.

• Ensuring fair markets in Africa by providing research and data to African competition regulators together with our partners at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Competition Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED).

• Finding new ways to reduce dependency on foreign way by mobilizing alternative sources of finance

What to expect next?

While the mission of the Shamba Centre remains more relevant than ever before, it is necessary to reorient activites to reflect the currents in today’s global environment. This means that two issues will become priorities: dealing with power imbalances and experimenting with innovative ways to mobilize more finance to small and medium sized enterprises in developing countries.  

Specifically, we will continue to push for more equitable and robust agriculture and food markets by focusing on transparency, data and capacity building. And, we will continue to offer innovative ideas that push development banks and financial institions to take more risks and reach more SMEs.

Rather than focusing on the global headlines, we will focus on taking action where needed at the country level together with our partners. This is how we will bring positive outcomes.