Toronto, 5 July, 2024 — Convergence awarded a proof-of-concept grant to Clarmondial AG for the Biosphere Integrity Fund, a blended finance structure, which will finance the transition of emerging and developing market agricultural supply chains and sourcing landscapes to achieve targets on environment, local livelihoods, business resilience, and women's economic empowerment. Priority impact topics are biodiversity and climate action (mitigation, adaptation, and resilience, including water and soil health). Clarmondial is a woman-led business and will apply a gender lens to investments by targeting over 50% women beneficiaries through employment on the farm as well as through access to products and training.
The grant was awarded under the Gender-Responsive Climate Finance Design Funding Window, funded by Global Affairs Canada.
Ensuring supply chain resilience in the face of climate change is increasingly urgent, particularly in light of corporate climate and nature targets and regulations. Through the Food Securities Fund, an existing impact fund, Clarmondial has proven its ability to design and execute an investment strategy that builds on supply chain commitments to promote sustainable practices. With the Biosphere Integrity Fund, Clarmondial will further its unique relationships, local presence, and expertise to mobilize funding for gender-responsive climate and nature commitments using an innovative blended finance investment strategy and a technical assistance facility. This will provide longer-term capital for on-farm, supply chain, and landscape investments, including payments for ecosystem services, such as carbon insets (within value chain greenhouse gas mitigation), high-quality offsets, and where appropriate, credits under the emerging United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement Article 6 Framework.
The Biosphere Integrity Fund has been conceptualized through the Business Case for Collective Landscape Action, an initiative supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and executed in collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance (RA), Conservation International, and CDP. Clarmondial recently announced that it will execute a pilot transaction in the Mount Kenya landscape, in collaboration with RA Kenya and the IKEA Foundation.
Tanja Havemann, Co-Founder and Director of Clarmondial, emphasized the importance of Convergence’s support: “The Biosphere Integrity Fund builds on many years of work with international and local groups to consider planetary boundaries in business operations, assessing supply chains, sourcing landscapes, and private investments. We have a strong pipeline based on our existing business relationships, and we see the importance of establishing robust frameworks and partnerships that contribute to primary data collection and integration at the fund and transaction level, so business decisions can be informed by material nature and livelihood issues, and these can be integrated into investments. Convergence supports this work, as it is also intertwined with gender action towards climate adaptation and resilience.”
“The Biosphere Integrity Fund will promote sustainable agriculture in emerging markets worldwide, while creating valuable opportunities for improving women’s livelihoods,” says Convergence CEO, Joan Larrea, “Clarmondial’s track record coupled with its focus on gender-smart sustainable agricultural supply chains will make it particularly compelling to investors seeking impact alongside financial return.”
About Clarmondial AG
Clarmondial creates value by proactively designing and implementing investment solutions within the natural resource management sectors. With expertise and an international network in the corporate, finance, and scientific communities, their multi-disciplinary team has a unique ability to catalyze financing for businesses with the potential for long-lasting impact on society and the environment. Visit clarmondial.com to learn more.
About Convergence’s Design Funding Program
Convergence’s Design Funding program operates as a market acceleration tool providing early-stage capital to support blended finance solutions in frontier markets and nascent sectors to accelerate the number of investible transactions in market targeting SDGs. The Gender-Responsive Climate Finance Window, funded by the Government of Canada, provides grant funding for the design and launch of innovative blended finance solutions focused on the intersection of climate change and gender equality in emerging markets globally. Visit Convergence’s Design Funding page for information on submission deadlines as well as other open windows.
About Convergence
Convergence is the global network for blended finance. We exist to increase private investment in emerging markets and developing economies to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement.
Our members include private investors looking to diversify their portfolios, businesses seeking capital, as well as public agencies and philanthropic foundations looking to make their funds go further.
Learn more about Convergence: www.convergence.finance
Media Contact
Karolyn Xie
Head of Communications (interim)
Convergence
[email protected]
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