GOPA AFC GmbH is a private German consulting firm focusing on agricultural, agribusiness and financial development projects in developing and transition countries. GOPA AFC was established in 1973. In 2007, GOPA AFC became a member of GOPA, Germany’s largest group of consulting firms in development cooperation.
AFC © 2025 / Photos by GOPA AFC, MetaMeta, associates, and iStock
The year 2024 was a landmark for GOPA AFC, characterised by significant transformative events that are shaping the future of our company. Among the most notable changes was the rebranding of AFC Agriculture and Finance Consultants to GOPA AFC. It reflects our commitment to align more closely with GOPA's values and mission, and to enhance our impact by joining up with other parts of GOPA. Additionally, on 4th of March 2024, the Netherlands-based advisory company MetaMeta officially joined GOPA as a full subsidiary. This integration has set the stage for enhanced collaboration, streamlined processes, and the development of a unified vision for our combined entities.
MetaMeta’s inclusion has expanded GOPA AFC’s technical expertise, particularly in the climate and water sectors. This strategic addition enriches our organisational capabilities and positions us to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more detailed insights into MetaMeta’s service offer and impact, please refer to page 11.
To further support our growth and structures, we have welcomed two new Managing Directors to our leadership team. Holger Christ, who has been Director at GOPA AFC since 2016, continues to bring invaluable experience and will oversee GOPA’s Financial Sector Development activities. We are equally excited to have Marc van der Stouwe join us; his extensive experience at Mott MacDonald will be instrumental in leading GOPA AFC’s new technical fields: water and irrigation for climate resilience.
Further, we have expanded our global footprint by integrating additional offices in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Yemen. Moreover, we established a new unit, GOPA Uzbekistan, and celebrated the 25th anniversary of GOPA CAICO in Kyrgyzstan. In 2025, new international structures in Indonesia and Bangladesh will be established.
On the technical front, climate finance activities, the introduction of blended finance and the set-up of sustainable funding structures have emerged as some of the fastest-growing areas. How can the UN’s development goals be achieved by mobilising private capital and know-how to tackle climate change, feed the population or finance its infrastructure? Our ability to combine finance expertise with specialist knowledge in the climate, water, food and agriculture sectors allows us to play a pivotal role in responding to the global development goals.
Internally, GOPA has taken significant strides towards the future by implementing stronger group branding, improving IT solutions, ensuring sound financial management and expanding our global presence. These advancements are designed to increase our global impact and ensure we deliver high-quality projects that meet and exceed our clients' expectations.
As we look to the future, we are confident that the major organisational steps we took in 2024 will deliver results in 2025 and beyond. In this new phase, GOPA AFC will be a truly global player offering a much wider range of technical services. We will be able to address the most pressing challenges in international development by offering comprehensive, multidisciplinary solutions. Demonstrating technical excellence in the interrelated areas of climate, water and land resource management, food security and development finance, we will satisfy the needs of our clients and, most importantly, contribute to improving the lives of the people we work with in the Global South.
We are excited about the opportunities ahead and remain dedicated to delivering excellence in everything we do.
Founded in 1965, GOPA and its subsidiary companies bring together a wide range of technical expertise and are continuously expanding. Since 2007, GOPA AFC has been a key part of GOPA, working collaboratively to build a better future.
GOPA is a leading group of consulting and engineering companies dedicated to turning political will into actionable projects. With a growing number of key country offices
Climate change and environmental protection
• International security and peacebuilding
• Migration and refugee assistance
• Resource management in water and energy
Addressing socioeconomic inequalities
• Trade and economic policy
worldwide, it aligns itself with major global and political challenges, which are reflected in its range of services:
Promoting democracy and human rights
• Pandemic response and global health
• Technological change
• Sustainable agriculture and food security Resilient financial systems for economic development
GOPA delivers expert and technical competence through highly specialised consulting and engineering companies, which work closely integrated with our local partner and client-focused companies.
• Agriculture and Agribusiness • Financial Sector Development • Climate ( Water/ Irrigation/ Blue Finance)
Over the past decade, GOPA companies have provided technical assistance in more than 4,500 projects across 170 countries. In
+4,500
10% ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (2020-2023)
2023, the Group’s annual turnover reached EUR 282 million, with a 10% annual growth rate (2020-23) and over 940 staff.
+170 projects implemented in the last 8 years
282M
EUR TURNOVER (2023)
+940 STAFF
+900 CURRENT PROJECTS
+90 COUNTRIES countries
Examples of projects illustrating the collaborative efforts in our ongoing projects are:
We are implementing the “Strengthening Regional Economic Integration in the SADC Region (CESARE) – Project on Industrialisation and Women Economic Empowerment” by GIZ. We join forces on promoting economic growth and trade, coupled with developing a Gender Action Plan, regional guidelines, and educational materials for women entrepreneurs. We also created a Women’s Financial Inclusion Toolkit for financial service providers and manage a Challenge Fund to enhance business development skills for women entrepreneurs.
We are jointly promoting green technologies in Tajikistan through the “GEFF II - Green Economy Financing Facility”, financed by EBRD. Our efforts focus on energy and water savings, renewable energy, and reducing soil erosion. We support private sector green investments, ensure gender equality, develop green financial products, offer training, and implement a gender action plan.
We are implementing the “Renewable Energy Programme” financed by KfW in Bangladesh. We review and improve the Infrastructure Development Company’s financial products for commercial and industrial photovoltaic rooftop projects and enhance their technical expertise. Additionally, we support project evaluations, introduce digital tools, and provide training. For renewable energy projects, we assess existing financial products, offer technical support, assist in investments, and monitor project impacts.
These projects showcase the integrated approach and collaborative strength of the GOPA in driving sustainable development and economic empowerment across different regions.
After 50 years of expertise and innovation, we keep evolving — transforming agriculture & agribusiness, developing the financial sector, shaping climate solutions.
On January 1, 2024, AFC Agriculture and Finance Consultants GmbH changed its company name to GOPA AFC GmbH. While our name changed, our core values, dedication to quality, and client-focused approach remain unwavering. For the past 50 years, we have dedicated ourselves to providing reliable and top-notch services. This change reflects our evolution and the synergies we have cultivated within GOPA, of which we have been a proud member since 2007.
This invigorated unity is integral part of our new, dynamic logo, which depicts our core principles: networking, partnerships,
On March 4, 2024, MetaMeta joined GOPA as a full “daughter company” of GOPA AFC. This merger reflects the complementary services and work methodologies of both organisations, generating positive dynamics and a unified team spirit across global offices.
With MetaMeta, we are effectively expanding our expertise. MetaMeta brings more than 20 years of professional experience in the climate and water sectors to the table, which fits perfectly with our global experience in agriculturel, agribusiness and financial sector development.
Based in Wageningen, the Netherlands, MetaMeta has been engaged in water, land and natural resource management. Specialised in applied research and support, management and
sustainability, continuity and diversity, on a global scale. The red colour of GOPA AFC remains as sign of our strength and passion for our work.
As we changed our name, we extended our fields of work as well as our organisational structure. GOPA AFC is now based on three pillars. In addition to our remaining core expertise A – Agriculture & Agribusiness, F – Financial Sector Development, we expanded our services to C – Climate and Water.
monitoring of complex programmes, the company engages in policy development and provides a bridge between knowledge suppliers and practitioners.
With around 45 employees at the headquarters in Wageningen and in its offices and branches in Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen, as well as technical experts in several countries, MetaMeta provides technical assistance services in many areas, such as water management and irrigation, regenerative agriculture, groundwater governance and flood-based livelihoods. This collaboration will allow us to broaden our focus to include critical future topics, such as water management, irrigation and blue finance and to provide a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary response to the global climate crisis.
Benefits for GOPA AFC:
Benefits for MetaMeta:
Strategic growth and development pathways
During a joint workshop in Bonn, a shared vision and key strategic growth pathways were identified.
Pathway 1: integrate agriculture and water management into a unified service offer
Pathway 2: engage in new product development and establish firmer links between agriculture, water and financial services
Pathway 3: present climate more prominently as the overarching domain
Pathway 4: diversify GOPA AFC-wide client base
GOPA AFC and MetaMeta have outlined a strategic plan to drive growth and impact over the next three years. The integrated team will actively pursue project opportunities that combine agriculture and water management, while developing innovative technical solutions for climate resilience.
A primary focus will be bidding for projects with significant blue finance components and framing services around climate management, adaptation, and resilience. The team will engage in visibility events and strategically pursue new clients, supported by comprehensive market research to enhance early positioning.
Strengthening our joint local entities in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, and Yemen is a priority, with efforts to integrate local teams to operate autonomously and bolster market
Pathway 5: integrate agriculture and water management into a unified service offer
Pathway 6: actively pursue an organisational localisation agenda
Pathway 7: thought leadership and smart use of evidence and learning
Pathway 8: integrate and strengthen internal systems and processes
presence. Additionally, the partnership will refine external communications, converting project-based evidence into impactful products that enhance visibility and strengthen our organisational capacity to influence policies and decisionmaking for better development outcomes.
Facing a growing population and increasing conflicts around the globe as well as uncertainties resulting from climate change, the need to transform agri-food systems and develop resilient financial systems is a necessary step towards achieving the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations with all its 17 SDGs.
For 50 years, the Anglophone, Hispanophone, and Francophone Departments of GOPA AFC have specialised in agriculture, agribusiness, and food industry development. Our partners comprise all actors of agricultural value chains and food systems
of the public and private sector. We focus on enhancing capabilities of local agribusinesses and SMEs, thereby creating income and employment opportunities for the local population.
AGRICULTURE & AGRIBUSINESS
OUR CORE AREAS
GOPA AFC’s specialised Financial Sector Development (FSD) team was established over 30 years ago. Within GOPA, FSD is the competency centre for financial sector development. Around the globe, FSD develops tailor-made credit and saving products
and establishes appropriate regulation and supervision systems. We advise financial institutions – including commercial and central banks, mortgage companies, microfinance and apex institutions – as well as MSMEs and smallholder farmers.
FINANCIAL SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
OUR CORE AREAS
Since its establishment in 2004, MetaMeta has been an innovative provider of specialist technical services in international development, dedicated to improving the environment and enhancing the lives and livelihoods of millions in the Global South.
Specialised in water and land management for climate resilience, we support communities, governments and businesses to build a climate-proof and water-secured world.
Senior Consultant / Project Manager Agriculture & Agribusiness Daniela.boehm@gopa.eu
Advisor M&E, Research & Visibility Financial Sector Development Friederike.graupner@gopa.eu
Indrajith Wijesiriwardana is team leader in Laos PDR for the Climate Friendly Agricultural Value Chain Development Project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture.
GOPA AFC: Can you briefly describe the project you are working in?
Indrajith: The project aims to address productivity and market issues through a multi-dimensional approach. GOPA AFC manages a financing unit that supports agribusinesses and agricultural production groups in six provinces via a marketled Matching Grant Scheme (MGS). Based on professionally developed business plans, MGS provides investments covering up to 50% of eligible costs, focusing on climate adaptation and mitigation, value chain development, and mechanisation.
GOPA AFC: How many people are in your project team and what are the various roles?
Indrajith: My team includes two full-time business analysts, an agricultural production groups specialist, and an office manager. Additionally, there are five part-time experts in social and environmental safeguards and MSME business plan development.
GOPA AFC: What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Indrajith: Working with and mentoring a team of national experts and stakeholders on climate-friendly agricultural investments to achieve project targets.
GOPA AFC: What challenges has your team faced and how did you overcome them?
Indrajith: The lack of knowledge and readiness among stakeholders on project topics like climate-smart investments, green finance, crop insurance, and MSME access to finance, required additional time at the start. However, meticulous planning, hands-on delivery, stakeholder engagement, and the team's high commitment helped achieve results.
GOPA AFC: Can you share a success story or a significant achievement of the project?
Indrajith: To date, the project has disbursed USD 1.25m among 50 agricultural production groups for joint assets, climatesmart agriculture projects, and revolving loan funds totalling USD 1.8m. This success has attracted additional funding from the ADB for expansion. Additionally, USD 2.4m have been earmarked for 23 agribusinesses, which are in the final stages before disbursement.
GOPA AFC: How has the project positively impacted the local community?
Indrajith: By linking farmer communities and MSMEs to value chains that made their investments more viable and climate friendly and resilient.
GOPA AFC: What have you learned from working on this project?
Indrajith: Reinforcing the belief that the agri sector is critical for developing economies and their ability to adapt and be resilient to climate change requires foresights and early interventions, and with the right approach the communities are ready to participate.
GOPA AFC: How has this project influenced your perspective on development work?
Indrajith: Development projects addressing critical topics such as climate change and agri food systems require strong stakeholder participation, leveraging of local expertise and innovative approaches.
GOPA AFC: What are your hopes for the future of this project?
Indrajith: To achieve all the project targets by end of 2025 which will encourage and influence funding agencies to continue innovative approaches.
Girma Senbeta is the country manager of the MetaMeta Ethiopia branch office, and has been serving as the national coordinator of the 4-year Green Future Farming programme, funded by the IKEA Foundation.
GOPA AFC: Can you briefly describe the project you are working in?
Girma: The Green Future Farming (GFF) programme operates in two regions in Ethiopia: Guba Lafto in the Amhara Region and Middle Awash in the Oromia Region with the main aim of enhancing the rural economy, by restoring degraded landscapes and promoting regenerative agriculture practices. Regenerative agriculture stands in contrast to degenerative or linear agricultural practices commonly seen today, such as mono-cropping, excessive use of synthetic agri-inputs, soil erosion, high pre- and post-harvest losses, loss of biodiversity, and more. Over the past four years, we have been actively aligning public and private interests within the Biskelo-Wererso watershed in Middle Awash, Oromia, and supporting watershed rehabilitation activities in Guba Lafto Woreda, North Wollo Zone of the Amhara region.
GOPA AFC: How many people are in your project team and what are the various roles?
Girma: The GFF involves a team of 32 members, consisting of both international and national team members. We rely strongly on 26 national experts, who play a crucial role in the project implementation, including intensive training and demonstrations of regenerative agriculture practices across the sites.
GOPA AFC: What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Girma: The GFF programme addresses a crucial challenge for the local farming community regarding unaffordable and unavailable fertiliser, and I am very pleased to contribute to this. Synthetic fertilisers are simply too expensive for farmers. The GFF project has introduced and demonstrated the use of liquid bio-fertiliser and vermi-compost, a healthy and affordable alternative. This initiative has proven to be extremely beneficial for the community.
GOPA AFC: What challenges has your team faced and how did you overcome them?
Girma: Security issues in the project area posed a significant challenge. However, through collaborative efforts with local stakeholders, we successfully implemented the project with a strong support from local partners. Another challenge was about the high turnover of the agricultural extension officers. We had allocated extra time and effort to brief and showcase the newly onboarded officers to ensure understanding and support.
GOPA AFC: Can you share a success story or a significant achievement of the project?
Girma: Within the GFF programme, we have directly regenerated 10,666 hectares and indirectly 216,292 hectares, through annual watershed restoration campaigns by the Governmental Bureaus of Agriculture. Additionally, the project has established a revolving fund that enabled community members to secure sustainable income sources. As a result, their livelihoods have significantly improved, and they are now supporting neighbouring communities by repaying the seed money. The target was to reach 11,200 individuals with additional income. Currently, we have directly impacted 21,094 people and indirectly reached 146,939 individuals through the outreach efforts of agricultural development agents.
GOPA AFC: What are your hopes for the future of this project?
Girma: We look forward to continuing our activities on these important areas of regenerative agriculture and watershed restoration, based on the knowledge, experience and extensive network built under the GFF programme. This aligns with our goal of further developing our MetaMeta Ethiopia office into a strong East Africa regional office, excelling in water management for climate change resilience.
Based in the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe, and partly working from Berlin, Germany, Caroline Trimborn is our team leader for the project More Income and Employment in Rural Areas (MIERA) II supported by GIZ.
GOPA AFC: Can you briefly describe the project you are working in?
Caroline: The GIZ MIERA II project supports the creation of sustainable economic opportunities in Malawi by enhancing growth opportunities and market access for MSMEs in the agriculture and tourism sectors. Our Muzi Ecosystem Initiative (Component 1) focuses on building a robust Malawian innovation ecosystem. This is achieved by fostering collaborations and information flows, developing capacity for start-ups and MSMEs, and creating a sustainable entrepreneurship environment.
GOPA AFC: How many people are in your project team and what are the various roles?
Caroline: Two senior technical advisors, in strategic partnerships with national innovation ecosystem partners, and global ecosystem builders and two junior advisors who support activities related to monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management, event coordination, and ecosystem development as well as two project assistants, responsible for administrative tasks.
GOPA AFC: How does your team collaborate and communicate on a daily basis?
Caroline: By extensively using Microsoft Teams, including checkin calls every morning.
GOPA AFC: What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Caroline: Seeing impactful partnerships materialise and thrive. It’s fulfilling to watch partners grow their capacities and deliver meaningful results.
GOPA AFC: What challenges has your team faced and how did you overcome them?
Caroline: Finding suitable and reliable partners. We used a competitive approach, inviting almost 20 organisations to submit concepts and selecting the best four from twelve submissions. Additionally, we created the Muzi Ecosystem Initiative to support those not selected.
GOPA AFC: Can you share a success story or a significant achievement of the project?
Caroline: Our partnership-first approach, which puts local partners in the lead. For example, one partner collaborated with a local organisation to conduct an awareness campaign that reached almost 300 rural youth club members.
GOPA AFC: How has the project positively impacted the local community?
Caroline: Almost 150 MSMEs have gained skills, resources, and networks to grow their businesses, create jobs, and contribute to the local economy. In addition, the Muzi Ecosystem Initiative has fostered a culture of innovation and collaboration among entrepreneurs.
GOPA AFC: What have you learned from working on this project?
Caroline: The value of co-creation and genuine collaboration. Building trust with local partners and empowering them to lead, creates more sustainable outcomes as well as adaptability and understanding of local particularities.
GOPA AFC: How has this project influenced your perspective on development work?
Caroline: It has reaffirmed my belief that development work should prioritise empowering local stakeholders.
GOPA AFC: What are your hopes for the future of this project?
Caroline: To see the Muzi Ecosystem Initiative continue to grow as a catalyst for innovation in Malawi.
Based in Morocco’s capital Rabat, Thomas Khatal is our component leader “professionalisation of agricultural and forestry organisations” of the German Moroccan Technical Dialogue on Agriculture and Forestry (DIAF) since May 2021. The bilateral cooperation project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture runs in its second phase since January 2024.
GOPA AFC: Can you briefly describe the project you are working on?
Thomas: The project is a bilateral cooperation project between the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture. Component 2, for which I am responsible, aims to support the Moroccan Ministry to improve the professionalism of agricultural and forestry organisations (OPAF) in terms of their management and governance to be better integrated into local economic circuits.
GOPA AFC: How many people are in your project team and what are the various roles?
Thomas: In addition to the National Project Coordinator, who is mandated by the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, we are two technical experts in charge of supervising the training of OPAF trainers and/or coaches, the development and implementation of support tools for OPAF and the follow-up and monitoring of our activities. A project assistant supports us in all administrative, logistical and financial matters.
GOPA AFC: What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Thomas: The most gratifying thing for me and for our team is the satisfaction of the beneficiaries and seeing their progress and development as a result of our support.
GOPA AFC: What challenges did your team face and how did you overcome them?
Thomas: Our biggest challenge was to develop and implement a new generation of support approaches dedicated to OPAF.
To overcome the indecision and scepticism of some partners, we organised awareness raising and capacity-building workshops for our target groups, which resulted in widespread acceptance of our vision.
GOPA AFC: Can you share a success story or significant achievement of the project?
Thomas: The acceptance by the Moroccan Ministry to institutionalise the developed support system and to set up an academy dedicated to the professionalisation of OPAF is our biggest success story. The support system will serve as a model for the implementation of the national agricultural and forestry strategies.
GOPA AFC: How has the project had a positive impact on the local community?
Thomas: By capacity building of farming and forestry organisations, we also helped to bring these organisations closer together, boosted groupings into cooperative unions and economic interest groups, and created economic opportunities as a result of setting up local and regional networks.
GOPA AFC: What have you learned from working on this project?
Thomas: One of the most important lessons is that OPAF are not averse to capacity building and non-financial support provided, when it is tailored to their needs and delivered in an appropriate and participatory manner.
180 77 1,454 Total projects
Total countries
Total project staff
Organic farming adheres to strict standards for soil health and ecosystem balance, while agroecology integrates broader socio-cultural and environmental aspects. Agroecology and organic farming are sustainable methods transforming food systems. Examples from Colombia and Morocco showcase practical applications enhancing sustainability, resilience, and social justice in agriculture.
Agroecology and organic farming are farming methods that significantly contribute to natural resource management, climate mitigation and adaptation as well as food system transformation. While both aim for sustainability, they have distinct focuses and methodologies.
One of various agroecological approaches to transforming food systems is organic farming. However, it follows a set of regulated standards and certification systems, to ensure products are grown and processed according to specific guidelines at national and international level especially in marketing these products. Organic farming refrains from using synthetic inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics, and growth hormones. It emphasises long-term soil fertility, animal welfare, and minimising environmental harm. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) highlights that organic farming focuses on sustainable production, soil health, and ecosystem balance. With a strong market focus, organic products are often sold at premium
prices. By avoiding chemicals, it promotes healthier ecosystems and sustainable agricultural practices.
In 2019, the High-Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security, a body of experts advising the FAO on food security and nutrition, issued a report outlining the 13 principles of agroecology. Agroecology is a broader concept encompassing sociocultural, economic, and political aspects of food systems. It is a science, practice, and movement focusing on interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment within agricultural systems and comprises social dimensions, fairer social and economic systems, and environmental sustainability. It encourages crop diversification and enhances ecosystem services such as pollination, biological pest control, nutrient cycling, and hydrological services. Agroecology involves high levels of farmer participation and co-creation of knowledge advocating for changes in food system governance. Agroecological strategies are context-specific and adaptable to local conditions, making it versatile for sustainable agriculture.
Production system sustaining the health of soils, ecosystems, and people.
Holistic, transdisciplinary approach for sustainable transformation of agricultural and food systems.
Agricultural practices and standards for production.
Ecological, socio-cultural, technological, economic, symbolic and political dimensions.
Health, ecology, fairness, and care.
13 agroecological principles focusing on system-level sustainability.
Prohibits synthetic chemical inputs like fertilisers and pesticides.
Stresses resource-conserving practices and closed production cycles i.e. circular economy.
Definition Inputs
Limited to production and processing practices.
Broader, including societal changes, food systems, and landscape-level approaches.
Products can be certified and labelled as organic, often commanding higher market prices.
Not typically focused on certification; highlights systemic change and local empowerment.
Strictly regulated by standards (e.g. EU regulation, Bioland, Naturland, demeter).
No universally agreed standards; context-specific and flexible.
Focused on creating market differentiation through organic labels.
Promotes fair, diversified, and local food systems.
The Boyacá Department in Colombia's central Andean Region is renowned for its diverse crop cultivation, but with a strong focus on potatoes, onions, and corn. Despite its potential, Boyacá faces significant challenges in transitioning to agroecological practices, the high use of chemical inputs, monocultural practices, and limited access to suitable land. In addition, technical training and climate change adaptation are essential needs.
In 2024, the German-Colombian Training and Demonstration Project for Agroecology, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture, was launched to improve the living conditions of peasant, family, ethnic and community agriculture. (ACFEC) in Colombia. The project promotes sustainability, resilience, and social justice through three main pillars: participatory research, capacity building, and strengthening knowledge networks.
Participatory research enables farmers and scientists to co-create innovative solutions tailored to local needs. ACFEC stakeholders contribute their traditional knowledge in developing new agroecological practices. The Boyacá pilot project benefits from the region's agricultural tradition and proximity to Agrosavia's Tibaitatá Research Centre, facilitating resource coordination and project logistics.
Capacity building includes agroecology schools and co-creation processes where farmers, technicians, and scientists share knowledge and experiences. This promotes mutual learning and the adoption of the 13 agroecology principles. This approach
views ACFEC holistically, encompassing technologies, markets, participatory guarantee systems, product transformation, and cultural aspects vital to community well-being. A roadmap has been designed that includes the definition of the criteria for demonstration projects and mapping potential sites with partners such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), Agrosavia, the Rural Development Agency (ADR), the Land Restitution Unit (URT), Colombian Agroecological Movement, the Julius Kühn Institute and the National Learning Service (SENA). Field visits and workshops integrate scientific and traditional knowledge, allowing joint reflection on farmers' needs. Ideas from these workshops are now materialising in several participatory research projects with local universities, enhancing communities' capacities to implement agroecological solutions.
The project strengthens knowledge networks to disseminate innovative agroecological approaches. Strategic alliances with institutions such as MADR, Agrosavia, the Julius Kühn Institute, ADR, URT, SENA, and universities aim to build a network for effectively implementing agroecological policies in line with the National Agroecological Plan and Policy.
This integrated approach promotes agroecological practices while strengthening community social networks, fostering cooperation and solidarity. Resilience, social justice, and food sovereignty are enhanced, allowing communities to determine their production systems. Women's empowerment is key, promoting their leadership in productive processes.
For decades, Morocco has heavily struggled with droughts, desertification, loss of soil fertility, missing rainfalls and lack of water resources. One of the strategies to cope with climate change, the Moroccan government aims to develop the organic food sector within the country. The Ministry of Agriculture identifies several key leverage points to achieve this goal, including expanding conversion support for farmers, adjusting regulations for the import of organic seeds and seedlings, subsidising organic inputs, securing recognition of Moroccan organic regulations by the EU, and establishing a centre of excellence for organic agriculture.
Since 2019, the bilateral “Technical Dialogue on Agriculture and Forestry” (DIAF), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture, has been strengthening Morocco’s organic sector. This project aligns with the national “Génération Green 2020–2030” strategy and supports the conformity of Moroccan organic standards with the new EU organic legislation. Additionally, it strengthens the capacities of state vocational training organisations, advisory services, and controlling authorities. We support establishing institutional structures for developing expertise in organic farming. Furthermore, the Ministry of Agriculture receives advice on implementing an organic action plan. In the current phase, pilot bioregions shall be created to improve the marketing of local organic products. Partnerships are maintained with research and knowledge transfer organisations in Germany, Europe, and North Africa.
In November 2024, the DIAF team, in collaboration with the German and Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, hosted an international conference on organic farming and agroecology. The event took place at the University Hassan II Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Rabat. The conference brought together government representatives, experts, university researchers, representatives of international organisations, and civil society from 13 countries across four continents and 900 visitors participated.
The conference addressed different themes through five panels. The first panel focused on the role of organic farming in transitioning to a healthy, eco-friendly, and fair farming system. The second panel discussed the implementation status of Morocco’s Green Generation 2020-2030 strategy. The third panel showcased international innovations in agroecological practices related to soil, water, and crop protection. The fourth panel highlighted best practices for policies aimed at sustainable food transitions. The final panel focused on partnerships and development approaches. A Science Slam provided young researchers with the opportunity to present their work.
The event marked a significant milestone towards fostering international cooperation and advancing sustainable agricultural practices.
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Globalisation has left small agricultural producers behind. GOPA AFC’s expertise helps integrate these farmers into sustainable supply chains, enhancing organisational structures, commercial relationships, and traceability systems. Highlighting projects in the Amazon and West Africa, GOPA AFC promotes innovative approaches to halt deforestation and transform unsaleable products, fostering a more equitable and sustainable agriculture system.
„Think globally – act locally!“ The phrase has recently gained momentum when it comes to integrating small producers and entrepreneurs into transnational supply chains. Although globalisation has led to economic growth and considerably better supply of consumers with affordable products, not all partners involved in the supply chains have been benefitting equally. Particularly in the agriculture and food sector, small producers and processors are often left behind. They do not have the bargaining power to negotiate a living income, have little access to inputs, extension, and financial services, and suffer from inadequate labour conditions. Local production systems, which in the past ensured a sufficient income for farming households and a sustainable supply of food for the local population, may slowly spiral out of control - due to the negative effects of climate change, dwindling natural resources, rural exodus and the decline of local commodity systems.
Immediate action is therefore needed to integrate farmers and other rural entrepreneurs into sustainable supply chains which are adjusted to the local social and environmental systems, and which respond to the needs of the market. GOPA AFC has many years of experience in developing agricultural value chains by supporting farmers' organisational structures, business relationships along the chain, technical innovations, particularly for post-harvest segments (storage, processing, marketing), access to services (including financing) and the general institutional framework.
The international consensus on the transformation of agriculture and food systems emphasises compliance with sustainability criteria along the entire supply chain “from farm to fork”. The EU, for example, has become a driving force in the adoption
of regulations to ensure the safety of food, in terms of quality, health and sustainability. EU importers of food or agricultural raw materials from third countries, must make a due diligence declaration that their products meet certain sustainability criteria (e.g. no deforestation, no slave or child labour, no toxic contaminants). The most recent regulations adopted by the EU include the existing Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Corporate Due Diligence Directive adopted this year, and the EU Deforestation Regulation, entering into force in 2025.
These regulations, as well as other international and national standards and increased consumer awareness worldwide, are putting pressure on all actors along the supply chain to adapt their production processes to certain sustainability criteria and to monitor the risks if suppliers further up the chain do not adhere to the same criteria. While the big players in the supply chain have the financial means to invest in certification or traceability systems to minimise such risks, there is an obvious risk that small farmers and processors will be left behind if they cannot be integrated into such systems due to a lack of financial resources or technological knowledge.
GOPA AFC provides its expertise in preparing farmers and processors for achieving certification to different sustainability or quality standards, in promoting commercial relationships between farmers and their off-takers, in developing traceability and other monitoring systems, and in facilitating access to urgently needed financial and non-financial services. However, a certification system should never be an end in itself but must prove its aptitude to contribute to better market integration and higher incomes.
Innovation in agricultural supply chains for forest conservation in the Brazilian Amazon
Beef, soybean and timber are the “rotten apples” of Brazil’s agribusiness sector, as they are known drivers of deforestation and other unsustainable land use practices. Although the country has introduced different laws and regulations to inhibit deforestation, their enforcement is often difficult to achieve due to a lack of staff and technology for monitoring. This is particularly the case in Brazil’s vast Amazon region where the agricultural frontier is gradually moving forward into areas still covered by primary forests.
Since April 2024, we are supporting the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture in innovative approaches for the beef, soybean and timber supply chains to stop deforestation in the Amazon region and to ensure consumers and off-takers that their products have not been subject to illegal production practices. We have established cooperation with stakeholders from three federal states in the Amazon region– Pará, Mato Grosso, Tocantins– for a concerted approach towards real-time data exchange on deforestation, the set-up of product traceability systems for the concerned supply chains, and technical support to small-scale farmers in adjusting their production processes to sustainable practices. Additional financial support is provided by KfW channelled through the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Altogether, an external funding of EUR 18 million will be disbursed over a period of four years for investments in developing a digital platform for classifying and monitoring farm plots in areas of
high deforestation risk, in promoting private sector-driven traceability solutions along the three supply chains, and in supporting smallholder farmers in transforming their production systems towards higher levels of environmental and social sustainability. In doing so, the project is expected to contribute to guaranteed zero deforestation in the supply of agriculture and forestry products on consumer markets worldwide, and thus in fulfilling the obligations of the new EU Deforestation Regulation. At the same time, smallholder farmers are not left behind and will be supported in generating a decent livelihood by applying sustainable production principles.
In the GIZ-funded project “Access to African markets for highpotential SMEs” in Senegal, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, we promote the sustainability of value chains through certifications. The certifications allow the companies to access new markets, including international ones that require specific standards and assure the consumer about the quality, safety and origin of the product. The choice of certification depends on the needs and capacities of the company, but a first step could always be the “Hazard analysis and critical control points” which aims to avoid hazards and addresses food safety. Other options include certification on additional food safety measures, good agricultural practices, management systems or sustainability.
The companies Trafrule and Freeandiz from Côte d’Ivoire specialise in creating sustainability in a different way. These companies process fruit that cannot be exported because it does not fulfil export standards, such as pineapples and mangoes. After sorting, they buy the raw materials directly from the exporters or from the farmers who supply products of inferior quality that cannot be easily commercialised.
The advantages for the value chain are significant. More of the harvest is processed, which leads to higher added value, and less agricultural waste is produced. These companies are therefore an important part of the agricultural value chain. In
the countries in which we operate, the utilisation and marketing of only a fraction of the harvest is a significant concern. By supporting these companies, we are helping to address this issue and enhance the sustainability of agricultural practices.
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In a world marked by crises and inequalities, GOPA AFC promotes gender equality and social inclusion. Projects in Burkina Faso and India empower women and indigenous communities through capacity building, sustainable farming, and market access. These initiatives foster equitable growth, enhance livelihoods, and align with the global Sustainable Development Goals, promoting a just and inclusive society.
Today's world is characterised by various economic and geopolitical crises. Social and gender inequalities continue to pose major challenges. In this context, the realisation of equality and equal opportunities between genders and marginalised groups is crucial for the promotion of a just society. Despite progress in recent years, gender gaps persist across social and economic life in many countries. For instance, 26.7% of adult women worldwide experience food insecurity and face higher unemployment rates compared to men. The situation is even more difficult for people with disabilities. According to the United Nations in 2024, an additional 137 years will be needed to end poverty among women at current rates, with an estimated 158 million women and girls projected to be pushed into extreme poverty due to climate change. In Sudan, one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world has left over 10.7 million people facing difficult living conditions and a high risk of malnutrition. In response to this situation, the UN has emphasised the need for full participation and equal involvement of marginalised communities to meet the social, economic, and environmental pillars of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For instance, SDG 5 aims to achieve
gender equality and empower all women and girls, while SDG 10 focuses on reducing inequalities within and among countries.
Gender equality and the elimination of gender-based discrimination are key values and objectives at GOPA AFC. By aligning its work, strategies and interventions with these principles, and supporting its global partners and clients on effective measures to promote gender equality and social inclusion, we contribute to a wide range of national and international agreements. In our projects around the world, various approaches and tools to integrate gender principles are applied, such as comprehensive assessments to understand the specific needs and challenges faced by different gender groups, or the limited access to finance, food, health care and other services. In trainings and workshops, we sensitise project stakeholders promoting gender principles, ensuring sustainability and long-term impacts of the development projects. We prioritise close collaboration with local communities to ensure that gender considerations are well integrated into projects through precise and clear planning.
In Burkina Faso, GOPA AFC is building capacities of women leaders from 50 cooperatives in the shea value chain to become economic drivers in their communities, improving their productivity and market inclusion.
The World Bank's Women's Entrepreneurship and Finance Initiative collaborates with private sector players in Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania, in lucrative regional and global value chains such as shea butter, Arabic gum, henna and other non-timber forest products. In Burkina Faso, our mandate is to develop and implement a capacity-building programme for 50 women-led shea-producing SMEs in management and entrepreneurship, hygiene, storage and processing, marketing, e-commerce, mobile payment platforms, organic and fair-trade certification, as well as environmental preservation.
With support of our local partner AGM Consulting, we mobilised seven Burkinabe trainers to organise 21 training workshops in the capital Ouagadougou and the regions. Following the cascade training principle, restitution sessions are hosted by workshop participants at the cooperatives. In addition to training materials, we will produce videos in local languages for each of the modules delivered. A monitoring and evaluation tool is used to track the number of final beneficiaries of the project.
By the end of May 2025, after 13 months of project implementation, we will have trained over 500 female cooperatives leaders. In terms of impact, the World Bank aims at a 30% increase in revenues of beneficiaries and the establishment of commercial partnerships with international buyers.
This project shows an example of our commitment to gender equality and social inclusion, underlining the importance of empowering women to achieve sustainable development and equitable growth.
“I'm Mrs Massomory Traoré, sales manager for the Songtaaba company in Tenkodogo. During the 5 days of training on marketing, the module on product sales techniques is the one that inspired me the most. Previously, our company had little command of the sales techniques needed to sell our products. This training has given me good techniques for finding new customers so that we can increase our sales of shea butter.”
The lush green hills of Meghalaya, one of the “Seven Sister States” in the Northeast of India, are home to the Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo people. The indigenous tribes celebrate their own habits, rites and ceremonies, speak distinguishing languages, and belong to the few groups in the country in which Christianity marks the main religion. Interestingly, Meghalaya is the only federal state in the world with an officially matrilineal society in which descent, surname and succession are derived only from the mother, not the father. Topographical features of the state largely separate the communities from “Mainland India”, as is being often referred to within the area, leading to a marginalisation of these ethnic minorities. This causes social and economic disadvantages, including discrimination, a lack of access to premium markets and poverty.
The Sustainable Land Management (SLM) project funded by KfW, the Government of India, and the Government of Meghalaya is set to foster inclusive growth and improve livelihoods by facilitating access to national and global markets through
sustainable production and organic certification of traditional farming methods. In this current Phase I, the consortium of GOPA AFC and GOPA Worldwide supports the public not for profit company, Meghalaya Basin Management Agency, with technical assistance. With the aim to increase incomes of smallholder farmers, the project offers extensive training to producer and self-help groups on organic farming techniques, sustainable production and processing practices, bio-fertilisers, and integrated pest management. Through matching grants and – from Phase II, foreseen to be starting in 2026, onwards –loans, the communities keep ownership of their investments, e.g. in planting materials, small-scale irrigation systems and processing equipment. Further, through setting up aggregation infrastructure, access to premium markets with fair prices for their organic produce is being enabled. These activities will make the certification process less daunting and more affordable. With all these measures, the aim of the SLM project is to increase income for smallholder Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo farmers, and, thus, strengthen the position of communities within the country.
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The impact of green finance extends beyond mere environmental sustainability; it promotes economic growth and social well-being. For developing and emerging countries, it offers a way to build resilient economies while conserving natural resources. Both public and private investors are increasingly interested in financing initiatives that align with these goals, as they have recognised that financial returns can go hand in hand with positive environmental effects.
In recent years, the urgent need to address environmental challenges has become more visible. Addressing climate change and safeguarding the environment became core priorities in development cooperation. The Green Finance approach is crucial for fostering sustainable development and combating climate change. It refers to the allocation of capital to investments that in addition to economic gains, deliver environmental benefits in form of climate change mitigation and adaptation, or environmental protection. By supporting such projects, Green Finance plays a vital role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.
GOPA AFC is dedicated to contributing to this transformative field. Our Financial Sector Development department specialises in Green Finance and provides advisory services to financial intermediaries for creating effective “greening” strategies, that are commercially viable and environmentally responsible. These strategies influence both, financial and non-financial products and services.
Our expertise extends to the development and promotion of finance products for energy and resource efficiency as well as small-scale renewable energy projects. We help micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and households find sustainable investment opportunities, preparing bankable loan applications and thus establishing a credible communication with banks. Furthermore, we assist financial institutions in identifying and managing environmental and social risks, performing due diligence, and setting up robust environmental
and social management systems and developing innovative financial solutions targeting both, individual and business clients. In various countries around the globe, we supported banks and micro-finance institutions in developing specific financial products that facilitate energy and resource-efficient improvements of homes and business premises. This included installations of small photovoltaic (PV) and PV-based irrigation systems, as well as upgrade of machinery and equipment for various types of businesses, such as agriculture and food processing. All of them aim to facilitate the transition to a sustainable, climate-resilient economy.
We employ a range of innovative tools and approaches to catalyse Green Finance initiatives. One of our key strengths is our ability to design bespoke financial instruments tailored to the unique needs of each project. These instruments might include sustainability-linked loans and guarantees, green bonds, or blended finance models that combine public and private investment. Moreover, we emphasise capacity building, ensuring that stakeholders are equipped with the knowledge and skills to manage and sustain green projects. Through workshops, training sessions, and collaborative platforms, we foster knowledge and practice, as well as raise awareness about climate risks and demonstrate the benefits of green investments.
Knowing that Green Finance is a very broad field, in the following we want to present two of our projects covering different topics within this area.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the Sahelian, Western, and Central African regions, access to electricity remains a critical challenge. Up to 70% of rural populations in these regions lack access to electricity, which hinders economic growth, social development, and environmental sustainability. The Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP) funded by the World Bank, the Clean Technology Fund, and the Directorate General for International Cooperation and implemented by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Development Bank, is an ambitious initiative aimed
at improving access to sustainable off-grid electricity across 19 Western and Central African countries. The programme is designed to increase the use of modern solar technology and promote a coordinated regional strategy to supply electricity to individuals, companies, and public institutions.
The ROGEAP programme creates sustainable energy solutions in Africa in supporting economic development and poverty alleviation, while creating a more inclusive financial ecosystem.
Our approach consists of four different activities:
Renewable energy adoption: by promoting stand-alone solar technology, ROGEAP contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fostering a transition to clean energy.
Financial inclusion: by tailoring credit products for small businesses without stable access to electricity on one hand and advising entrepreneurs during the loan application processes on the other, we improve bankability of micro and small enterprises and increase their chances to receive a business loan.
Empowering women: special emphasis is placed on empowering women-led businesses, enhancing their participation in the solar sector, and promoting gender equality.
ROGEAP aims to achieve the following results:
Capacity building: training programmes for financial institutions and SMEs enhance the overall capacity of the solar industry, ensuring sustainable growth and long-term viability.
The project represents a pivotal step towards addressing the electricity access gap in Sub-Saharan Africa. By leveraging modern solar technology, capacity building, and tailored financial support, ROGEAP not only accelerates the adoption of renewable energy but also fosters economic development, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. This transformative initiative exemplifies the powerful synergy between climate action and Green Finance, paving the way for a brighter, sustainable future for millions across Africa.
Increased access to financing: USD 140 million in loans accessed by households, productive end-users, distribution companies, and energy service companies.
National renewable energy targets: Progress in all 19 participating countries towards achieving their renewable energy and electricity access goals.
Certified solar installers: Training and certification of at least 730 solar photovoltaic installers.
Empowered women-led businesses: Increased awareness and participation of at least 20 women-led companies, with at least 6 benefiting from the ROGEAP credit facility.
Enhanced capacity of financial institutions: Increased loan disbursements and repayments, facilitated by specialised training and tailored financial products.
Catalyse business development and market expansion, driving the adoption of sustainable offgrid solar solutions: Provide matching grants to a minimum of 1,000 solar companies and market entry and performance-based grants to at least 660 solar companies across the 19 countries.
The agricultural sector in Bolivia is characterised by significant potential and challenges.
Of the rural population live below the poverty line – almost twice as many as in the cities.
In 2024, together with our colleagues at GOPA Worldwide, we started the three-year GIZ-funded project ProResiliente in Bolivia. In close cooperation with local banks and microfinance institutions, we develop solutions that are specifically designed for farmers in selected agricultural value chains, aiming to facilitate the transition to sustainable agriculture in Bolivia. Our focus will be the development of financial solutions addressing farmers in the Valles Macro-Region, a geographical region reaching from La Paz to Tarija. Together with other components implemented directly by GIZ, a combination of technical and financial support will be key to increasing the resilience of farmers and to improve the livelihoods of their families.
The project addresses one of the problems of the Bolivian agricultural sector, namely the lack of an integrated and broadly
effective application of agroecological and climate-resilient transformation of rural areas, especially in the targeted areas (Valles Macro-Region). This requires both considerable capital investments in improved agricultural methods, and creditworthy producers and small entrepreneurs, who are particularly affected by the effects of climate change and are therefore aware of these challenges. Thanks to the design of financial and non-financial solutions adapted to the local context and challenges, the project also strives to achieve financial inclusion of vulnerable groups such as women and young adults.
The financial system plays a crucial role in mobilising and allocating capital, also through blended finance or other innovative solutions, such as digital ones for example. In the ProResiliente project, we provide training for selected financial institutions and key stakeholders in the Bolivian banking and financial sector, alongside the development of a green taxonomy for national adoption. These initiatives aim to adapt financing models to support agroecological and climateresilient farming practices.
Through the development of a green taxonomy – a framework defining sustainable investments – and management systems of environmental and social risks, on the one hand, we facilitate local commercial banks to access subsidised funding from multilateral banks and international financial institutions. On the other hand, we enable local banks to offer tailored green credit solutions to the farmers, and at the same time we educate potential borrowers about benefits of green investments in agriculture.
We believe that fostering a credit culture – defined as a healthy partnership between banks and their clients, facilitated through training and capacity building for both parties – will help close the financing gap for widespread adoption of agroecological production methods among producers.
Over the years, we have taken various approaches to delivering best practices in agricultural finance. In the following we present examples of collaborating with financial institutions in Eastern Africa, supporting agricultural advisory in Kyrgyzstan, organising study tours for Uzbekistan and creating saving groups in Madagascar.
Agricultural finance is critical to rural economies, driving food security, poverty reduction, and economic growth. By providing tailored financial products and services to farmers, GOPA AFC is making significant progress towards achieving:
Smallholder farmers face significant challenges, making agriculture a risky business compared to other sectors. In addition to common risks like operational and financial setbacks, agriculture is also vulnerable to negative environmental and climate events which leads to increasing unpredictability. Consequently, many financial institutions are hesitant to lend to agricultural activities due to the high risks or lack of expertise.
To improve financial inclusion for smallholder farmers, GOPA AFC provides technical assistance to financial institutions. This includes developing agri-lending departments, creating new financial products, and evaluating existing services for the agricultural sector among others.
Aceli Africa aims to mobilise USD 1.6 billion in private lending for agricultural SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. It provides financial incentives to over 40 banks and finance companies to unlock lending to high-impact SMEs while strengthening lenders’ capacity. For instance, in collaboration with Tanzania Commercial Bank (TCB), GOPA AFC developed an agriculture finance strategy and business plan. With support from Aceli’s incentives and technical assistance, TCB now finances new value chains, such as cassava, boosting rural economies and regional food security. The AgFin strategy guides the choices of TCB which agri-value chains and value chain stages and actors to serve with which products; to that end a specialised “AgFin desk” was set up and staffed. Additionally, the "Agricultural Finance for Bankers" e-learning course has trained and certified 151 branch managers and loan officers, enhancing their ability to support agricultural lending.
The "Value Chain Agro Finance" project in Kyrgyzstan is co-funded by the European Union, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the German Development Bank (KfW). We implement it in consortium with CAIConsulting, supported by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture and Processing Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic.
In 2023, we began selecting primary production clusters with high development potential to establish support schemes. These schemes provide essential farm services, including input and credit supply, advisory services, and produce aggregation. Within these clusters, farmer or service provider organisations adopt these functions, continuing to offer services commercially through cooperatives, input suppliers, and companies that handle storage, processing, and marketing.
The project aims to enhance value chains for fruits and berries, cereals, vegetables, sugar, and potatoes. Central to our approach are Agricultural Advisory Schemes, coordinated by Kyrgyz advisory services. The advisors monitor fields on a weekly basis to ensure that best agricultural practices are followed, such as appropriate fertilisation, timely pest control, and crop rotation. This leads to increased yields and improved produce quality within a year. Farmers are expected to boost their income from the target crops by at least 30-40%, ideally 50% or more, to afford these services. Initially, field advisors are subsidised, with a plan to phase out subsidies to ensure the project's sustainability.
We aim to expand our agricultural finance initiatives through tailored financial products and therefore reach more farmers. The disbursement of credit lines from the EIB and KfW will further enhance the positive impact. Our commitment to innovation and sustainable development remains strong as we strive to make a lasting impact.
Aisuluu from Osh:
Accessed a loan for improved seeds and equipment, significantly boosting her crop yield and enabling job creation.
For more insights, visit our project website or watch our videos about how we support the single value chains.
Onion value chain
15% 19% 17%
yield increase improved water efficiency higher income for scheme farmers*
Sweet pepper value chain
Increased yields and high-quality produce resulted in strong demand, proving economic viability
Berry value chain
Trained 55 berry farm advisors and improved coordination among value chain actors.
Potato value chain
Focused on seed potato multiplication with operational quality control and certification, ensuring high-quality seed production.
International study tours are highly effective for capacity-building in agricultural projects. They provide participants with intensive learning experiences through visits to farms and agribusinesses, exposing them to advanced production methods. While these methods cannot always be directly implemented in their home countries, the tours inspire improvements in production and technology.
A recent study tour organised by the Horticulture Value Chain Promotion project took Uzbek berry farmers and stakeholders of the horticulture sector to Poland, a leading producer and exporter of berries. The tour addressed labour challenges in berry production by showcasing advanced harvesting equipment. Participants visited berry farms, equipment manufacturers, and processing facilities, learning about the full production cycle from seedlings to retail packaging. B2B meetings
Climate change impacts are increasingly evident worldwide, necessitating urgent action from governments, international organisations, and civil society. Beyond policies, tangible actions are required. GOPA AFC contributes to this goal through various projects, including the GIZ project "Adaptation of Agriculture Value Chains to Climate Change". This project offers concrete solutions for vulnerable populations, such as farmers in Southern Madagascar, by developing Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA).
A VSLA is an informal savings model for groups of 10 to 25 people in marginalised communities, often where financial access is limited. Members elect a president, secretary, and treasurer,
allowed Uzbek businessmen to establish contacts with Polish companies offering high-quality seedlings and sorting and packing lines, fostering potential business relationships and technology transfer.
The full impact of the study tour will be realised through followup support and dissemination of results within the horticulture community. This includes introducing new berry varieties, improving production methods, testing innovative equipment, and investing in post-harvest processes and marketing. We assist farmers intensifying contacts with potential foreign partners and facilitating financing for equipment and seedlings. Training on demonstration plots will transfer knowledge to other farmers, creating a multiplier effect. By November 2024, after 15 months of our support, over 1,100 farmers, have been trained in Farmers Field Schools, in almost all regions of Uzbekistan.
and savings are securely stored in a box with keys held by three different individuals to prevent fraud. The savings are divided into two boxes - one for redistribution at the end of a 9-month cycle and another for social activities decided collectively by the group.
In the first year, our local team helped create 60 VSLAs, reaching over 1,400 people in Southern Madagascar. This model enhances financial access and inclusion for marginalised communities and enables them to save together for important seasonal or acute household events. Additionally, VSLAs foster community solidarity and collective decision-making, and shared funds support members during key life events, decided unanimously.
Blended finance combines public and private capital to fund projects that deliver social, climate, and economic benefits in developing countries. This approach leverages public and philanthropic funds to attract private sector investments, making projects that might otherwise be too risky or unprofitable more appealing to private investors. Financial instruments like guarantees and insurance help mitigate risks for these investors.
In recent years, blended finance has become a powerful tool to address the significant funding gap in achieving sustainable development goals. While the goal of turning “billions into trillions” in funding remains ambitious, there is growing recognition of blended finance’s potential to help close this gap. Blended finance offers several benefits: by reducing risks and improving returns, it attracts private capital that would otherwise not be invested in development projects. The involvement of the private sector brings innovation, efficiency, and expertise, leading to more effective and scalable solutions. Additionally, blended finance facilitates knowledge transfer between the public and private sectors.
However, this approach also faces challenges. Designing and implementing blended finance structures can be complex,
requiring a careful balance of risk and return. Effective coordination between public and private sector partners is essential, and measuring the development impact of blended finance can be challenging.
GOPA AFC provides advisory services to overcome these challenges. We design and develop innovative financial instruments such as investment and technical assistance grants, as well as debt, equity, and risk-sharing instruments. We also offer advice on optimal financial structures, including fund and project structures. Moreover, we focus on building capacity within the blended finance ecosystem through customised technical assistance, workshops, and specialised training sessions.
According to the World Bank Enterprise Survey (2018), 35% of registered Lao companies cite access to finance as their primary barrier. This is nearly three times the regional average of 13% in East Asia Pacific. Especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Laos face significant barriers to accessing finance, which limits their ability to expand and improve production. The share of bank lending directed to MSMEs has steadily decreased from 31% of banks’ total lending in 2015 to just 12% in 2022. Banks are reluctant to lend to MSMEs due to their lack of formal accounting and valuable collateral. This closes the door to bank credit for many, stifling growth and competitiveness.
Recognising that subsidised credit alone is not effective, the Lao Government is exploring alternative solutions. GOPA AFC has introduced an approach that leverages domestic private refinancing by lowering the uncertainty of lending to MSMEs through credit guarantees.
GOPA AFC was selected by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Laos and the national MSME Promotion Agency to provide technical support on the set-up of the Credit Guarantee Company. We developed the business plan for the Credit Guarantee Scheme in close collaboration with national stakeholders, including the ministry, domestic banks, and the Central Bank.
We proposed a balanced approach to gain buy-in from domestic banks while avoiding the moral hazard of banks earmarking dubious MSME clients for the credit guarantee. The risk is shared
60:40 between the company and the partnering bank, with all credit guarantees issued on an individual basis during the startup phase.
To ensure sustainability, we recommended an annual revenue of 1% of the outstanding debt to cover operational costs and a provision for loan loss. We also proposed a company set-up and governance structure that promotes transparency and accountability, a prerequisite for World Bank seed funding. In July 2024, the business plan was approved by the Prime Minister's Office and the implementation phase kicked off.
The implementation phase began with a multi-stakeholder meeting in September 2024, chaired by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce. GOPA AFC assembled a multidisciplinary team of international experts to support all aspects of the setup and operations of the new company, including legal issues, credit guarantee, risk management, financial management, IT, and environmental and social compliance.
The Lao Credit Guarantee Company is being established as a state-owned enterprise, compliant with Lao regulations. Our experts assist the MSME Promotion Agency with company registration, business licensing, staff recruitment and training, commercialisation of credit guarantees to banks, and the development of internal control systems and governance.
The goal is to issue the first credit guarantees by May 2025. We are rising to the challenge and propose to test credit guarantees with a small group of pioneer banks before rolling them out to the entire banking sector. We are working closely with the Lao MSME Promotion Agency to ensure the success of the project despite difficult macroeconomic conditions, incomplete regulation, and a still developing governance culture.
Blended finance requires a delicate balance to leverage public seed funding and attract private investment. Governments pursuing this path need skilled and pragmatic technical advice. With its extensive network of specialised international experts and experience engaging with public agencies in developing countries, GOPA AFC is well-positioned to make blended finance work for widespread economic development.
Our work in Laos, establishing the Credit Guarantee Company to support MSMEs, is a prime example of how strategic financial structures can unlock growth and opportunity. By providing comprehensive advisory services and building capacity within the blended finance ecosystem, we help bridging the gap between public goals and private sector capabilities.
Ultimately, blended finance is about more than just funding projects; it’s about fostering sustainable development, encouraging innovation, and creating resilient economies. Through our ongoing efforts and partnerships, GOPA AFC remains committed to driving positive change and enabling communities to thrive.
Water-related damage affects roads globally. This initiative offers a triple benefit by lowering maintenance costs, boosting environmental resilience, and addressing water scarcity at the same time. Innovative efforts including the launch of a toolkit showcase the potential for sustainable road development to positively impact communities and ecosystems around the world.
Roads are not just pathways for transportation, they offer a unique opportunity to transform water management and build resilient landscapes. The “Green Roads for Water” (GR4W) approach reimagines roads as tools for water management and climate resilience, turning challenges into opportunities for sustainable development. Roads, when designed with water in mind, can capture and direct water flows, reducing erosion, preventing floods, and providing vital resources for agriculture, groundwater recharge, and ecosystem restoration.
With water-related issues causing up to 80% of road damage globally, the GR4W approach offers a “triple win”: lowering road maintenance costs by preventing water damage, enhancing the resilience of surrounding environments, and turning roads into solutions for water scarcity and environmental degradation. By managing water flows, roads can improve water availability, conserve soil, and control erosion and flooding, benefiting communities and ecosystems alike.
A planned global road expansion of 25 million kilometres by 2050, alongside infrastructure investments projected to reach USD 1.5 trillion, presents an unprecedented opportunity to scale the GR4W approach. By integrating water management into these developments – at less than 5% of total road construction costs, we can build climate-resilient, sustainable road networks, turning this infrastructure boom into a driver of environmental and social resilience.
Since 2014, MetaMeta has introduced this approach in over 15 countries, providing training, supporting implementation, monitoring impacts, and collaborating with organisations to develop guidelines. Through the Green Roads for Water Learning Alliance – a community of over 1,500 practitioners – we foster innovation and knowledge sharing. Our work continues to evolve, expanding the Green Roads agenda to include additional aspects that ensure road projects are truly green and sustainable, such as reducing water pollution, preserving biodiversity, and sourcing construction materials sustainably.
In 2024, MetaMeta in collaboration with the International Road Federation and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) successfully developed and launched the Green Roads Toolkit at the Asia and the Pacific Transport Forum in Manila, the Philippines. This openaccess resource is designed to guide the planning, construction, and maintenance of sustainable road infrastructure, addressing the environmental and social challenges posed by road development.
With the global road network expected to expand by 25 million kilometres by 2050, particularly in developing economies, road infrastructure presents significant environmental challenges. The Green Roads Toolkit ensures that road development supports broader goals, including decarbonisation, climate resilience, water management, pollution reduction, biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction, sustainable sourcing of construction materials, and inclusive growth. It aligns road infrastructure projects with global sustainability goals, such as the Paris Agreement, the Biodiversity Convention, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The toolkit is a collection of good practices intended to inform the development and management of sustainable roads. It features filter options for tailoring practices based on key priorities, project specifics, and existing enabling conditions.
Rebecca Stapleton, ADB’s Senior Analyst for the Transport Sector Group, highlighted the toolkit's role in aligning road projects with sustainability goals, stating: “It will guide project teams in recommending interventions that support the alignment of road investments with the Paris Agreement.” Implementing roadside spring protection measures in the Dhankuta municipality in 2024.
The toolkit has been piloted in two ADB-funded road projects in Tajikistan and Maharashtra, India. This phase was essential for establishing a standardised framework for broader application in ADB's developing member countries. Looking ahead, we aim to expand awareness of the toolkit and continue piloting it in other countries.
Woochong Um, ADB’s Managing Director General, emphasised the need for a comprehensive approach to transportation, saying: “Our focus now is not only on moving cars but also on shaping sustainable futures for our developing member countries.”
In collaboration with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and FutureWater, MetaMeta initiated the “Roadside Spring Protection in Nepal” (RoSPro) project. This project addresses critical water scarcity in Nepal’s Himalayan region, where springs are vital for drinking water and local agriculture but are increasingly threatened by various factors such as road development.
The rapid expansion of road networks in mountainous areas, coupled with construction activities that fail to align with local hydrogeology, disturbs the natural flow of springs, leading to their depletion. At the same time, unmanaged springs near roadsides negatively impact road infrastructure, causing issues like erosion and sedimentation damage, which increase maintenance costs. With over 30% of springs estimated to have dried up in the last fifteen years, the RoSPro project aims to reimagine roads as instruments for water resource protection rather than threats. By addressing both sides of this challenge – through improved road design and construction practices that respect the hydrogeological context, along with better spring management – we can safeguard both the springs and the roads, turning this challenge into an opportunity for more sustainable infrastructure development.
Throughout the project we engage local stakeholders using bottom-up and participatory approaches, ensuring that governments and communities are involved, which is key to the project’s long-term sustainability. The project consists of five main phases: identifying springs affected by roads,
conducting socioeconomic and hydrological surveys, codesigning interventions with local stakeholders, implementing the interventions, monitoring the impact of the interventions, and developing a digital twin at the municipality and basin levels as a decision-support tool, which will aid upscaling. The Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountain range alone spans eight countries, stretching 3,500 km across Asia. While it is vital for the food, water and power security of up to two billion people, it is a critical and fragile region, emphasising the importance for inclusive and climate resilient development.
The RoSPro project is now at the end of the implementation phase, demonstrating its impact through several measures of success. The municipality expressed satisfaction with the project’s activities and is replicating its approach, having secured budget allocation for next year’s implementation and maintenance of the structures. Community members actively participated in constructing protective measures like gabion wall to protect road from sedimentation and seepage water coming from upstream, a side drain to carry the road runoff and divert it to a culvert for drainage, and construction of a tap for water provision to road users and communities downstream contributing 10% of the implementation budget.
Overall, RoSPro aims to serve as a model for water resource management across the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, showing how thoughtful infrastructure development can positively impact local communities and the environment.
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For
For over 10 years, beside implementing programmes, we have provided technical advice, trained local partners, and monitored progress using tools like remote sensing and participatory engagement approaches. We work alongside communities to develop tailored plans that regreen landscapes, restore water balance, and make farming more resilient in the face of climate change. By focusing on local conditions, we create environments that support healthier plant growth and reduce the impact of heat stress. Local climate management can result in more conducive conditions for farming, livestock keeping, pest and disease control, biodiversity, drought resilience, and public health.
In areas from drylands to wetter regions, all landscapes and local climates are affected by environmental degradation. When restoring the balance of natural systems, approaches that are effective and accessible to local communities are needed.
The core of our work to rehabilitate landscapes and local climates focuses on water buffering and regreening. Water buffering helps storing rainwater in the landscape by capturing excess water during rainy periods and storing it in soil, aquifers, and small reservoirs. Water buffering improves water availability for crops, livestock and communities. Especially in arid regions, this can increase resilience in times of unpredictable rainfalls.
Regreening is another important part of this process. We encourage farmers to let natural vegetation recover or to plant trees on their land. These trees provide many benefits, such as firewood, fodder, fruits, and improved growing conditions for crops. They also help protect the soil, reduce wind erosion, and conserve biodiversity. The presence of trees helps manage local climates by cooling the soil and air, which is especially important as temperatures rise due to climate change.
Three of our approaches are:
1. Developing a landscape scan tool to identify areas where restoration activities such as grazing management, soil and water conservation measures can be prioritised. The tool was implemented in Kenya and Tanzania.
2. Programming of online dashboards to automatically monitor landscapes’ health using satellite data. The dashboard monitors parameters such as landscape productivity, bare ground occurrence and change of land surface temperatures.
3. Configuring an app – at prototype stage – to estimate how much water can be retained from small/medium watersheds using regenerative farming practices and farm-level water conservation measures.
The Dutch foundation justdiggit implements large land restoration projects in Africa. We evaluate their programmes in the rangelands of southern Kenya with the purpose of feeding their internal learning process. Combining blending participatory on-the-ground tools and satellite imagery analysis, we evaluated the restoration measures such as water harvesting systems, grass reseeding and grass banks. Too often a technocratic approach is taken in isolation without considering what are the local processes and struggles on the ground. This assignment is an example of how technical and social issues can be linked.
In the first phase from March to May 2024, we visited the area for a total of 15 days and carried out 28 key informant interviews and 29 focus group discussions engaging grazing committees, leaders, direct and undirect beneficiaries. The next step was the remote sensing-based analysis of how the intervention sites responded to the restoration efforts of the client.
In Tanzania, agricultural workers making up to 70% of the work force. Extreme heat poses a severe threat to their health and livelihoods, leading to serious medical issues like chronic kidney disease, dehydration, and cardiovascular strain. The KiSHADE project investigates how tree cover in croplands alters microclimates to reduce farmers’ heat exposure, improving working conditions as well as occupational safety.
Working with Tanzanian academic institutions, the project also co-creates educational resources to build local capacity and raise awareness of nature-based solutions.
In the first phase, we developed data loggers, tested models, and refined methods before visiting ten farms to gather data on how tree canopy influences microclimates and, in turn, workers’ health. After testing and adapting the models, MetaMeta started mapping farm microclimates using advanced data loggers, drone mapping, and models on farms implementing the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration agroforestry technique – also
The remote sensing analysis was carried out by creating a web app with a dashboard interface. Under the hood, as the user uploads the boundaries of an area of interest, tailored algorithms automatically retrieve satellite imagery to then implement a change analysis of the net primary production (how much carbon is fixed by the vegetation), bare ground frequency (how often an area is devoid of any vegetation) and land surface temperature analysis.
“We have seen grasses that were never there, even those that were not planted like Olkujetaonyoke. We haven’t seen that for very long. So when that came back people became very excited. And the way that ground is now vegetated. We didn’t think anything could grow.”
known as Kisiki Hai – in Tanzania’s Dodoma region. Frequent microclimate measurements of temperature, humidity, and windspeed, along with vegetation data create detailed temperature maps of each farm. Linking this with farmers’ health data, we assess how tree density, characteristics, and distribution impact heat exposure.
The project starting in 2023 and running until 2028, is funded by the Wellcome Trust and involves partnerships with the LEAD Foundation, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and local research institutions like the University of Dodoma and the University of Dar es Salaam. The findings are expected to inform policy and support scaling sustainable land restoration practices that enhance resilience and health outcomes for agricultural workers. This is a unique case of closely integrating environmental epidemiology with farm-level nature-based solutions and shows that trees offer a simple, costeffective solution to these risks, with the potential to protect millions of workers while boosting crop productivity.
In the Amhara and Oromia regions in Ethiopia, the Green Future Farming (GFF) programme, concluded in 2024, achieved significant progress in landscape restoration and agroecology. A key component was rehabilitating degraded lands and enhancing soil and water conservation through water harvesting techniques, including bunds, road water harvesting, and microbasins. The programme directly restored 595 ha with notable sites like Jarasa and Keye Amba in Amhara, and Sire, Jeju, and Diksis in Oromia region. Gully rehabilitation by constructing gabions, brushwood, and stones, recovered 67.44 hectares, while tree planting initiatives covered 31.07 hectares in Amhara and additional sites in Oromia. In Jeju, 10,500 pits were dug, and 4,000 seedlings planted to support environmental recovery.
To ensure participatory and sustainable watershed management, we provided coaching to 41 local cooperatives, empowering them to actively engage in managing the watershed and fostering greater community involvement. Additionally, we trained 43 public sector experts, including extension officers and consultants specialising in forestry, water resources, agriculture, and livestock, who work with government agencies and local authorities. These experts were equipped with skills in GIS tools
to enhance their capacity for watershed planning and analysis, ensuring data-driven and informed decision-making processes. Participatory land-use planning workshops were conducted to enable communities to play a central role in shaping their land management strategies, integrating their knowledge and priorities into the plans. By training local experts and embedding these practices within Ethiopia’s public sector and cooperatives, the initiative ensures the sustainability of these efforts. The knowledge and tools remain with local institutions and communities, building long-term resilience and ensuring good locally led management of natural resources.
GFF’s emphasis on watershed management and landscape restoration is vital for promoting regenerative agriculture. By rehabilitating watersheds, controlling erosion, and securing water resources, the programme boosts agricultural productivity, enhances soil health, and builds resilience against climate change – benefitting rural livelihoods, especially for women and youth, and strengthening local economies. Institutionalising these practices through watershed cooperatives and strong partnerships with local agricultural offices ensures lasting impact and scalability.
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“In many ways, these initiatives have benefitted our rural community, particularly women and youth. These practices are critical for increasing productivity and rural incomes and strengthening and diversifying the rural economy. The Oromia Bureau of Agriculture is ready to scale up the programme’s best practices at the kebele, woreda, zonal, and regional levels by sharing the lessons learned through documentation, workshops, and more.”
Tena Gobena, Senior Natural Resources Expert, Oromia Bureau of Agriculture
In a world increasingly affected by climate change, water scarcity is becoming a critical issue and stresses the need to use available resources responsibly and fairly. The agricultural sector is highly dependent on water resources, consuming around 70% of the global water supply. Therefore, some of the most important challenges in agriculture production are in irrigation and drainage management. By optimising water use, MetaMeta’s irrigation and drainage management services generate a long-term impact to build sustainable and resilient agricultural production systems. Our evidence-based approaches ensure that water management not only supports livelihoods but also enhances ecological balance and climate resilience in irrigation systems. Our work covers a wide range of irrigation systems, from large-scale mega-irrigation systems to smaller, community-led irrigation management initiatives.
They are the big elephants in the room – the mega-irrigation systems of the water world. Located along many of the world’s large rivers that traverse arid areas – be it the Indus, Ganges, the Nile, or the Amur Daya. They measure 500,000 hectares or more, even up to 14 million ha, as in the Indus Food Machine Pakistan’s large integrated irrigation systems. Mega-irrigation systems are not only one of the world’s major water consumers, but they are also faced with challenges that are of an entirely different order than other water systems.
Head and tail of the mega-irrigation systems may be hundreds of kilometres apart. It is all but easy to distribute water equally, fairly or even reasonably. The chances that water is stolen or plainly diverted along the way are large. Or even more mundane, simply damage may happen. Canals may be breached, and weirs may malfunction – all amplifying into a ripple effect at the lower part of the systems. It is moreover not only that the
tail of the system suffers from water shortage. When there is too much water in the system, excess also ends up downstream, causing flooding and water logging. Because of their size, mega-irrigation often appear almost too big to handle.
The mega-irrigation systems put a heavy footprint on the entire landscape – not only the canals and drains but also the roads, the bridges, the urban settlements, the residential properties. These huge man-made irrigation systems determine what happens where – not just in agriculture but in all other aspects in life.
Mega systems are so big that they are almost always politicised. Their importance is so large that there is no way that politicians and power brokers will ignore them. In fact, local power struggles are very much shaped by the mega systems themselves.
The relations between upstream and downstream users, the access to land and water, the breaching of structures during floods, the reallocation of canal inlets – all is breathing with politics. The power games appear in many shapes – in influencing appointments, in interfering with the water allocations or in mobilising masses around sometimes trivial water management issues. The result, however, of all these factors is that mega irrigation systems often heavily underperform. They have areas with severe scarcity and severe abundance of water – both equally problematic. Too little water means low yields, insecurity, and salinisation. Too much water causes sogginess and saline land crusts – also depressing yields.
MetaMeta provides tailored solutions that bridge technical expertise with socio-environmental considerations sustainably improving water productivity, modernising irrigation systems, and efficiently allocating resources under constrained supply, whilst ensuring that irrigation and drainage systems support both agricultural productivity and ecosystem health. Being a core thematic area since MetaMeta’s establishment, irrigation management has gained a long international track record on modernising irrigation and drainage services at the system level through water-productive techniques, demand-driven water allocation, and operational improvements.
Established in 1925 and supplied by one of the global engineering marvels, the Sennar Dam, Gezira is the largest irrigation system in Sub Saharan Africa. Counting approximately one million hectares, the Gezira scheme is the oldest and largest in the region, located in a rich soil zone in central Sudan, consuming one third of the country’s share from the Nile water (18.5 billion). As mega system the scheme experienced challenges in water management, both in supply and use. Three important policy changes, followed by a change in objectives of the scheme, resulted in cumulative effects:
Cumulative effects:
1. The irrigation system was modified from irrigation during the daytime to continuous irrigation (day and night);
2. The cotton crop was diversified with other crops, which were intensified putting the system under pressure. Value of water rates and methods of collection influenced operation and maintenance.
3. Also, all engineering staff was withdrawn in one of the reforms, leaving the systems in the hands of the agriculturalists instead.
All attempts unfortunately resulted in low performance and low yield which discouraged farmers to attend irrigation and to contribute effectively to water management. As a mega irrigation scheme, Gezira needs to be turned to a mega multipurpose scheme. For the irrigation schemes managers,
we designed a GIS-based model for improved demand management, allocation and distribution of irrigation water for the Gezira Irrigation Board. A tailor-made training on megairrigation scheme management was also developed and rolled out at the Sudan Hydraulic Research Centre, which is the applied research extension of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. This contributed to improving the overarching capacity for governance of mega-irrigation systems.
In Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt we determined irrigation scheme performance considering water consumption, beneficial fraction, equity, adequacy, land and water productivity and productivity gaps. These analyses covered more than ten irrigated agriculture areas in the various countries and were carried out for management of both public and private irrigation schemes, crop insurances companies and national irrigation authorities. Furthermore, we strengthened the capacities of water user and irrigator associations in multiple countries in: management, operation and maintenance of irrigation systems and schemes, in dealing with salinity problems as well as the conjunctive use of ground and surface water and the reuse of drainage water for irrigation. In addition to the technical support, system-level water management practices in agriculture were documented and promoted.
The combination of institutional knowledge and big data utilisation made it possible to offer evidence-based solutions for water allocation and thus increasing water productivity. At the same time, we assisted in developing and introducing tools and analytics for monitoring soil moisture and crop growth, that guide farmers and irrigation scheme managers to optimise their decision-making. These solutions provide support to formulate and adapt policies and strategies at national and international levels to improve irrigation (re-)development.
The main objective of the Water Productivity Improvement in Practice (Water-PIP) project was to guide key partner countries of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Netherlands’ funded water projects in achieving water productivity improvement in agriculture. The project utilised and built tailored applications based on the global Water Productivity Open-Access Portal (WaPOR) hosted by the FAO. WaPOR hosts valuable datasets that are derived from remotely sensed data, i.e. satellite imagery.
MetaMeta’s role in the project was to bring WaPOR data into practice, delivering analyses, information and solutions to users (operational analyses for ten irrigation schemes spanning four countries); organising events including a hackathon; in-country demonstrations and webinar series to enhance awareness on water productivity and make data applicable and available; and setting up local water productivity service centres in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan.
In our efforts to breakdown complexities of remote-sensing and the concept of water productivity, we have developed a compendium on practices that contribute to water productivity improvement as well as developed a website that hosts these practices and show the development of agriculture indicators (a Google Earth engine application).
In Kenya, the project’s successful support and collaboration with the scheme managers, irrigation engineers, agronomists
“WaPOR data gives a good overview of the crop performance in the whole scheme. Adding the monitoring sensors really gives extra confidence to manage irrigation actively. And the good thing is that these sensors are increasingly affordable! We basically save one round of irrigation every two weeks, and this is a remarkable reduction for our workload, also saving us money for the diesel pumps.”
Simple and affordable device, monitoring soil moisture, used for optimising irrigation scheduling for maize cultivation.
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and farmers at the Galana Kulalu irrigation scheme has been a highlight. Water-PIP demonstrated successful applications of advanced crop and soil moisture monitoring, allowing for optimising irrigation scheduling and ultimately increased water productivity. Through training on active irrigation scheduling, based on soil moisture monitoring, the irrigation scheme managed to reduce the irrigation frequency from twice a week, down to about three times in two weeks.
The combination of remote sensing data via the WaPoR database and on-site soil moisture monitoring is perceived by the irrigation scheme as a great solution to bring down the irrigation burden at the piloting plots.
MetaMeta is specialised on advancing innovative solutions for building water resilience in hydrologically imbalanced landscapes in large parts of Africa and Central Asia. Regarding flood management, we see that floods can be both a hazard for life and property, and a meaningful source for livelihood. Therefore, our special focus on flood risk is on implementing and scaling proven flood-based livelihood practices which help to explore the benefits of floodwater in arid and semi-arid areas. We aspire to improve preparedness and resilience by developing practical repertoires of local flood and drought management measures.
Dr. Abraham Mehari Haile
Programme Manager
MetaMeta
Abraham.Mehari@gopa.eu
Vital Water Services
We believe there is significant potential to improve local water services, including water supply, sanitation and irrigation. Through the SMART centers, we orient and train local private sector companies in Simple, Market-based, Affordable, Repairable Technologies with a strong focus on water pumps. Our activities contribute to creating new employment opportunities, strengthening local economies and food security. We also address laundry – an important, yet often overlooked topic in the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) domain. Regarding water supply, we focus on capacity building to improve local services. Recently we have built capacity for water utilities in Yemen, where we have completed 149 training courses in 48 thematic trainings, benefiting approximately 3,000 participants from 70 organisations across Yemen.
Reinier Veldman Programme Manager MetaMeta Reinier.Veldman@gopa.eu
Blue and green solutions are increasingly important in driving sustainable growth while protecting vital natural resources, especially water, marine and agricultural land. By integrating our in-depth knowledge and experience of water resources management with financial services development expertise at GOPA AFC, we offer actionable strategies and concrete solutions for designing and implementing green and blue investments. We provide a wide range of technical support and capacity building, covering finance for sustainable water use, creating blue and green livelihoods, and transitioning towards a green and blue economy. We believe in the added value of integrated solutions, and therefore offer additional services including water valuation and development of the local economy around sustainable use of water resources.
Dr. Long Hoang
Programme Manager MetaMeta Long.Hoang@gopa.eu
Agroecology
MetaMeta’s projects on agroecology aim to drive regenerative, inclusive, and sustainable agro-ecosystem solutions. We develop practical solutions across agroecology’s key dimensions, emphasising unexplored areas like hedges, ecosystem-based risk management, and soil biota management. Additionally, we support building agroecological systems featuring productive biodiversity, resource efficiency, soil health, equity, and ecosystem services, while ensuring scalable, communitydriven interventions.
Francesco Sambalino Programme Manager MetaMeta Francesco.Sambalino@gopa.eu
