AVgroup and The Dutch Development Bank – FMO, Launched a Joint Project

The Dutch Development Bank FMO, together with the Ukrainian consulting company AVgroup, conducted a series of sustainability webinars for the agribusiness sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The Agribusiness Sustainability Webinar Series is part of a Community of Practice project — a long-term initiative aimed at building knowledge on sustainability requirements among companies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The project includes annual sustainability forums, monthly webinars, and has created a regional knowledge-sharing platform on “green” finance.

In 2020–2021, a total of nine webinars took place.

The purpose of the webinars was to provide as much information as possible about FMO’s and other international financial institutions’ “green” investment products, as well as the environmental and social requirements for obtaining them.

The project is designed to spread practical knowledge on the growing demands from lenders regarding the environmental and social performance of agribusiness companies. The webinars focused on discussing the practical needs of the agribusiness sector in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

While crop yields and the use of modern agricultural technologies have increased, the industry still faces challenges in realizing its potential due to insufficient implementation of environmental and social risk management systems. This project aims to assist FMO’s agribusiness clients in implementing sustainability principles and increasing access to finance. Our goal is to help the agribusiness sector in Eastern Europe become a global leader in adopting modern sustainable solutions.

— Pieternel Boogaard, Director of Agribusiness, Food and Water at FMO