Annual Report 2020

Nurturing Change Across African Agriculture

Statement from our Chair

Unity, resilience & resolve.

H.E Hailemariam Dessalegn

Former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Chair of the Board of Directors of AGRA

In my first full year as Chair of the Board of Directors of AGRA, I had thought that my main concern would be how we could expand opportunity to millions of Africa’s smallholder farmers. Instead, the COVID-19 virus tore across the world, claiming the lives of nearly 3 million people globally and counting. The African continent has not been spared, and here at AGRA, people also lost friends and relatives. I would like to extend heartfelt sympathies, on behalf of the Board, to all those affected by the pandemic.

Message from our President

African challenges, uniquely African solutions.

H.E. Dr. Agnes Kalibata

AGRA President & the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to the Food Systems Summit

Changing agriculture in Africa takes time, and there is much work still to be done. But we are excited by what we have been able to catalyze working with governments, local SMEs and multiple other partners. Like anywhere else in the world, Africa faces more hunger and more malnutrition and even obesity challenges coming out of COVID-19. We must double down on innovation and support to countries to ensure that hard won gains to date are not completely eroded. At the same time, we must ensure that we come through recognizing that our planet – our farming landscapes – need to be better managed and nurtured.

Our vision is an agriculture transformation that fundamentally changes how food is produced, creating better opportunities in rural economies and providing affordable, nutritious food to the entire population.

Since AGRA was founded in 2006, our investments across Africa have been directed at increasing food and nutrition security, and incomes for smallholder farming households. So far, we have been able to track our progress against targets by evaluating the impact of our interventions in the lives of farmers.

Since 2017, we have directly reached 10.1 million farmers, serving them with an integrated suite of services to improve how they farm. The impact we seek is better livelihoods and improved food security, as well as greater resilience to shocks and adversity.

We make strategic investments into partners and systems in order to create an enabling environment and conditions such that farmers' capacity is increased, markets can be developed and businesses can grow. Our partners work with local government and farmers' organizations to build farmer capacity.

We support governments to strengthen their planning, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation tools, and more. While this is a long-term investment, we already see compelling early results – evident in national investment plans, changes to long-held institutional practices, smarter and faster policy reform, and the response of private sector actors.

AGRA invested more than USD11 million to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our investments supported food security coordination, regional food balance sheets, digital finance, supply chain investments, improved seeds, strengthening SMEs, data and analytics, political economy analysis, and rapid COVID-19 responses. We also developed our thought leadership to assess the real-time impact of COVID-19 on market systems and businesses, along with recovery planning.

2020 Highlights

Institutional highlights

Reached 4 Million

Smallholder farmers directly and 12,2 million farmers indirectly in 11 countries

10,000+ Delegates

Attended AGRF Summit in-person and virtually

28 Policy reforms

Advocated to unlock bottlenecks in seeds, markets, fertilizer systems

$ 43.3 million

Disbursed in grants to implementing partners in 2020 across 11 countries

$ 11 million

To mitigate COVID-19 pandemic

Gender and Inclusiveness

1.4 million women farmers

reached in 2020

47% of SME Dealroom participants

are women-led.

600 companies registered

by women, through the VALUE4HER- Connect plaform, accessing market information

Systems

23 consortia

In 2020, support focused on maturing of investments

1.3 million farmers reached via consortia

AGRA demonstrated & used the powerful effects of consortia in creating a more vibrant private sector and delivering an integrated approach

Piloted environmental sustainability project in western Kenya

Supporting renewal of degraded lands,to implement / scale sustainable land and agro- biodiversity management practices

PSC highlights

6 Countries supported

To develop Institutional Capacity Strengthening Plans

Over $15 million

Leveraged through the expanded regional food trade Programme, in private investments in Eastern Africa

9 Flagships

Being implemented with AGRA support

Partnerships

47% of SME Dealroom participants

are women-led.

600 companies registered

by women, through the VALUE4HERConnect plaform, accessing market information

1.4 million women farmers

eached in 2020

AGRA’s work in seeds

Developed SSA & assessment tool

(Seed system analysis) piloted in Nigeria and Ethiopia

Supported digitization

of seed certification, use of Seed Tracker through electronic tags, and e-certification in Uganda

80% of seed produced locally

In Rwanda up from only 14% in 2017

Promoted soil health

Through increasing adoption of organic & biofertilizers

As the governing body, AGRA’s Board of Directors is legally accountable for the organisation and is required to act in the interests of AGRA’s stakeholders, employees and the public good.

Financial Report​

Statement of Financial position as 31st December 2020

Consolidated statement of financial position

IN THOUSANDS

NOTE

2020 US$

2019 US$

ASSETS

CURRENT ASSETS

Cash and cash equivalents 3 59,845 59,378
Receivables and prepaid expenses 4 3,266 3,335
Investments in BlackRock 5 28,711 27,968
Total current assets 91,822 90,681

NON-CURRENT ASSETS

Investments in Injaro 6 1,168 1,490
Investments in Financial Assets 7 779 1,711
Investments in ABC Fund 8 4,740 2,256
Intangible assets, net 9 209 282
Property and equipment, net 10 902 964
Total non-current assets 7,798 6,703
Total Assets 99,620 97,384

LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS

Accounts payable and other liabilities 11 7,137 6,834
Contributions payable 12 6,659 7,069
Repayable Loans 13 12,918 12,632
Program grants payable 14 1,770
Total liabilities 28,484 26,535

NET ASSETS

Without donor restrictions 15 9,500 8,301
With donor restrictions 15 61,636 62,548
Total net assets 71,136 70,849
Total liabilities and net assets 99,620 97,384

Consolidated statement of activities

REVENUE

Contributions received 16 93,703 117,661
Net investment income 17 1,007 1,157
Other income 17 1,602 949
Total revenue 96,312 119,767

OPERATING EXPENDITURE

Grants 14 52,728 52,911
Other Program Costs 18 8,140 11,739
ASIF Costs 1,057 633
AECF Program Costs 18 6,965 7,598
Monitoring and Evaluation Costs 18 2,879 2,849
Program support Costs 18 15,951 19,476
Resource Mobilization Costs 18 692 673
Administration and support Costs 18 7,613 9,351
Total expenditure 96,025 105,230
Change in net assets 287 14,537
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