Rome – Agrifood systems are being tested like never before, threatening global food security, livelihoods, peace and stability.
Investment is critical to transforming agrifood systems and “turning potential into progress,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu wrote in the Foreword to the FAO Investment Centre’s Annual Review for 2025.
The Annual Review – out today – offers a snapshot of the Centre’s work with its partners to accelerate the pace of change through more and better agrifood investment.
In 2025, the Centre helped design 43 new public investment projects in 44 countries approved by financial partners for $7.8 billion, notably with the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It supported 254 ongoing projects worth $51 billion in public investment across 95 countries. And it contributed to 42 agricultural strategies, 37 sector studies, 17 policy studies and four policy dialogues in 67 countries.
The year marked some notable firsts – from the approval of the first three private investment projects designed with FAO support to the design of the first livestock project ever approved by the Green Climate Fund.
Partner-focused, unique assets
The Centre’s ability to access FAO’s vast expertise, bring people together, adapt and deliver impact at scale has turned it into a trusted place for investment and finance solutions.
These solutions integrate strategic planning, policy, capacity development, knowledge work and increased public, private and blended finance.
The Centre continued strengthening existing partnerships, many of them spanning decades, including with the World Bank, IFAD and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
And it deepened its work with the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Caribbean Development Bank to mobilize more agrifood investment powered by digital, nature-based, and climate-resilient solutions.
Blended finance work with the European Union, European Investment Bank and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti advanced in 2025, helping to increase financing for small-scale producers and agribusinesses.
Turning knowledge into impact
The Centre is sharpening its expertise and analysis across key agrifood value chains, such as cocoa, coffee, cashews, and other high-value tradables, to identify policy and capacity gaps and investment opportunities, including along strategic economic and transport corridors.
Since launching its Innovation and Knowledge for Investment (IK4I) programme in 2020, the Centre has teamed up with academics, researchers and other experts across FAO and beyond to share the latest thinking, tools and technologies in 62 new knowledge products.
These IK4I publications fill critical knowledge gaps on timely and topical issues across agrifood systems, address strategic blind spots or provide practical guidance. They also enable the Centre to de-risk investments by rooting solutions in evidence-based data and analysis.
Investing in people, especially small-scale producers, to analyse, innovate and respond to a rapidly changing environment is essential.
Since 2020, more than 40 000 professionals, about two-thirds in Africa, have benefitted from 24 Centre-designed FAO e-learning Academy courses. The number of people registering for these free, certified, multilingual, and self-paced courses – from developing bankable investment plans to ensuring responsible antibiotic use in the livestock sector – is growing each year.
Future perspectives
The challenges to transform agrifood systems are huge. But so are the opportunities.
Looking ahead, the Centre will continue to diversify and expand the financial ecosystem to crowd in more – and more impactful – public, private and blended finance.
It will work with partners, new and old, to advance the agrifood jobs agenda, embrace game-changing tools, technologies and innovations, deepen its analytical work and share knowledge even more systematically.
Mohamed Manssouri, Assistant Director-General and Director of the FAO Investment Centre, pointed to FAO’s ambition to “think bigger, move faster and deliver better results” and to turn “challenges into opportunities.”
“The world must act together to make sure agrifood systems work for current and future generations”, he said.
