USAID announces $35 million for the water and energy for food challenge

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick announced $35 million for the Water and Energy for Food (“WE4F”) Challenge.

This initiative will increase sustainable agricultural and food value-chains, food security, and climate resilience in developing countries and emerging markets – with a focus on the poor and women by investing in small enterprises that work in combinations of food, water, and energy.

WE4F is a partnership between USAID, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. WE4F is a logical extension of the groundbreaking, five-year Securing Water for Food (SWFF) and Powering Agriculture Energy (PAEGC) Grand Challenges, which enrolled 80 innovators from more than 40 countries to develop more food with less water and use renewable energy more efficiently.

SWFF and PAEGC have produced nearly six million tons of food, reduced the consumption of water by more than 19 billion liters, saved more than two million trees, and benefitted more than 6.3 million farmers and their families. WE4F adds the crucial element of engaging impact investors to expand the impact of small-grid electric systems (SGEs) for each of them to reach more than 100,000 users.

The WE4F partners believe private-sector capital is key to expand successful SGEs in the world’s poorest areas. The program expects to mobilize more than $25 million in private investment capital.

Original source: USAID
Published on 23 October 2019