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UN PhotoIFAD / FFD4 FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT
STORY: IFAD / FFD4 FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT
TRT: 4:55
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: CREDIT IFAD ON SCREEN / EMBARGO 00:01 GMT MONDAY 30 JUNE 2025
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: SEE SHOTLIST FOR DETAILS
26 JUNE 2025, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
1. Exterior, Folksam Asset Management HQ
2. Close up, Folksam sign
3. Med shot, Mark Johnsson entering the building
4. Med shot, Mark sitting at his desk in Zoom meeting
5. Close up, People on screen in Zoom call.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Johnsson, strategist, Folksam Asset Management:
“We can see a growing concern among our customers regarding climate-related issues. Our commitment to sustainable finance is strong. Instruments on the financial market that aim to finance sustainable economic activities can be of interest.”
23 JUNE 2025, ROME, ITALY
8. Close up, UN flag waving in from of IFAD headquarters
9. Various shots, IFAD headquarters
26 JUNE 2025, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Johnsson, strategist, Folksam Asset Management:
“IFAD offers the combination that we look for – we aim to be a leader in sustainability. We want to invest as close to our customers as we possibly can – to make a difference in their everyday life. But it’s not always closest to home where you have the most impact. IFAD is one of those institutions that helps us to navigate and find opportunities outside of Sweden.”
11. Close up, Folksam sign
12. Close up, People on Zoom call.
13. Close up, Mark in meeting
23 JUNE 2025, ROME, ITALY
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Natalia Toschi, Head of Funding, IFAD:
“IFAD issues sustainable bonds, they are bonds that support activities, a mixture of green and social activities. This is in line with ifad’s eligible project types, that are basically social services, access to markets, maintenance of natural resources, production sectors, policies and institutions. These are all the activities that IFAD supports in its finance projects, in the agricultural sector and in rural areas, and these bonds go to finance such activities.”
FILE - ETHIOPIA
15. Wide shot, men walking in a field
16. Various shots, men and women talking in a house
17. Close up, woman hands
23 JUNE 2025, ROME, ITALY
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Natalia Toschi, Head of Funding, IFAD:
“I think we have to play a brokerage role. We have to play a role that really connects the public sector with the private sector interests. That means creating structures that are blended finance structures. That means first of all de-risking, because, of course, the private sector has a very different risk appetite than the public sector would have. That means offering technical expertise, offering taxonomies that are standardized, so that the private sector actors can really understand, in their own language, what kind of impact the projects supported by the IFAD have. All of this is key.”
FILE – IFAD
19. Various shot, fields and people working
26 JUNE 2025, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
20. Med shot, Interior of building
21. Med shot, Mark walking towards his office
22. Various shots, Mark working on his laptop
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Johnsson, strategist, Folksam Asset Management:
“If one of our customers asks us, ‘why do you invest my pension in IFAD?’, our answer is that it creates returns, and that IFAD takes on the challenges of things that you don’t want in your life – poverty, inequality, lack of food. Companies with high ambitions to contribute to a sustainable world cannot not overlook financial institutions like IFAD – with its focus and commitment to help to adapt and mitigate climate events and climate issues.”
FILE – IFAD
24. Aerial shot, planting in Laos
25. Various shots, farmers cutting down crops in India
As the international community gathers in Seville for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) amid rising geopolitical tensions, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is urging a fundamental rethink of how development is financed - with a focus on agrifood systems to boost rural growth and tap into 4.5 trillion dollars’ worth of business opportunities. A large part of this approach requires channelling investments including from the private sector to inject financing in rural development project in support of some of the world’s poorest people.
In Sweden, for example, IFAD is working successfully with one such company to achieve this goal.
It’s a Thursday (26 Jun) afternoon in Stockholm and financial strategist Mark Johnsson is meeting with his team at Folksam Asset Management to discuss how some of their 90 billion dollars’ worth of investments are performing, on behalf of their 4 million clients who are mainly Swedish pensioners. Not only are they looking to invest in products that make their customers money, but also ones that have social impact.
The Folksam Group is renowned as one of the most active investors in sustainable finance – one of six initiators of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance and is part of a growing number of private sector companies investing in the sector.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Johnsson, strategist, Folksam Asset Management:
"We can see a growing concern among our customers regarding climate-related issues. Our commitment to sustainable finance is strong. Instruments on the financial market that aim to finance sustainable economic activities can be of interest."
In 2022, IFAD issued its first sustainable bond and became the first United Nations Fund and the only UN body and specialized agency other than the World Bank Group to operate in capital markets after obtaining AA+ credit ratings from both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.
Folksam were one of the first companies to invest in the bond.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Johnsson, strategist, Folksam Asset Management:
"IFAD offers the combination that we look for – we aim to be a leader in sustainability. We want to invest as close to our customers as we possibly can – to make a difference in their everyday life. But it’s not always closest to home where you have the most impact. IFAD is one of those institutions that helps us to navigate and find opportunities abroad."
Money from the bonds, goes directly to fund targeted projects in IFAD’s portfolio that meet this mandate.
SOUNDBITE (English) Natalia Toschi, Head of Funding, IFAD:
“IFAD issues sustainable bonds, they are bonds that support activities, a mixture of green and social activities. This is in line with IFAD’s eligible project types, that are basically social services, access to markets, maintenance of natural resources, production sectors, policies and institutions. These are all the activities that it supports in its finance projects, in the agricultural sector and in rural areas, and these bonds go to finance such activities.”
At the Financing for Development conference this week The Compromiso de Sevilla, an outcome document of the conference, will state the need to facilitate private investment in agriculture and food systems.
As some development budgets shrink, despite a massive US$4 trillion shortfall to finance development, IFAD knows it needs to work hard to attract more private investors like Folksam, but believes it has the tools and experience to do so.
SOUNDBITE (English) Natalia Toschi, Head of Funding, IFAD:
“I think we have to play a brokerage role. We have to play a role that really connects the public sector with the private sector interests. That means creating structures that are blended finance structures. That means first of all de-risking, because, of course, the private sector has a very different risk appetite than the public sector would have. That means offering technical expertise, offering taxonomies that are standardized, so that the private sector actors can really understand, in their own language, what kind of impact the projects supported by the DFI’s have. All of this is key.”
IFAD partners with governments, public development banks and private sector companies to support projects in rural areas where 80% of the poorest people live.
With a current investment of approximately 0.5 per cent of the global gross domestic product, IFAD believes development agencies could unlock business opportunities worth up to US$4.5 trillion a year by 2030, significantly boosting incomes among the poorest rural communities, compared to other sectors.
IFAD also believes that doing so is a sound investment. It calculates that every dollar invested in sustainable agriculture can yield up to 16 dollars in returns, with coordinated investments creating over 120 million rural jobs.
For Mark and Folksam, partnering with IFAD is a perfect fit for their investors.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Johnsson, strategist, Folksam Asset Management:
“If one of our customers asks us, ‘Why do you invest my pension in IFAD?’, our answer is that it creates returns, and that IFAD takes on the challenges of things that you don’t want in your life – poverty, inequality, lack of food. Companies with high ambitions to contribute to a sustainable world should not overlook financial institutions like IFAD – with its focus and commitment to help to adapt and mitigate climate events and climate issues”
The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution, and a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries.
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