Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR)

FOLUR is a $345 million programme supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the World Bank (WB) that seeks to transform the global food system by promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient commodity value chains. UNDP, leading the Good Growth Partnership (GGP), supports this Impact Programme, which consists of a Global Platform providing support services to 27 Country Projects targeting the production landscapes of eight commodities: beef, cocoa, corn, coffee, palm oil, rice, soy, and wheat. 

The FOLUR Global Platform is organized around three Pillars of activity. GGP participates in all three in close coordination with the other Global Platform core partners alongside the WB: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Food and Land Use (FOLU) coalition and the Global Landscape Forum (GLF).  

In Pillar A – Program Capacity Strengthening – GGP contributes to the training agenda by conducting a Training Needs Assessment (with FAO), which will help tailor its capacity strengthening offer to Country Project teams and stakeholders, including in relation to effective multistakeholder collaboration, private sector engagement, farmer support systems strengthening, and gender equality and empowerment of women. GGP’s existing learning community, the Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems Community, is expanding to include Country Projects and the Global Platform with up to 60 virtual learning events scheduled.

In Pillar B – Policy and Value Chain Engagement – GGP’s expertise in private sector and finance sector advocacy and engagement is to the fore. Training on private sector’s engagement into sustainability initiatives will be provided for companies wishing to raise their game. And, working in coordination with other Global Platform core partners, GGP will continue to encourage and support the adoption of responsible investment and lending practices by domestic banks, central banks, investors and trade finance specialists, as well as the development of innovative financial mechanisms.

In Pillar C – Strategic Knowledge Management and Communications – UNDP’s collaborative digital learning platform is expanding to cover FOLUR subjects, ISEAL’s Evidensia platform (a GGP Partner) will service the research and knowledge base needs of FOLUR stakeholders, and new knowledge products and case studies will be originated from Country Projects covering a range of innovations and success stories.

To learn more about UNDP’s involvement in FOLUR contact Lavinia Gasperini, Programme Management Associate at lavinia.gasperini@undp.org