Mobilizing capital for women-owned agri-SMEs in Indonesia

WBCSD, Grow Asia, the Just Rural Transition, and CrossBoundary are co-hosting an ‘Agri-SME Investment Platform Deep Dive initiative: Mobilizing Capital for Women-owned Agri-SMEs in Indonesia,’ in September and October 2022.

Investing in women-owned small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises (agri-SMEs) in Indonesia can empower communities and contribute to a just agri-food systems transformation, which is key to addressing the root causes of many environmental and social challenges. Driving capital into this segment presents a unique opportunity for investors looking to achieve social and environmental outcomes through their investments, with a gender lens. This approach holds promise for addressing persistent equity gap for women in the agriculture sector: women often face discrimination in access to land, capital, inputs, information and training. Importantly, our approach emphasizes social outcomes alongside commercial ones. Women agripreneurs are a vital part of Indonesia’s booming ag-tech sector and represent many hundreds of millions of dollars of agricultural export revenues. Backing their enterprises means betting on proven managers in the region’s largest and most dynamic market.

Through sector dialogue, analytical publications, investor-agripreneur matchmaking, and training on a digital finance tool, this agri-SME finance deep-dive initiative seeks to unpack challenges and highlight opportunities for gender-lens investment in the Indonesian agri-SME sector, while connecting the broader financing ecosystem to spur future collaboration and continued learning.

How can you learn more and engage?

Download a briefing memo (English or Bahasa) that offers a preliminary overview of women-owned agri-SMEs in Indonesia, discusses both opportunities and challenges to investing in these enterprises, and puts forward potential solutions to drive value chain resilience and equity.

• Watch the recording of the value chain dialogue to learn more about:
  • How driving investment into women-owned agri-SMEs in Indonesia can boost incomes, contribute toward climate action, and protect and restore nature, providing unique opportunities for investors looking to achieve social and environmental outcomes; and
  • Identifying financial (and other) needs, opportunities, and challenges for the sector through a discussion between agri-SMEs, investors, capacity building organizations, and large companies.
• Join the ‘Agri-SME Digital Finance Tool’ that connects agri-SMEs, investors, and enterprise support organizations around specific opportunities for financing. As a part of this initiative, partners hosted a training session for agiripreneurs and another for investors. 
• Participants benefited from a ‘Networking Week’ from 26-30 September during which investors, capacity building organizations, investors, and Indonesian women agripreneurs connected live to discuss reciprocal needs and opportunities.
• Read an investment analysis (English or Bahasa) that offers a deeper look at this topic and recommendations for large agri-food companies, agri-SMEs, investors, policymakers, and more.

To learn more about this continued work on strengthening investment opportunities for agri-SMEs in global value chains, please contact Melanie Levine, Manager, Food & Agriculture, WBCSD.