Nigerian farmers are among African countries that will benefit from a $200million fund pledged by the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help them tackle climate change.
QFFD and the BMGF announced the deal Sunday, at the 2022 Doha Forum, a new strategic partnership called Nanmo, or “growing together” in Arabic.
According to a BMGF statement, Nanmo will invest in climate-adaptive agricultural tools and technologies to build resilient food systems and markets that provide nutrition, income, and economic opportunities to small-scale producers and their communities in Africa.
QFFD and the Gates Foundation jointly pledged up to US$200 million toward agriculture, climate resilience, and economic development projects to support smallholder farmers on drylands on the African continent.
These farmers are bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change and this partnership will aim to strengthen economies in sub-Saharan Africa in four key areas.
They are equity as a primary driver of inclusive growth, enterprise as a means of job creation and poverty alleviation, agriculture as a primary source of food, jobs, and income, access to technologies, financial tools, and emerging best practices as a driver of productivity, nutrition, and climate adaptation.
The partnership will also seek to ensure that women small-scale producers can positively contribute to, and benefit from, decisions about how their communities grow food and create jobs.
Bill Gates said: “Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are already seeing their livelihoods threatened by higher temperatures and changing weather patterns.
“We’re building on our longstanding collaboration with QFFD to help these farmers adapt. Together, we can prevent millions of people from falling into poverty and hunger due to climate change and increase agricultural yields to jumpstart equitable economic growth where it’s most needed.”
The strategic partnership was announced by Bill Gates and Mr. Khalifa Al-Kuwari, Director-General of QFFD, in the presence of Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman during a panel at the Doha Forum.
Al-Kuwari said, “We are thrilled to be announcing a new initiative in collaboration with our strategic partner, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, titled Nanmo, which aims at ensuring that sustainable development goals are met everywhere.”