In early 2021, CSAF established a Loan Workouts Working Group with the goal of developing guiding principles and protocols for operationalizing the higher-level Responsible Lending Principles. The working group has documented case examples, mapped loan workout processes, and developed a Memorandum of Understanding among CSAF members to guide member collaboration in situations where borrowers in common are not able to meet their loan obligations. Additionally, for the past several years, CSAF members have been harmonizing impact metrics captured in this annual report through an Impact Working Group. Recognizing the evolving market and current opportunity to enhance metrics in the wake of COVID-19, CSAF members have made a push this past year to align with the 2X Challenge criteria for gender inclusion. The criteria includes metrics across four dimensions that are relevant to CSAF members’ lending: business ownership, leadership (management and board), sourcing from smallholder farmers, and employment. CSAF members are also developing an enhanced set of environmental metrics that go beyond hectares cultivated and sustainable certifications to include farm- and enterprise-level policies and practices. These environmental practices (e.g., soil and water management, waste management and re-use of byproducts, renewable energy) are substantially harder to measure and track but are critical for achieving members’ mission objectives. We are committed to working together as practitioners—as well as with our clients and other partners—to promote improved environmental practices and refine how we monitor and report on them. To complement the efforts of these working groups, CSAF is partnering with International Growth Centre (IGC), a research and policy group housed at London School of Economics, to distill findings from the trove of under-utilized data, case studies, and learning held by our member institutions. Beginning in Q3 2021 and extending into early 2022, CSAF and IGC will map our collective data and learning onto the literature and evidence in the broader fields of agricultural SME finance and agricultural development. Analysis will focus on the link between capital additionality in financing agricultural enterprises, enterprise growth, and social and environmental impact on households, communities, and landscapes.
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