Additional funding partnerships in African food systems transformation allowed us to expand our efforts in developing inclusive and economically viable value chains in Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania, while also piloting transformative initiatives in South Africa and Rwanda. Together we can strengthen African farmers and SMEs, boosting local food production, creating more jobs, reducing reliance on imports, and ultimately, building more resilient food systems. At the same time, co-financing efforts through the IDH Farmfit Fund in countries like Côte d'Ivoire helped reduce financial barriers and risks for smallholder cocoa farmers.
Through our landscape approach, we teamed up with public and private stakeholders to go beyond compliance with regulation and due diligence to co-create deforestation-free, sustainable and farmer-inclusive solutions. In Vietnam, years of collaboration led to the 2024 launch of the EUDR-compliant Database System for Forest and Coffee Growing Areas. This initiative sets a benchmark for environmental accountability, transparency, and innovation that is similarly being tested across key global cocoa, coffee, palm oil and beef production landscapes.
IDH and GIZ, with sponsorship from the UN Global Compact, hosted a Living Wage & Living Income Summit in June, bringing together over 400 guests from more than 250 organisations across the value chain to effect change through responsible business practices, policy instruments and social dialogue. It was a moment to reflect on milestones and innovations in the living wage and income space, including practical and scalable solutions like the newly launched Collection & Distribution mechanism, designed to address the significant gap in wages that exists across tea producing regions.
Internally, colleagues across the entire organisation came together to develop our Multi-Year Plan for the 2026-2030 funding cycle, a document that will serve as our guiding platform for the coming years. Their input, based on years of experience and testing with our partners, plots a path for us to continue amplifying our impact and contribute to profound and deep sector and food systems changes.
Gender equality and DEI continue to be central in the Multi-Year Plan and the new strategy, where gender interventions are embedded throughout the portfolio. This direction does not only make sense from an inclusivity perspective but also engages with the reality that 60% of the global workforce in agriculture and textiles is female.
As we look ahead to 2025, we remain focused on tackling the pressing challenges that lie ahead—whether it’s addressing the climate crisis, advancing human rights in global value chains, or promoting a future where businesses thrive in harmony with nature and society. We are ever grateful to our donors who join us on this journey and continue to recognise that progress will only be achieved by continuing to reach across the divide.
We are confident that, together, we can continue to make an impact that will go beyond our multi-year plans, beyond IDH, as a ripple effect for generations to come. By scaling through partners and accelerating change, each of us is contributing to something far greater than ourselves.
Sincerely,
Daan Wensing
CEO of IDH and Chair of the Executive Board
Lizet Friesen-Leibbrandt
CFO of IDH and Member of the Executive Board
