GLOBAL Private Finance for the SDGs
Who We Are
Leveraging Capital
Aligning Capital
Strenghtening Policies
Resources

About Us

UNDP's Private Finance for the SDGs leverages, scales, and aligns private sector investments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Our Team

Our team comprises experts passionate about driving private sector investments towards achieving the SDGs.

Our Partners

We collaborate with partners to drive sustainable private investment solutions, leveraging diverse expertise and resources to help achieve the SDGs.

Senior Advisory Group

Our Senior Advisory Group, led by UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, comprises global sustainability leaders who provide strategic guidance.

Contact Us

For inquiries about partnerships, the SDG Investor Platform, or connecting with stakeholders, please contact us. Our team is here to help.

SDG Investor Platform

Discover comprehensive market intelligence on SDG-aligned investment prospects, including Investment Opportunity Areas, countries, sectors, and targeted SDGs.

Financial Centres for Sustainability

Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) is a global network of 44 financial centres collaborating to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.

Growth Stage Impact Ventures

The Growth Stage Impact Ventures (GSIV) programme identifies and supports successful enterprises from developing countries that significantly contribute to the SDGs and integrate impact considerations into their decision-making processes.

Impact Venture Hub

The Impact Venture Hub accelerates sustainable development by supporting high-impact ventures, building a global network of mission-driven organizations and stimulating impactful investments.

Insurance and Risk Finance Facility

The Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF) develops innovative insurance solutions in 34 countries, aiming to expand to 50 by 2025, to protect vulnerable communities and transform insurance markets for greater resilience.

Thematic Bonds

UNDP extends its thematic debt expertise to corporates and private institutions, facilitating the issuance of thematic bonds to unlock capital for projects with significant environmental and social benefits.

Impact Management and Measurement Trainings

Access the management standards designed to guide businesses and investors to embed sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the core of internal management and decision-making practices.

Integrated National Financing Frameworks

Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs) provide a framework for financing national sustainable development priorities and the SDGs at the country level.

News

Our news centre is your source for the latest stories, press releases, blogs, and other updates.

Publications

Our publications section offers the SDG Impact Standards, reports, and other research.

Ranch

Sustainable ranching

Photo by Shutterstock

Sustainable ranching

Compare IOA
Country
Brazil
Sector
Most major industry classification systems use sources of revenue as their basis for classifying companies into specific sectors, subsectors and industries. In order to group like companies based on their sustainability-related risks and opportunities, SASB created the Sustainable Industry Classification System® (SICS®) and the classification of sectors, subsectors and industries in the SDG Investor Platform is based on SICS.
Food and Beverage
Sub Sector
Most major industry classification systems use sources of revenue as their basis for classifying companies into specific sectors, subsectors and industries. In order to group like companies based on their sustainability-related risks and opportunities, SASB created the Sustainable Industry Classification System® (SICS®) and the classification of sectors, subsectors and industries in the SDG Investor Platform is based on SICS.
Food and Agriculture
Indicative Return
Describes the rate of growth an investment is expected to generate within the IOA. The indicative return is identified for the IOA by establishing its Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Return of Investment (ROI) or Gross Profit Margin (GPM).
15% - 20% (in ROI)
Investment Timeframe
Describes the time period in which the IOA will pay-back the invested resources. The estimate is based on asset expected lifetime as the IOA will start generating accumulated positive cash-flows.
Short Term (0–5 years)
Market Size
Describes the value of potential addressable market of the IOA. The market size is identified for the IOA by establishing the value in USD, identifying the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) or providing a numeric unit critical to the IOA.
47 million hectares of restorable land through ICLFS
Average Ticket Size (USD)
Describes the USD amount for a typical investment required in the IOA.
USD 500,000 - USD 1 million
Direct Impact
Describes the primary SDG(s) the IOA addresses.
Zero Hunger (SDG 2)
Indirect Impact
Describes the secondary SDG(s) the IOA addresses.
Gender Equality (SDG 5) Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12) No Poverty (SDG 1)

Business Model Description

Provide financing to scale Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest Systems (ICLFS) operations

Expected Impact

Improve productivity and farmer incomes through the commercialization of a wider variety of commodities year-round in a concentrated area of land (12) Increase farming productivity and decrease environmental impact through lower land use and deforestation

How is this information gathered?

Investment opportunities with potential to contribute to sustainable development are based on country-level SDG Investor Maps.

Learn more

Disclaimer

UNDP, the Private Finance for the SDGs, and their affiliates (collectively “UNDP”) do not seek or solicit investment for programmes, projects, or opportunities described on this site (collectively “Programmes”) or any other Programmes, and nothing on this page should constitute a solicitation for investment. The actors listed on this site are not partners of UNDP, and their inclusion should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation by UNDP for any relationship or investment.

The descriptions on this page are provided for informational purposes only. Only companies and enterprises that appear under the case study tab have been validated and vetted through UNDP programmes such as the Growth Stage Impact Ventures (GSIV), Business Call to Action (BCtA), or through other UN agencies. Even then, under no circumstances should their appearance on this website be construed as an endorsement for any relationship or investment. UNDP assumes no liability for investment losses directly or indirectly resulting from recommendations made, implied, or inferred by its research. Likewise, UNDP assumes no claim to investment gains directly or indirectly resulting from trading profits, investment management, or advisory fees obtained by following investment recommendations made, implied, or inferred by its research.

Investment involves risk, and all investments should be made with the supervision of a professional investment manager or advisor. The materials on the website are not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any investment, security, or commodity, nor shall any security be offered or sold to any person, in any jurisdiction in which such offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

Read More

Expand All
Print

Country & Regions

Explore the country and target locations of the investment opportunity.
Country
Brazil
Region
  • Brazil: Mato Grosso
  • Brazil: Mato Grosso do Sul
  • Brazil: Rio Grande do Sul
Learn more
Show More

Sector Classification

Situate the investment opportunity within sustainability focused sector, subsector and industry classifications.
Sector

Food and Beverage

Development need
Sustainability Development Report 2019: score of 62.1 on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), of 60.9 on SDG 15 (Life on Land), and of 91.7 on SDG 13 (Climate Action), with 'Significant challenges remaining' subscores prevalent across indicators (1)

Policy priority
The current administration has made supporting the agriculture sector and boosting its export competitiveness a key government priority (2) (3). Increasing the grain storage capacity, irrigation projects, environmental preservation and empowering agribusinesses have been marked as priorities.

Gender inequalities and marginalization issues
For some crops, smallholder farmers constitute 70% of the food market in Brazil. A large proportion of this is family farming, which can support poverty reduction and food security. Within this outlook, women provide a significant proportion of the agricultural workforce. Approximately 30% of the total rural workforce in Brazil is female. (27)

Investment opportunities introduction
There are various credit lines and incentive programs at discounted interest rates to support investments in agriculture. The participation of foreign entrants was also facilitated through a recent policy announcement (4) (5)

Key bottlenecks introduction
Infrastructural deficiencies, especially in logistics, negatively impacting the competitiveness of freight costs, low levels of land-use efficiency and dependence on imported fertilizers (28)

Sub Sector

Food and Agriculture

Development need
Although agribusiness represents 22% of Brazil’s GDP, 1/3 of all employment and 40% of exports (6), it is also responsible for the consumption of approx. 70% of the water in rivers, lakes and aquifers in Brazil. (7) Despite Brazil’s NDC commitment to restore and reforest 12M ha of forests by 2030, unsustainable livestock production is a key driver of deforestation (8) (9)

Industry

Meat, Poultry and Dairy

Show More

Pipeline Opportunity

Discover the investment opportunity and its corresponding business model.
Investment Opportunity Area

Sustainable ranching

Business Model

Provide financing to scale Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest Systems (ICLFS) operations

Show More

Business Case

Learn about the investment opportunity’s business metrics and market risks.

Market Size and Environment

Critical IOA Unit
Describes a complementary market sizing measure exemplifying the opportunities with the IOA.

47 million hectares of restorable land through ICLFS

Brazil's INDCs include increasing cattle productivity through the restoration of 15 million hectares of degraded pasture (22). Some estimates place the amount of restorable land through ICLFS at 47 million hectares (23)

Indicative Return

ROI
Describes an expected return from the IOA investment over its lifetime.

15% - 20%

A benchmark investor sampled is deploying this business model with a 19% return attributed to the cattle ranching component of ICLFS (24)

Investment Timeframe

Timeframe
Describes the time period in which the IOA will pay-back the invested resources. The estimate is based on asset expected lifetime as the IOA will start generating accumulated positive cash-flows.

Short Term (0–5 years)

Payback times can start as early as one year after the start of the operation, particularly for cash-crops such as maize or soybean (25)

Ticket Size

Average Ticket Size (USD)
Describes the USD amount for a typical investment required in the IOA.

USD 500,000 - USD 1 million

Market Risks & Scale Obstacles

Capital - Limited Investor Interest

Greater marginal cost-efficiency (albeit at huge environmental cost) of open-pasture cattle ranching

Business - Supply Chain Constraints

Requirement of highly-qualified labor for sophisticated business model including three production mechanisms

Capital - CapEx Intensive

High upfront costs for integrated system
Show More

Impact Case

Read about impact metrics and social and environmental risks of the investment opportunity.

Sustainable Development Need

Despite Brazil’s NDC commitment to restoring and reforesting 12M ha of forests by 2030, unsustainable cattle ranching contributed to over 8 million hectares of deforestation between 2010-2015 (10) (11)

Gender & Marginalisation

Cattle ranching is the most land-intensive farming activity in Brazil, using 75% of agricultural land. It also yields the lowest productivity per hectare for farmers (12)

Expected Development Outcome

Reduce environmental impact through lower land use and zero deforestation. 47 million ha of degraded pasture land could be recovered through ICLFS (12)

Gender & Marginalisation

Improve productivity and farmer incomes through commercialization of a wider variety of commodities year-round in a concentrated area of land (12)

Primary SDGs addressed

Zero Hunger (SDG 2)
2 - Zero Hunger

2.a.2 Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector

2.4.1 Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture

Current Value

204.12 million constant USD (26)

Secondary SDGs addressed

5 - Gender Equality
12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
1 - No Poverty

Directly impacted stakeholders

People

Small and mid-scale cattle farmers

Indirectly impacted stakeholders

Planet

Amazon rainforest- ICLFS can help reforest the Amazon through the planting of trees and also reduce pressure to degrade more land

Outcome Risks

Cattle ranching, even if intensive, generates greenhouse gases

ICLFS also has potential for soil erosion due to the intensive agricultural activity in a small area

Production intensity can cause a loss in biodiversity, destruction of natural habitats and rural landscapes

Gender inequality and/or marginalization risk: Long-term agricultural productivity for rural communities may be impacted due to land degradation, if this IOA is not administered sustainably

Impact Risks

Unexpected Impact Risk combined with Drop-Off Risk: If ICLFS systems become intensive/lose their sustainability component over-time, there is a risk of soil erosion and increased greenhouse emissions

Gender inequality and/or marginalization risk: Stakeholder participation risk if the experience and the expectations of local communities are not taken into account

Impact Classification

B—Benefit Stakeholders

What

The outcome is likely to be positive, important and largely intended because ICLFS could improve productivity and reduce environmental impact of expansive cattle ranching

Risk

While the model is proven and there are millions of hectares of land available, the lack of required skilled labor may limit breadth of impact

Impact Thesis

Improve productivity and farmer incomes through the commercialization of a wider variety of commodities year-round in a concentrated area of land (12) Increase farming productivity and decrease environmental impact through lower land use and deforestation

Show More

Enabling Environment

Explore policy, regulatory and financial factors relevant for the investment opportunity.

Policy Environment

(Brazil Intended Nationally Determined Contribution for UNFCCC ): Brazil's INDCs include increasing cattle productivity through the restoration of 15 million hectares of degraded pasture. (22)

(Brazil Intended Nationally Determined Contribution for UNFCCC ): According to the Brazilian NDC, there is a goal of converting 5 million hectares to integrated cropland-livestock-forestry systems (ICLFS) by 2030. (29)

At Davos 2019, Brazil's Minister of the Environment reiterated the country's commitment to the Paris Accord, maintaining the goal to increase ICLFS systems by 5 million hectares by 2030. (13) (14)

Financial Environment

Financial incentives: Inovagro ("Incentive for Technological Innovation in Farming Production") (16).

Financial incentives: Incentive "Low Carbon Emission Agriculture" (Plano ABC) has US$ 250 million budget with an interest rate of 5.5% (16) (17)

Regulatory Environment

(Law 12,805/2013): ICLFS is regulated by Law 12,805/2013, which aims to sustainably improve productivity, product quality and income from agricultural activities through the application of integrated crop, livestock and forest exploitation systems in areas already deforested (15)

Show More

Marketplace Participants

Discover examples of public and private stakeholders active in this investment opportunity that were identified through secondary research and consultations.

Private Sector

Investors such as Bradesco, John Deere, Syngenta, Ceptis, Premix and Soesp. Corporations such as Novo Campo Program and Do Campo à Mesa (18)

Non-Profit

RedeILPF, Embrapa, Cocamar (19)

Show More

Target Locations

See what country regions are most suitable for the investment opportunity. All references to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of the Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999)
country static map

Brazil: Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso has a lot of potential for integration of crops-livestock-trees operations (it only uses 4.85% of its land for ICLFS, vs. 10.69% in Mato Grosso do Sul and 20.51% it also concentrates the highest number of cattle in the country (26 million heads or 13%)

Brazil: Mato Grosso do Sul

Mato Grosso has a lot of potential for integration of crops-livestock-trees operations (it only uses 4.85% of its land for ICLFS, vs. 10.69% in Mato Grosso do Sul and 20.51% in regions outside the Amazon like Rio Grande do Sul) (8) (15)

Brazil: Rio Grande do Sul

Mato Grosso has a lot of potential for integration of crops-livestock-trees operations (it only uses 4.85% of its land for ICLFS, vs. 10.69% in Mato Grosso do Sul and 20.51% in regions outside the Amazon like Rio Grande do Sul) (8) (15)
Show More

References

See what sources were used to establish the investment opportunity’s data and find resources that could be consulted to explore more.
    • Show More