Securing our food, forever

Building and deepening partnerships

The Crop Trust continues to work on several initiatives to deepen and extend its network of government donors and establish partnerships with the private sector, NGOs and multilateral development institutions, both in terms of potential sources of funding, as well as platforms for raising awareness of the importance of crop diversity, and indeed advocacy.

Central to these activities is the revised Financing Strategy, which will strengthen the fundraising infrastructure in line with the strategic repositioning of the Crop Trust. This work is complemented by the project Strategic Development of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, launched in 2021. This is a three-year effort funded by GIZ, the German development agency and BMZ, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany. The project supports the institutional and strategic development of the Crop Trust to achieve its objectives and reach the endowment target of USD 850 million to permanently secure, conserve and make available crop diversity in support of global food and nutrition security.

Looking ahead: Responsible investing

Investing in the future

Environmental, social and governance concerns are central to the Crop Trust’s mission and an integral part of its investment strategy. This is reflected in the Crop Trust Financing Strategy 2030, which was presented to the Executive Board for discussion at its October 2022 meeting and will be finalized in 2023.

This strategy focuses on the objective of increasing the Endowment Fund to USD 850 million by 2030: sufficient to provide the USD 34 million a year needed to meet the core long-term funding needs for the essential operations of key genebanks around the world, including the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and additional system-wide supporting services. This will involve strengthening the organization’s fundraising capacity, targeted efforts to raise awareness of the Crop Trust and the importance of its mission and innovative financing mechanisms to complement the current donor profile.

The Crop Trust is a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (UNPRI), an initiative that includes an international network of investors working together to put responsible investment theory into practice. The Crop Trust is committed to undertaking annual UNPRI reporting, the results of which are publicly disclosed.

The Crop Trust developed its Sustainable Investment Framework in 2022, aligning its investment strategy with its core mission in addition to integrating social factors, and environmental concerns such as adapting to climate change and achieving net zero emissions. As part of this Framework, the Crop Trust set a net zero target for the decarbonization of the Endowment Fund by 2040. In addition, the Crop Trust will become a supporter of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures.