Agriculture in Africa is seen as a strategic sector for growth. This is important from a socio-economic perspective, as Africa is a food-insecure continent. It is expected that food insecurity will increase over the coming decades due to climate change, poverty, population growth, and the relatively slow deployment of technology. Food insecurity will place increasing emphasis on agricultural production on a sustainable basis.
Heightened uncertainty remains a key feature of global markets. A perfect storm of tighter global monetary policy, adverse climate conditions, geopolitical issues, and low commodity stocks has resulted in persistently high prices.
Aside from the need to create more sustainable food production systems, there is also the need to preserve ecological systems, natural habitats, biodiversity and social systems. Sustainability is an integrated concept that refers to environmental health, social equity and economical progression to create communities that are healthy, resilient and thriving.
In the banking sector, sustainability is underpinned by the Principles for Responsible Banking of the UN through alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, which covers climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance.
It is apparent that climate issues and environmental sustainability are top of mind, and investors and consumers alike are demanding that
