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Rabobank Foundation is a fund of the Rabobank Group that focuses on improving access to financial services for underprivileged groups and capacity building for sustainable member-based organisations. With its roots in cooperative banking, the foundation aims to make small financial contributions and transfer the bank’s expertise to alleviate poverty by strengthening producer organisations and savings and credit cooperatives. Through Agri-ProFocus, Rabobank Foundation expects to improve cooperation with related organisations, to render donor support more effective and to create a platform for knowledge development about agricultural cooperatives.
Support from Rabobank Foundation consists of loans, small grants, guarantees and technical assistance. Approximately 100 projects in 25 countries are supported each year. The focus in these projects is primarily on cooperatives working in rural areas and the ultimate goal is to achieve sustainable rural economic development.
Rabobank Foundation has a large number of partners. However, it still finds it important to work within Agri-ProFocus. Through the partnership, local advisors can be called in who have more comprehensive and reliable information about the local situation. Different financial instruments from a variety of donors and investors can be combined into an integrated support project. Rabobank Foundation expects the partnership to facilitate the exchange of information and studies, and the brokerage of donors and investors in bottom-up business initiatives. The foundation has minimal contact with knowledge institutions because it does not finance research, but this could change with the participation of these institutions in Agri-ProFocus. Research into development models of cooperatives is considered by the Foundation to be an important field of research.
As an institution with a background in banking, Rabobank Foundation looks at partner support from a business perspective and can serve as a resource for Agri-ProFocus members that have questions about rural credit and other financial services. For example by supplying information for expert meetings and cooperative programmes.
Contact: Pierre van Hedel
For more information please visit our website.
From the 4th to 5th of December 2012, around 300 farmers and bankers from Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) attended the Agri-Finance Fair held in Rusizi District of the Western Province of Rwanda.