Water and Energy for Food MENA Regional Innovation Hub

WE4F is a project aiming to increase food sustainability through integrated development of the “Water and Energy for Food) markets in 10 MENA region companies. The project is part of the WE4F challenge financed by USAID, Dutch Foreign Ministry, Swedish international development cooperation agency (SIDA) and GIZ. The project aims at supporting 50 Mid to late stage companies working on products and services which increases water and energy efficiency and sustainability as well as decreasing water of agriculture. The supported companies can also be working on increasing efficiency of food processing as well as decreasing or valorization of food waste. These could include business biogas, solar irrigation, efficient water irrigation systems, production of waste from biomass, pellets production, bio-coal, solar food drying, improved packaging and crop preservation, efficient harvesting machinery, sustainable cooling of crops and food products, bio-pesticides, etc. This would lead to improved profitability and productivity of farmers and decrease waste in food production as well as increased access to food. There is particular focus on serving small scale farmers. There is also a strong emphasis on firms serving export markets and increasing business between the countries in the region in WE4F. The project includes raising equity investment of 7.5 Million USD in addition to 2.8 Million USD of cash grants to be used as a derisking mechanism for banks and investors. The project includes developing end user finance by working with banks and financial service providers to create and tune financial products suitable for the sectors of focus.