The Moringa Fund

Organizational profile:
Moringa is an investment fund that targets agroforestry projects located in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Moringa’s vision is to provide financial returns for its investors and for local communities while contributing to building environmental and social resilience of land use. The Fund is looking for partners to develop sound and sustainable projects combining economic benefits with high environmental & social programs.

Moringa promotes an integrated landscape approach of investment, advancing continual learning, adaptive management, awareness of multiple scales issues and interactions, landscape multifunctionality, participatory approach and joint company/community value creation. Through the development of outgrowing schemes, Moringa intends to strengthen stakeholder capabilities and increase landscape and farmers’ resilience. Agroforestry is seen as a catalyst for creating shared value among an integrated value chain and a means to create socio-economic synergies and enhance livelihoods alongside climate change mitigation and adaptation. This holistic approach appears as a new way of financing landscape – an approach that was lacking before – bringing different actors together and leading to inclusive value chains and triple win impacts. Specifically, the combination of trees and other woody plants with agricultural crops or animal husbandry contributes to:

• Soil improvement, erosion control, water availability and favourable micro-climatic conditions;
• The sustainable production of timber and firewood, as well as tree crops (fruit and nuts) and agricultural crops, thus avoiding deforestation in adjacent forest areas;
• Higher productivity and profitability;
• Resilience in relation to changing climatic conditions;
• Social stability, local entrepreneurship and employment;
• The long-term viability of the local economy and livelihood of local communities.

Financing Instrument: equity

Project scale: N/A

Recipient countries regions/country groups: Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America

Recipient categories: companies

Eligibility Criteria:
Early-stage and development-stage companies across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America enter Moringa’s investment scope when meeting the following criteria:

• Clear national and/or international market demand for products;
• Yield-performing agroforestry farming model for diversified crops and/or timber;
• Potential to achieve significant scale, including through out-growers partners;
• Profitable business ambition and perspective;
• Commitment to environmental and social performance;
• Business inclusive – alignment of interest of all stakeholders;
• Jointly designed and anticipated exit for financial investors.

Examples of proven successful agroforestry profitable farming include:

• Permanent crops (coffee, cocoa, tea, etc.) under tree shade;
• Timber plantations with sequential agroforestry;
• Orchards (fruit and nut trees) with crops;
• Sylvopastoralism combining livestock with trees.

Application guidelines:
Entrepreneurs and companies’ managers are welcome to submit their financing requests for development by posting a business plan summary at contact@moringapartnership.com.