Agriculture, forestry and fishing

Applications are open for companies in the agro-processing sector to participate in the South African Pavilion at Gulfood - the largest food and beverage trade exhibition in the Middle East. Gulfood 2026 will showcase food and beverage products from around the world. South Africa will participate in the Fine Food Pavilion, which showcases agro-processing products and services, excluding beverages and meat.

As part of the UNDP initiative “Leveraging Agri-Tech and AI for Sustainable Agricultural and Export Development in South Africa,” this Acceleration Programme is designed to empower 50 South African Agri-Tech and Aqua-Tech SMEs with a commitment to at least 50% women-led participation. The programme provides technical support, market access, mentorship, growth enablement, and financial investment to pioneering entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Programme Objectives:

MCV’s AI for Financial Resilience initiative is pioneering the development and deployment of game-changing financial solutions tailored for unbanked and underbanked populations in emerging markets, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia. As 1.4 billion people worldwide remain excluded from the formal financial system predominantly women, immigrants, and rural, low-income citizens, this program responds to long-standing barriers such as limited access, lack of identification or credit history, high service delivery costs, technology skepticism, and climate vulnerability.

The Challenger Digital and Green Accelerator Programme (Challenger D&G) is an innovative, multi-country initiative dedicated to fostering impactful digital, green, and circular solutions for sustainability across Southern Africa. The programme directly addresses urgent regional and global challenges - climate change, food and water security, ecosystem resilience, energy transition, green mobility, smart built environments, waste management, and environmental data capacity.

D-Prize is an annual global competition dedicated to combating extreme poverty by catalyzing the launch of new social impact organizations. With a vision to make proven, high-impact poverty solutions universally accessible, D-Prize awards startup grants of up to $20,000 to bold entrepreneurs and teams who design, pilot, and scale solutions that address some of the world’s most urgent development needs.

Overview of the Opportunity

The Lab (Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance) has officially launched its 2026 Call for Ideas, inviting high-impact, scalable climate finance solutions from innovators around the world. The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) serves as the Lab Secretariat.