When James Scriven, CEO at IDB Invest, joined the organization five years ago, very little of its business was in the agricultural sector. Today, over 10% is.
“We felt that we needed to develop an area of expertise to be very present in this sector to be able to improve productivity and very importantly, make the sector more sustainable,” Scriven tells Devex. “We've been able to penetrate a sector that was in the past, not very … relevant for us.”
IDB Invest is the Inter-American Development Bank’s private sector arm, and sustainability is a focus of the IDB Group’s Vision 2025, championed by IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone. The strategy includes a greater focus on small- and medium-sized enterprises and prioritizing climate change response.