ADB launches $92.6M green fund for Mongolia's herders and agribusiness
What's the deal? The Asian Development Bank (ADB)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has launched the Green Inclusive Regional Agribusiness Fund (GIRAF)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, backed by $92.6 million from the Green Climate FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, to expand financing for herders, cooperatives, small and medium-sized enterprises, and agribusinesses in Mongolia. Commercial banks are expected to add a further $25 million.
Where does the money go? The fund will support sustainable rangeland management, livestock production, and rural businesses through concessional loans, credit guarantees, microfinance, and grants for green innovation. It sits under the ADB-supported Aimag and Soums Development Investment Program.
Why now? Temperate grasslands cover roughly 82% of Mongolia and underpin a livestock sector worth about a quarter of employment and more than 10% of GDP. Those rangelands face mounting pressure from desertification and land degradation.
What's the endgame? GIRAF will initially deploy $37.5 million, including a $3 million grant, with credit guarantees designed to cut collateral requirements. By 2034, the fund aims to support about 500 SMEs and cooperatives and 1,000 microenterprises.
Priority goes to businesses with commercial partnerships and benefit-sharing arrangements with herders and herder cooperatives. The fund will also add a digital traceability system using geospatial and remote-sensing technologies to track investments and measure their environmental and social impact.
What they said: The fund "represents a new approach to financing resilient rural development in Mongolia," said ADB Country Director John Juhyun Jeong. It will "help create jobs, strengthen rural economies, combat land degradation and desertification, and build resilience to disasters," he added.
The signal: By blending climate finance with concessional lending and guarantees, ADB is testing whether tailored instruments can pull commercial banks into rural markets long seen as too risky — tying green targets directly to livelihoods on the ground.
Read more: qazinform.com
Image credit: Asian Development Bank
