 It is an honour to be here today alongside my esteemed co-participants Her Majesty, Queen Mathilda of the Belgians, Her Royal Highness Princess Cylindor of Thailand, commissioners and many representatives for countries like Colombia and Chile which are going to be coming later on and all of you on the UN world. In my capacity as the UN Secretary General's special advocate for inclusive finance for development, my mandate is to support policies that enable individuals, households and small businesses to access and use a broad range of financial services. Access to financial services is crucial to ensure the supply of and demand for food systems across the globe. On the supply side, financing is necessary to ensure sufficient production, mitigate risks and invest in sustainable farming methods. On the demand side, access to savings, credit and insurance is crucial for households to be able to afford healthy diets across longer periods of time, especially in the face of economic shocks. Unfortunately, rural and small holder households make up a majority or the financially excluded. There are an estimated 270 million small holder farmers and pastoralists across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Small holder agriculture is a main source of income for the rural poor and plays a very important role in fueling global food supply. Crop yields, however, is inconsistent, subject to fluctuations in soil fertility, availability of water, disease and pests. This is made worse, of course, by climate variation. To account for these risks, small holder farmers often supplement income by having family members move to cities to work or by running small informal businesses. Financial services allow farmers to smooth consumption, manage shocks and invest in their businesses. This provides an opportunity for more efficient production, further integration with markets, resources to weather difficult periods and overall greater economic well-being. As such, promoting financial inclusion of small holder farmers has great potential to support sustainable food production, more diversity of these type of productions and healthy diets for all. COVID-19 has got great disruptions to the economic lives of small holder farmers. Close markets and borders have disrupted demand and negatively impacted earnings from crop productions. Urban migrants have lost jobs and are unable to send money back home. As a result, small holder farmers, particularly women, are facing spikes in food insecurity and increases in poverty. In Niger, a land of country where nearly 80% of people depend on subsistence agriculture for food and income, the government estimates that the number of individuals vulnerable to famine increased from 2 million to 5.6 million as a result of the pandemic. Now usage of financial services can play an important role in achieving healthy diets for vulnerable populations. Rigorous evidence has demonstrated that in Nepal, for example, women who received free savings accounts increased spending on nutritious food. These financial tools help ensure that low populations can withstand shocks without sacrificing food consumption. For example, with enough savings built up, an unexpected medical expense does not automatically mean cutting back on protein rich foods. Now back to the supply side. It is estimated that those 270 million small holder farmers need around $240 million billion per year in financing. Although only 70 billion is actually supplied, this means that there is a 70% of demand for small holder finance that goes and met every year. The equivalent of $170 billion per year. This very much needed financing would support sustainable agriculture production, which can support improved nutrition outcomes for all. Why despite decades of financing and technical support, do gaps in agricultural finance still persist? First, small holder farmers can be a risky segment to serve, partly because of fluctuations in rain-fed crop output. As such, they are not seen as a lucrative customer segment for financial service providers. This is made more complicated as farmers tend to have very little former credit history, low rates of digital and financial literacy, and live in hard-to-reach areas. Mechanisms to match risks such as agricultural credit guarantee instruments or poor insurance schemes are generally underdeveloped or poorly targeted. Second, many small holder farmers are not well connected to value chains and have limited knowledge about options to access financial services as a result, demand is low, products are not well segmented and financing needs are often met informally. However, we are seeing how technology innovations have great potential to support better agriculture finance and nutrition outcomes. What do I mean by this? These include advancement in farm technologies such as sensors, satellite imagery and drones, which help to increase efficiency along agricultural value chains. In more intensive use of digital platforms which connect farmers to digital payment systems, new markets and new partners. For example, platforms are connecting fast-moving consumer good companies with small producers, providing them new opportunities to sell their output and benefit from new value chains. Last year, I convened a working group of experts on agribusiness and financial services co-led by IDH and SEAGAP. This group produced a publication on how new business models and partnerships can support technology-enabled innovations. These trends support new financial solutions, previously unavailable for small holder farmers, particularly those in rural areas. One example of this is in Kenya where Vodafone subsidiary SafariCom has set up DigiFarm. This e-platform allows farmers to receive agronomic advice, weather information, credit as well as agriculture insurance and remittances on their mobile phones. SafariCom can do this by partnering with banks, insurance companies, agribusinesses and fintechs. In 2019, DigiFarm reported serving 1.2 million registered farmers who reported now having access to better quality seeds, fertilizers and better mechanisms after enrolling. Now, what can key actors attending today do to support effective technological transformation in agricultural financing? Policymakers can promote an effective enabling environment for digital financial services. This includes appropriate regulation in agricultural finance, payment infrastructure and simplified onboarding procedures that are supportive of vulnerable small holder farmers. Regulators can also place greater emphasis on financial consumer protection and digital literacy. Given high levels of poverty and lack of connectivity of many rural farming communities, there could be explicit efforts to protect the most vulnerable and provide effective recourse mechanisms. The private sector can focus on cross-industry partnership power for digital technology. This can be win-win, providing new opportunities for private sector actors while introducing convenient access to inputs and markets for farmers. And developer partners can provide well-designed technical assistance programs to key actors, as well as offer risk-sharing support such as guarantee funds or seed capital programs. Moving forward, my office and I stand ready to insert intensified support to advance global architectural finance outcomes. We are supporting the members of my working group to launch an agricultural finance pilot in Kenya, building on key findings from a recent publication. We're also incentivizing country-level engaged in Africa and will prioritize key messages around agricultural finance. Given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, this work is really now more relevant than ever. Thank you so much.