Kick-off SASI Learning & Scaling Labs: When pilots meet partners

The event brought together 45 participants from across agricultural supply chains, including representatives from the private sector, civil society organisations, academia, and public institutions. Participants contributed diverse perspectives, practical expertise, and concrete ideas for initiatives with scaling potential.

The event started with a dialogue on different financing and scaling pathways within international development cooperation. This included:

• Agricultural Commodity Transformation Fund (ACT): a US$ 100 million impact fund for SMEs supporting sustainable and scalable business models in commodity and agricultural value chains through investment and technical assistance.
• DeveloPPP: a funding programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) that provides technical and financial support to companies investing sustainably in countries of the Global South and expanding their local operations. It aims to scale impactful solutions through partnerships between development cooperation and the private sector.
• European Union (EU): offers a range of funding instruments to support sustainable development, innovation, and international cooperation initiatives, including large-scale investment initiatives such as the Global Gateway Investment Hub.
• ISEAL Innovation Fund: supports innovative solutions in sustainability systems to strengthen social and environmental impact in global supply chains. The fund highlights the importance of scaling innovative approaches beyond isolated pilots towards a broader systemic impact.
• SASI: supports innovative approaches in sustainable agricultural supply chains through financing mechanisms and the targeted scaling of impactful solutions, including instruments such as the Due Diligence Fund (DDF).

At the center of the event were two interactive pitch sessions featuring 15 pilot initiatives with potential for further development and scaling. The ideas presented highlighted the wide range of diversity of innovative approaches that were already being tested in practice. In concise three-minute pitches, participants introduced approaches addressing key themes, including:

Following the pitch sessions, participants moved into interactive breakout groups organised around thematic clusters. Rather than continuing with traditional presentation formats, the event deliberately focused on small-scale working groups that enabled real engagement and in-depth exchange on the topics discussed.

In these sessions, stakeholders exchanged experiences and jointly reflected on the common challenges and opportunities linking the different pilot initiatives.

Throughout the day, discussions demonstrated a strong interest in collaboration, peer exchange, and shared learning across sectors and regions. The event created new connections between stakeholders and initiated first conversations around future partnerships and joint scaling opportunities.

By creating a dedicated space for exchange and bringing stakeholders together, actors facing similar challenges were able to connect and network in a meaningful way. There was strong interest in the diverse set of pitches, with active engagement in the working groups to better understand the different initiatives. Many of the discussions made it clear that sustained impact can only be achieved through cooperation and participants showed openness to new approaches beyond their immediate area of focus.

Throughout the day, discussions demonstrated a strong interest in collaboration, peer exchange, and shared learning across sectors and regions. The event created new connections between stakeholders and initiated first conversations around future partnerships and joint scaling opportunities.

By creating a dedicated space for exchange and bringing stakeholders together, actors facing similar challenges were able to connect and network in a meaningful way. There was strong interest in the diverse set of pitches, with active engagement in the working groups to better understand the different initiatives. Many of the discussions made it clear that sustained impact can only be achieved through cooperation and participants showed openness to new approaches beyond their immediate area of focus.

The discussions generated important insights for the further development of the Learning & Scaling Labs format. In particular, participants emphasised the need for more carefully matched partnerships and more practice-oriented exchange formats to turn promising pilot initiatives into viable scaling pathways.

The upcoming series of virtual lab sessions will take into account the diversity of pilot ideas and the different stages of development they have reached. To increase the chances of potential scaling partnerships, the SASI Learning & Scaling Labs will also welcome new partners interested in collaboration and involve existing SASI initiatives, such as the Digital Integration of Agricultural Supply Chains Alliance (DIASCA). This will further deepen discussions, co-develop emerging approaches, and identify concrete pathways for scaling together.

Looking ahead, the annual SASI Stakeholder Meeting in November 2026 will once again bring partners together in person. This space offers a unique opportunity to present the outcomes of the virtual labs to a wider audience of experts and industry leaders.

In this way, the SASI Learning & Scaling Labs will continue as a dedicated platform for exchange, collaboration, and the scaling of innovative solutions for more sustainable agricultural supply chains.

We encourage everyone interested in contributing to and participating in the learning and scaling labs to stay connected. If you have not already done so, subscribe to our Newsletter at the bottom of this page & follow our LinkedIn channel to make sure you do not miss important information about upcoming Labs and opportunities to engage.