1. Background

With the rising awareness of sustainable resource use and global carbon emission reduction, there is an increasing need for the international community to systematically evaluate the economic, social, ecological, resource, and environmental impacts of global agricultural development. It has become important to carry out research to summarize the experience and practice of the sustainable development in agriculture, and to share experience and knowledge among the developing countries.

In recent years, the development of socially responsible investment with the themes of environment, society and governance (ESG) has accelerated and has gradually become a global trend. Its principles are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are consistent with the novel development concept and development goals at the current stage proposed by China, as well as the goal to build a community with a shared future for mankind. In this endeavor, the collaboration among the global south, especially for China’s foreign aid and the partnership with private sectors is of great significance.

The sustainable agricultural development requires more attention to be paid to resource conservation, environmental friendliness, ecological conservation, as well as to the monitoring and evaluation of the sustainable development of agriculture. Targeted measures have been put forward to promote sustainable agricultural development, improve land output, resource utilization and labour productivity, promote sustainable production technologies, cultivate a sustainable and recyclable development model, and increase the supply of sustainable agricultural products. However, systematic research on ESG in agriculture and related industries and knowledge sharing for ESG-based agricultural development are very much lacking.

This project aims at studying and developing the ESG standards for China’s aid and investment in agriculture and related industries and supporting the knowledge network building for China and the Global South.

2. Objectives

With the aim of advocating the concept of green development, the project aims to strengthen information exchanges and discussions as well as experience sharing in the fields of sustainable agricultural production, vocational education, technology promotion and smallholder empowerment, to strengthen partnership building, and to promote in-depth cooperation to advance sustainable development in developing and underdeveloped countries under the South-South and Triangular Collaboration, thereby benefiting the people of all the participant countries.