Cracking the Nut 2013 Preview | Alejandro Escobar, IDB

Alejandro Escobar of the Multilateral Investment Fund at the Inter-American Development Bank recently sat down with the Microlinks Team for a preview interview about the Cracking the Nut Conference. Among other things, Escobar looks forward to networking and learning from other participants. "Financing for agriculture is very important for IDB, and we hope that at the conference we can learn different mechanisms that companies or organizations are using to finance agriculture in a sustainable manner," Escobar told us. With roughly 75 organizations registered to attend Cracking the Nut 2013 the conference is set to provide plenty of opportunities to network and collaborate.

Bio: Alejandro Escobar

Alejandro Escobar is an Agricultural Economist and Systems Analyst by training, and has worked for almost 20 years in rural microfinance and agricultural value chains. He is currently Lead Investment and Operations Officer with the Multilateral Investment Fund, where he has led multiple projects in sustainable agriculture, financing of farmer cooperatives, development of investment vehicles for agricultural finance, rural microfinance, and value chain development with small farmers throughout the Latin American region. Prior to that, he worked at DuPont in the Global Supply Chain group of Tyvek, working on the development of global demand planning and financial forecasting tools. Earlier in his career, Escobar worked with MEDA and Sarona Global Investment Funds, based in Bolivia and Peru, as a technical advisor to cooperatives and farmer associations in the export sector.