Partnerships with financial institutions Partnerships with financial institutions are essential for supporting transition. Farmers need financial support to make major changes. Strategic alignment with catalytic, concessionary and commercial capital platforms ensures that buyers do not have to shoulder the transition costs alone. A prominent example is the FMC for Food’s breakthrough model, which integrates financiers as vital actors to bridge the timing gap between farmer action and outcome delivery (see Box 15). Farmers receive upfront funding when they need it most, while system actors pay their share later as verified ecosystem outcomes are realized. This approach enables cost-sharing across the value chain, improving affordability and bankability.57 Aligning operations and incentives across procurement, sustainability and finance Many companies stall during implementation because their operating model is not capable of delivering the desired strategy. Corporate teams need to change how they collaborate, by building repeatable ways of working across procurement, sustainability and finance. To do this successfully, critical internal factors such as executive sponsorship, new incentives or establishing processes to build supplier engagement need to be identified. In practice, this means: –Embedding shared metrics and outcome targets into procurement processes. –Enabling joint decision-making on supplier engagement, investment models and sourcing strategy. –Equipping cross-functional teams with the tools, incentives and decision rights to act together, including across contracts, financing and governance. –Clarifying roles: procurement must own execution but needs sustained input from sustainability teams and support from finance functions. The goal is to build a sourcing engine focused on the outcomes that matter. Procurement must be a strategic capability for meeting climate goals and resilience that influences how teams set priorities, structure contracts and manage supply risk. This organizational effort will require leadership from CEOs and multiple C-suite leaders – critically in sustainability, procurement and finance – to integrate practices that build resilience and create sustainability outcomes while promoting commercial acumen. Procurement must become a strategic capability for meeting climate goals and resilience that influences how teams set priorities, structure contracts and manage supply risk. First Movers Coalition for Food: CEO Lessons for the Future of Food Procurement 21

First Movers Coalition for Food 2026