USAID GREEN INVEST ASIA

Connecting investors with sustainable agriculture and forestry
Partner ▪ Co-invest ▪ Transform

Highlights

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USAID GREEN INVEST ASIA FORUM
May 18-19, 2023

Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

Sustainable land use in Southeast Asia

Red coffee beans in farmer hand

WEBINAR #6
SUSTAINABLE COFFEE DIALOGUE

April 5, 2023

15:00-16:30
Establishing carbon footprint baseline for robusta coffee production in Vietnam and Indonesia
Results & lessons learned from industry collaboration

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PODCAST Episode 12
June 14, 2023

USAID’s Sr. Climate Finance Advisor on U.S. government’s $150 billion climate finance investment goal and target investments

This final podcast features USAID’s Senior Climate Finance Advisor on the U.S. government’s climate finance investment goal, priority sectors and plans.

USAID Green Invest Asia

Investing in sustainable agriculture and forestry

Unsustainable agriculture and land use across Asia is a leading cause of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions. USAID Green Invest Asia helps agriculture and forestry businesses in Southeast Asia improve their sustainable commodity production and manage environmental risks. We match companies with our network of financial institutions and investors looking for environmentally and socially-friendly, profitable land use businesses.

SERVICES FOR SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESS AND FINANCE

Sustainability is smart business. However, implementing strategies to reduce and measure carbon emissions, meet global environmental/social standards and access financing can be challenging.
For a copy of our Final Report 2023, and other materials, please click below.

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Services for

AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY BUSINESS

USAID Green Invest Asia supports mid-growth agriculture and forestry companies with business strategies, environmental assessments and advice to improve their sustainable commodity production and business practices. Initial focus has been on rice, rubber, timber, coffee, coconut and cacao in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. A partial list of services includes:

  • Prepare companies for investment
  • Capital matchmaking
  • Carbon services
  • Certification compliance
  • Gender-lens and business advisory
  • Environmental and operations management
financial-institution

Services for

FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS

USAID Green Invest Asia links investors and financial institutions with pipeline in sustainable, low-emission agricultural/ forestry companies, and de-risks lending through improving clients’ environmental risk management. We have partnered with firms to support their current and
prospective clients; grow their ESG-lending portfolios, and; lower their transaction costs. Hover over each entry below to expand for a more complete list of services.

  • Investment Facilitation
  • Technical support to banks and their borrowing clients
  • Co-financing and transaction support
  • Technical assistance in land-use ESG management for investors and banks

Mobilizing private finance to
reduce carbon emissions

Reducing carbon emissions and commodity-driven deforestation through sustainable business practices takes a big investment. By 2022, USAID Green Invest Asia aims to mobilize $200 million of private finance into sustainable commodity production.

The impact of this investment will lead to a reduction of 25 million tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, improving business efficiency and agricultural productivity, while lessening the effects of climate change.

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Mobilize $ 200 million
of private finance

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Reduce carbon emissions
by 25 million tons

News

News and updates from USAID Green Invest Asia.

For the latest news, please follow  LinkedIn

USAID Green Invest Asia sat down with leaders from Kellogg, Cargill, Golden Agri Resources, and DowDupont to learn how they value sustainable sourcing, and what they seek from suppliers.

Who we are

The USAID Green Invest Asia team has a wealth of experience and expertise in the areas of private finance, investing, commercial business and sustainability.

Christy Owen
Chief of Party

Megan Sullivan
Deputy Chief of Party

Barry Flaming
Senior Agriculture, Forestry & Other Land Use (AFOLU) Advisor

John McGinley
Strategic Advisor

Nick Boerema
Senior Sustainable Finance Advisor

Olivia Snow
Sustainable Finance Advisor

Ronnarit Chaiyosaeng
Event and Program Officer

Nattaya Lonawan
Carbon and Land Use Expert

Phuong Tran
Communication & Outreach Manager

Chompunoot Koonrungsesomboon
Business Development Associate

Asim Jaweed
Sr. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor

Elvie Grace Ganchero
Philippine Country Coordinator

Duc Le
Vietnam Country Coordinator

Nateekan Fawell
Graphic Designer

Suganda Charoenkitivarakorn
Director of Finance and Administration

Sukanya Utthiya
Administration and Logistics Manager

Punnamart Manthongkum
Junior Finance Manager

Sumed Tippimanchaiyakon
Finance Officer

Mimanta Wachirabovornset
Administrative Assistant

Hear from our technical experts

Christy Owen
Chief of Party

John McGinley
Strategic advisor

Barry Flaming
Agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) advisor

Strategic Advisors and Partners

Rachel Zedeck
Director, Peterson and Control Union (Thailand)

John McGinley
Managing Partner, Mekong Strategic Partners

Apply Now

USAID Green Invest Asia will be closing operations in July 2023, and is not accepting new Expressions of Interest.

Contact us

For more information about USAID Green Invest Asia and partnership opportunities,
please contact us using the form below.

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Address

208 Wireless Road Building Unit 1802, 18th floor
Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand

Olivia Snow

Sustainable Finance Advisor

As Sustainable Finance Advisor based in Phnom Penh, Olivia supports USAID Green Invest Asia’s partnership with local banks in Cambodia and sustainable investment matchmaking efforts.

With six years’ experience working in, and consulting for, commercial banks in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, Olivia brings strong banking sector knowledge in both developed and developing market contexts. Olivia’s experience covers a range of functional areas. Most recently, Olivia worked for the Bank of New Zealand, where she was responsible for strategy planning and project management of initiatives focused on growing the Bank’s small and medium enterprise (SME) lending book. During 2020, she established and ran a dedicated COVID-19 internal communications channel for over 3,000 bankers that supported rapid provision of lending relief to over 10,000 affected SME businesses. Prior to this, Olivia was a senior consultant with PwC Papua New Guinea, where she led reviews of compliance with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) legislation and Central Bank Prudential Standards for several large, international financial services clients. Olivia is a graduate of the University of Auckland and holds conjoint bachelor degrees in Law and Science, majoring in Statistics.

Asim Jaweed

Sr. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor

Bringing over 10 years of experience in data analytics, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), Asim has worked in private sector and development projects across the United States, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Most recently, Asim was the lead Myanmar Researcher for SEO Amsterdam Economics leading evaluations of development interventions ranging from microfinance to small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) capacity development. Asim has developed and managed M&E data collection and analysis systems across Southeast Asia, particularly in the financial inclusion sector. Asim has a Masters in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Northwestern University near Chicago, United States.

Megan Sullivan

Deputy Chief of Party

Megan supports implementation and oversight of USAID Green Invest and all projects implemented by Pact Thailand. She brings to USAID Green Invest Asia a strong record of providing management, technical, financial, sub-award, and other critical support to projects, country offices, and organizations in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ukraine, Nepal, Belarus, the Dominican Republic, and Sri Lanka.

Megan is dedicated to catalyzing positive change through local solutions. Before joining Pact, Megan worked on the USAID Toolkit for Monitoring and Evaluating Gender-Based Violence Interventions Along the Relief to Development Continuum, improved capacity for organizations in and outside the United States, and served in Peace Corps Ukraine. She holds a Master of Science in Development Management from American University of Washington DC.

Barry Flaming

Senior Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Advisor

Barry leads engagement and technical service delivery to private sector clients. In diverse roles spanning the private, public, and non-profit sectors, he has spent nearly two decades designing and implementing natural resource management, forestry, agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and climate change programs across Southeast Asia. Previous assignments include supporting sustainable agriculture and community forestry projects in montane villages in northern Thailand, to managing regional programs addressing responsible timber trade and combatting illegal wildlife trafficking in Asia. He got his start in international development work as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in southern Thailand in the mid-1990s. Among other roles, he has led U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) regional Sustainable Landscapes and biodiversity conservation programming in Southeast Asia from 2008-2013.

Barry earned a master’s degree in Forest Resources Ecosystem Analysis from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources, where he helped set up a long- term forest productivity study involving collaboration with academia, the US Forest Service, and the North American forestry industry.

John McGinley

Strategic Advisor

As a Managing Partner of Mekong Strategic Partners (MSP), an investment management and advisory services firm specializing in the Mekong Region, John brings to the team two decades of experience in banking and financial services, strategy, and the international development sector. As a long-term resident of Cambodia, John has successfully built high-performing businesses across the Mekong Region.

Prior to establishing MSP, John served as the Head of Strategy & Business Development for ANZ (Australia & New Zealand) Bank for the Greater Mekong Region, with responsibility for Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. During his seven years with ANZ, John led the bank’s approach to market entry and expansion across the Greater Mekong Region.

John has lectured and presented internationally on banking, sustainability, climate finance, agribusiness, as well as the economic and political outlook of the Greater Mekong region. Prior to moving to Cambodia, John worked in investment banking and financial markets in London and The Netherlands as a proprietary equity derivatives trader.

John has a passion for combining finance with positive development outcomes. He understands the transformative effect responsible financial institutions can have on a developing economy. John sits on the boards of private sector and civil society organizations and has a master’s in international development from RMIT University in Melbourne Australia.

Phuong Tran

Communication and Outreach Manager

Phuong is a senior writer, editor and communications manager who has covered international development from West Africa and Southeast Asia for the past decade, first for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as reporter with the news agency, IRIN, and then as communications director in east Asia for the international NGO, World Vision. Before that, she worked in NGO fundraising, marketing and external relations in New York.

At IRIN, Phuong published hundreds of articles during her six years researching topics ranging from climate mitigation to Rohingya refugees. She spearheaded a global reporting project on neglected conflicts, while helping lead IRIN’s spinoff from the UN in 2014.

At World Vision, Phuong launched a global advocacy campaign to end violence against children in East Asia through branding, event planning and reportage. She headed a network of 50 communicators in seven countries on data-driven storytelling, branding, ambassador recruitment, marketing communications and public engagement, including social media.

She is an alumna of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she attended as a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. Phuong completed her undergraduate studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where she was named a Rhodes Scholar finalist.

Sumed Tippimanchaiyakon (Tu)

Finance Officer

Sumed brings more than five years of accounting experience in Thailand, half of that with a USAID contractor (DAI Thailand, Ltd). His corporate accounting experience includes two years at a company supplying oil and gas businesses, and most recently, as a senior accountant for a property developer in Thailand where he handled all inter-branch transactions, reviewed tax submissions in Thailand, performed month-end closings for 15 business units and prepared monthly consolidated financial reporting for management. He has a bachelor’s in business administration from Assumption University in Thailand.

Punnamart Manthongkum (Punn)

Junior Finance Manager

Punnamart brings 12 years’ finance and accounting experience with international NGOs, including four years with the implementing partner of USAID Green Invest Asia, Pact, Thailand. In her current role, Punnamart supports the finance and administration director alongside another finance officer. Her previous roles include finance officer at both Right to Play Foundation and AIDS Access Foundation, where she helped manage reporting to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  Punnamart worked for more than five years with Médecins Sans Frontières after graduating in business administration from Bangkok University. She has a master’s in economics from Thammasat University in Thailand.

Sukanya Utthiya (Fon)

Administration and Logistics Manager

Sukanya brings to the project almost 30 years’ experience in office and logistics administration, including 11 years working with contractors for the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID-funded projects she has supported include the Mekong Partnership for the Environment; RESPOND, which was one component of USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats program, and; ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement Project. Her experience in Thailand includes serving as financial controller and office manager for import-export businesses, a hotel and hospitality group and a bank. Sukanya’s formal training has focused on accounting and secretarial administration. At USAID Green invest Asia, she leads a team of two others in human resources and administration.

Binod Chapagain

Monitoring and Evaluation Manager

Binod brings to the team more than 15 years of international development experience, including work in social forestry and natural resource management. He joined the team from the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC) where he was a senior program officer in monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Binod has worked for international NGOs on projects funded by donors including the Governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States.

His M&E experience covers social research, database management and analysis, training and facilitation, indicators development and impact measurement.  He has published in academic and research journals on regulatory barriers to social forestry in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos PDR; the contribution of community forestry to peacebuilding in Nepal, and; citizen monitoring in forestry.

More than 100 NGOs in Nepal adapted a participatory tool Binod created to assess capacity development under a UK Government-funded project.

Binod earned his doctorate in development studies from the Australian National University under the Australian Government’s Leadership Award Program.  At USAID Green Invest Asia, Binod leads the activity’s performance monitoring, evaluation and learning system, overseeing all data collection, analysis and reporting.

Suganda Charoenkitivarakorn (Aey)

Director of Finance & Administration

Suganda brings to the project more than 12 years working in and leading budget forecasting, control and analysis as well as accounts payable for the private sector, including P&G, ExxonMobil and investment companies in Thailand. In the public sector, she has managed some 200 grants over the past five years since she started with the international NGO, FHI 360. During her tenure at FHI 360, she managed a $28 million budget for “HIV/AIDS Prevention Care & Treatment” that covered China, Laos PDR, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. She worked with DAI (Development Alternatives Inc.) Thailand, Ltd. on the “Sapan Project – Strengthening Thai Democracy” where she managed a $30 million budget. Her experience with bilateral donor financial reporting includes Australia and the United States.

Christy Owen

Chief of Party

Christy serves as the Chief of Party for USAID Green Invest Asia, implemented by the global NGO, PACT, for which she serves as Thailand Country Director. She has spent the past 18 years designing and implementing environmental management, biodiversity conservation and climate change projects in the Philippines, Venezuela, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, and the lower Mekong region.

As Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Mekong Partnership for the Environment regional program from 2014-2017, she led a multi-disciplinary team to improve social and environmental safeguards for infrastructure investment across the five Lower Mekong countries.  She was Deputy Chief of Party for USAID’s Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change project in Thailand.  As the Natural Resources Technical Area Manager for the Environment and Energy Sector at Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), she led a multimillion-dollar portfolio spread across Asia, Africa and Latin America.  She has worked in senior management in Venezuela and was a Project Administrator for an environmental governance project in the Philippines, both for USAID.

Christy holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies with a focus on public policy and development communications from University of Texas at Austin.

Investment Facilitation

  • Build and vet high-quality pipeline of climate-smart businesses.
  • Due diligence support: risk management, financial and business plan appraisal.
  • Environmental & Social risk assessment support.
  • Risk mitigation and credit enhancement.

Technical support to banks and their borrowing clients

  • Assistance to increase operational sustainability (including carbon assessment, certification) and Environmental & Social compliance.
  • Financial advisory (draft/review of investment plans and financial projections and investment structuring).
  • Technical, commercial and financial feasibility studies.
  • Carbon finance analysis, gender-lens investing assessment, policy and strategy implementation.

Co-financing and transaction support

  • Identification of co-investors, as required.
  • Source commercial and blended finance.
  • Secure external and U.S. Government partial credit guarantees.
  • Provide local legal and administrative support in emerging markets (i.e. equity regulations review, company due diligence).

Technical assistance in land-use ESG management for investors and banks

  • ESG assessment of existing and potential clients.
  • ESG risk-mapping and materiality matrix per country and commodity;.
  • Develop/ integrate ESG assessment policies and training for agriculture, forestry and carbon footprint policies, and other ESG-related tools.
  • ESG capacity building and training for bank staff.

Elvie Grace Ganchero

Philippine Country Coordinator

Elvie is the focal point for USAID Green Invest Asia’s work in the Philippines with companies and banks working in climate-smart land management and sustainable finance.

She brings more than 20 years’ experience, mostly in Asia, implementing sustainable, measurable business strategies for NGOs and corporates. Prior to joining USAID Green Invest Asia, Elvie directed a regional capacity-scaling program transforming CSR initiatives for a Swiss multinational company working throughout Asia. She has integrated social and environmental impact management into business planning for mining and forestry companies in the Philippines and Indonesia.  At International Finance Corporation, she led the design of technical assistance for banana certification and established a carbon-neutral value chain that allowed clients to access premium markets in Europe and Japan. Elvie has also authored several business reports and case studies, including the UN Development Programme’s Growing Inclusive Markets Report for the Philippines.

She has a bachelor’s degree in English and Environmental Management, and has completed Business Sustainability Management training at Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Duc Le

Vietnam Country Coordinator

Duc helps cultivate and maintain relationships between USAID Green Invest Asia and companies and institutions pursuing sustainable finance and climate-smart land management in Vietnam’s agriculture and forestry sector.  Duc has more than 20 years’ experience  with international NGOs in Vietnam, including the Fauna and Flora International, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Tropical Forest Trust, and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Duc’s experience covers law enforcement in protected areas, sustainable forest management, forest certification and sustainable development. He has chosen projects and institutions that aim to transform the global marketplace into a force for saving valuable, and threatened, forests. Duc Le received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Forestry University of Vietnam, and his doctorate in tropical forest management from Technische Universität Dresden in Germany.

Nick Boerema

Sustainable Finance Advisor

Combining engineering and investment acumen, Nick has worked on projects in Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Myanmar at the cross-section of infrastructure and finance. As an investment manager based in Phnom Penh for Mekong Strategic Partners specializing in the Mekong region, Nick handles USAID Green Invest Asia’s outreach and partnership with regional banks.

Nick is driven to solve social and environmental challenges through the intersection of business and technology. His experience spans social enterprise when he served as CEO of TapEffect, which focused on piped water networks in Phnom Penh, to Engineers without Borders in Cambodia where Nick advocated for safe sanitation. He has a doctorate in solar thermal engineering from the University of New South Wales.

Nateekan Fawell

Graphic Designer

Nateekan graduated from the Italian design school Accademia Italiana in Milan and holds a BA in Graphic Design and Communication from the University of Wales. Her career spans hospitality to the United Nations and now USAID. Through design for clients, she has grown her portfolio and passion for sustainability initiatives. She has developed an information toolkit for UN Environment Programme, a brand campaign for the 76th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) held in Bangkok in 2020 and is leading visual storytelling at USAID Green Invest Asia.

Chompunoot “Noot” Koonrungsesomboon

Business Development Associate

Noot  helps manage project pipeline and supports all fronts of business development. Her experience includes business, engineering and research. Prior to joining USAID Green Invest Asia, she worked with Gainesville Regional Utilities in Florida to develop an algorithm for lift station operation and worked as a research assistant at Emerging Pathogens Institute on vaccine development.  In 2018, she applied her analytical experience and pivoted toward responsible business as an intern at the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE).  She earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Florida.

Nichapat Na Thalang

Partnerships and Sustainability Manager

Nichapat Na Thalang is USAID Green Invest Asia’s focal point for strategic partnerships with companies and institutions. She supports the development of technical assistance for multi-national corporations’ and investors’ sustainability and low-carbon strategies. Throughout her career she has managed sustainability-led partnerships in APAC region for companies and organizations.

Prior to joining Pact Thailand, Nichapat led the expansion of Red Bull brand and its business in China, Vietnam and Cambodia for TCP Group. She managed and provided support for ENGIE group's transformation plan through the deployment of the group's brand and communication, and successfully supported increasing the number of green bond-funded projects in APAC region.

As a member of World Wildlife Federation (WWF) Thailand’s Corporate Engagement team, she helped secure partnerships with corporates and local companies through WWF’s Market Transformation Initiative and Sustainable Finance Programme. Nichapat holds a master’s degree in Cooperation and Development program from the University School for Advanced Studies Pavia (IUSS), Italy.

Ronnarit Chaiyosaeng (Art)

Event and Program Officer

Art coordinates the design and implementation of regional and national-level in-person and online events for USAID Green Invest Asia. Prior to joining USAID Green Invest Asia, Art spent more than seven years as program officer at Mekong Institute, an inter-governmental organization in Khon Kaen, Thailand. There he supported the design and implementation of capacity building programs in the areas of small and medium enterprise (SME) development and competitiveness, entrepreneurship, business database development, trade facilitation, and investment/ business forums in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Art earned his Master of Business Administration from the College of Graduate Study in Management, Khon Kaen University, and a B.Sc. in Communication Arts, Burapha University.

Nattaya Lonawan

Carbon and Land Use Expert

Nattaya is the project’s in-house carbon and land use expert who is the focal point for greenhouse gas accounting. She comes to USAID Green Invest Asia after almost nine years at the sustainability consulting firm, South Pole, where she served as senior consultant and project manager. As senior consultant, she served as the technical expert on climate change (policy and action), green (climate) finance, low- carbon cities, low-carbon technology, and, related sustainable development topics.

At South Pole, she managed projects spanning GHG emissions reduction standards including validation (for project registration) and verification up to the issuance of carbon credits; preparing carbon monitoring reports, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) , Passport for GS4GG (Gold Standard for the Global Goals, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) impact assessments, among others, in accordance with international standards, due diligence and client requirements.

Nattaya has also developed business for new carbon credit projects, helping to implement public/corporate commitments, including with international donors and foundations. Trained as an environmental engineer, she worked in that role at Beer Thai, Thai Asia Pacific Brewery and Asia Biogas Group, including on water and wastewater treatment.