Crop Trust Joins the Global Donor Platform

The Crop Trust is a non-profit international organization dedicated to conserving crop diversity and making it available for use globally, forever, for the benefit of everyone. The Crop Trust works with over 120 partners – including national genebanks, international collections, international organizations and universities – to lead global projects that protect crop diversity and develop technology to make this diversity accessible worldwide. The Crop Trust is active in more than 50 countries worldwide. 

At the heart of the Crop Trust is the Crop Diversity Endowment Fund, which provides a sustainable, long-term financing mechanism for protecting crop diversity. The Crop Trust invests its money in a diversified range of low-risk financial instruments to generate sufficient returns for this purpose. 'At the end of 2024, the Endowment Fund had a total estimated value of US$357 million. Each year, a portion of the fund’s value is paid out to support activities that ensure global crop diversity is safely conserved and maintained. Disbursements come solely from investment income earned so that the capital is not drawn on. Since 2005, more than US$82 million has been withdrawn from the Endowment Fund to support the core mission of the Crop Trust. 

In December 2024, the Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security was launched at the COP16 UN Desertification Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Initiative emerged from a partnership between AGFUND, BADEA, and the Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture. Developed in collaboration with the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly, it represents a unified global effort to combat food insecurity. The Secretariat is hosted by the Crop Trust.  

The Crop Trust and the Donor Platform are aligned in the commitment to protecting agricultural biodiversity to increase resilience of global food systems. The Crop Trust brings to the Donor Platform a wealth of technical and scientific knowledge as well as a commitment to forge fruitful partnerships to achieve sustainable, resilient and nutritious food systems worldwide.  

The GDPRD looks forward to building the collaboration with the Crop Trust as a Platform Member. 

Focal Points:

Jaspreet Stamm
Director of External Affairs
Global Crop Diversity Trust

Bio: Jaspreet Stamm is responsible for providing overall leadership to the Crop Trust’s External Affairs team which encompasses Resource Mobilisation, Communications and Advocacy activities. Before joining the Crop Trust, she worked in impact investment and specialised on delivering finance for biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture as well as microfinance in Latin America, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. She started her career in private sector operations at the Inter-American Development Bank, with a focus on financial institutions and green credit lines. Jaspreet holds an MSc in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics in the UK.

Conrad Rein
Secretary of the Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security
Global Crop Diversity Trust

Bio: Dr. Conrad Rein is the Secretary of the Global Flagship Initiative for Food Security launched at the COP16 UN Desertification Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2024. The Secretariat is hosted by the Crop Trust. Previously, he was Director of the University of Chicago Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security and Agriculture. He also served almost nine years in the European Commission, overseeing policy and governance issues and coordinating EU development cooperation on Sustainable Agri-Food systems and Fisheries with EU member states, the G7, G20, and more. He was also co-Chair of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development from May 2020 to July 2023 on behalf of the European Commission. Conrad holds a PhD in Government from University College Cork and an MA and BA in African Studies from the University of Leipzig.