International Fund for Agricultural Development Totally Explained

Everything about The International Fund For Agricultural Development totally explained

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries, yet only 4% of official development assistance goes to agriculture. It's strategic policy is detailed in Strategic Framework for IFAD 2007-2010

: Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Poverty. Its headquarters is in Rome

Goal

IFAD's goal is to empower poor rural women and men

in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved food security.

Objectives

IFAD will ensure that poor rural people have better access to, and the skills and organization they need to take advantage of:

Natural resources, especially secure access to land and water, and improved natural resource management and conservation practices
Improved agricultural technologies and effective production services
A broad range of financial services
Transparent and competitive markets for agricultural inputs and produce
Opportunities for rural off-farm employment and enterprise development
Local and national policy and programming processes

All of IFAD's decisions - on regional

, country

and thematic strategies

, poverty reduction strategies, policy dialogue

and development partners - are made with these principles

and objectives in mind. As reflected in the strategic framework, IFAD is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve the proportion of hungry and extremely poor people by 2015.
Underlying these objectives is IFAD’s belief that rural poor people must be empowered to lead their own development if poverty is to be eradicated. Poor people must be able to develop and strengthen their own organizations, so they can advance their own interests and dismantle the obstacles that prevent many of them from creating better lives for themselves. They must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, and they need to strengthen their bargaining power in the marketplace.

Working in partnership to eradicate rural poverty

Through loans and grants, IFAD works with governments to develop and finance programmes and projects

that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves.
   Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$10 billion in 766 projects and programmes that have reached more than 300 million poor rural people.
   But this represents only part of the total investment in IFAD projects and programmes. In the past 30 years, a further US$16.8 billion in cofinancing has been contributed by partners.
   Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries, including project participants, contributed US$9.3 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors provided approximately another US$7.5 billion in cofinancing. This represents a total investment of about US$26.8 billion, and means that for every dollar IFAD invested, it was able to mobilize almost two dollars in additional resources.
   IFAD tackles poverty not only as a lender, but also as an advocate for rural poor people. Its multilateral base provides a natural global platform to discuss important policy issues that influence the lives of rural poor people, as well as to draw attention to the centrality of rural development to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Membership

in IFAD is open to any State that's a member of the United Nations or its specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Governing Council

is IFAD’s highest decision-making authority, with the 164 Member States each represented by a governor and alternate governor. The Council meets annually. The Executive Board

, responsible for overseeing the general operations of IFAD and approving loans and grants, is composed of 18 members and 18 alternate members. The President

, who serves for a four-year term (renewable once), is IFAD’s chief executive officer and chair of the Executive Board. The current President of IFAD is Lennart Båge, who was re-elected for his second four-year term in 2005.

Rural poverty country profiles

Further Information

Get more info on 'International Fund For Agricultural Development'.

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