FNs Internationale Fond for Landbrugsudvikling (IFAD) – kaldt de fattige bønders advokat – synes omsider på vej mod større finansielle muskler
ROME, 16 December 2011: Member States of IFAD, meeting in Rome for Consultations on the Ninth Replenishment (genopfyldning) of the Fund’s resources (IFAD9), have announced a target of 1,5 billion US dollar (8 mia. DKR) in new contributions.
The money goes to finance agriculture and rural development projects across the developing world.
This represents a 25 per cent increase over IFAD’s Eighth Replenishment.
Every three years, the resources IFAD provides as loans and grants to developing countries are replenished by Member States.
The Fund leverages member contributions to mobilize much higher amounts of funds through project co-financing with national governments, international donors and the private sector.
IFAD’s work fills an important niche, with almost 2 billion rural people depending for their livelihoods on the 500 million smallholder farms (småbønder) in developing countries.
The injection of new funds from Member States is a confirmation of IFAD’s role in international development architecture as an organization delivering results in the area of food and income security, especially for the poorest people.
Forty to fifty per cent of these resources will be channelled to Sub-Saharan Africa for development projects.
– The significant support from IFAD’s Member States, especially during these challenging global economic times, demonstrates extraordinary resolve and political will to give agriculture a major boost and help the world’s small farmers find their way out of poverty, said IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze.
Since its establishment, IFAD has been an example of global development partnership, with members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) playing an active role in the Fund’s governance.
For IFAD9, all of these partners contributed to the upward trend of pledges.
A number of developing countries that had not participated in previous replenishments announced their contributions, including some from the UN list of “least developed countries”.
The IFAD9 replenishment is the highest percentage increase of contributions of any international financial institution in the current round of replenishments.
Pledges during the two-day Consultation point to an upward trend.
Some countries pledged far more than the amounts contributed to IFAD to earlier replenishments. The Report and the Resolution of the Consultation will be submitted to the Governing Council for adoption in February 2012.
In addition to the new funds, Member States mandated IFAD to find new sources of finance that effectively share the development burden more broadly, including raising investment from non-members and others.
IFAD on IFAD
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives.
Since 1978, IFAD has invested about 13,7 billion dollar in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering about 405 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities.
IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 167 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Kilde: www.ifad.org
