International Fund for Agricultural Development

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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poorest people, 800 million women, children and men, live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods. It was established in 1977 in response to famine in the Sahel.

IFAD’s activities are guided by the Strategic Framework for IFAD 2007-2010: Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Poverty.

Goal

IFAD's goal is to empower poor rural women and men in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and imporved 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.

As reflected in the strategic framework, IFAD is committed to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve the proportion of extremely poor people by 2015.

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 US$9.5 billion in 732 programmes and projects that have reached more than 300 million rural poor people.

But this represents only part of the total investment in IFAD programmes and projects. In the past 29 years, a further US$16.1 billion in cofinancing has been contributed by partners. Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries have contributed almost US$9.0 billion, while another US$7.1 billion has been contributed by external cofinanciers, including bilateral and multilateral donors. This represents a total investment of some US$25.6 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 is 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 165 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.