Nordic statement: IFAD Governing Council – Twenty-fifth Anniversary Session

Rome 19 – 20 February 2003

Mr Chair, Mr President, Distinguished Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is an honour for me to address the Governing Council of IFAD on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and my own country Iceland.

Allow me first to congratulate the staff and all members of IFAD on the 25th Anniversary of the Fund.

We welcome the successful outcome of the 6th Replenishment, which has resulted in a substantial increase in IFAD’s resources. The Nordic countries are strong supporters of IFAD, its mandate and commitment to reduce rural poverty. Measured in last year’s pledges for the 6th Replenishment, the Nordic commitment to IFAD continues to be strong, around 17% of the total pledges. We are also pleased that so many developing countries are donors to the Fund.

Supporting IFAD also means striving to improve the performance of the organization. In the course of the replenishment process, a number of important policy issues have been brought to the fore with the aim of strengthening the impact of IFAD’s activities at country level. We have come towards a common understanding on measures that will need to be taken in order to strengthen IFAD, thereby assisting the Fund in its efforts to contribute to the huge and challenging task we have ahead of us: achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

National ownership and partnerships at country level are decisive in ensuring lasting impact from development interventions. The Fund is in a unique position to bring attention to the needs of rural populations in the strategic policy discussions taking place at country level within the context of the national Poverty Reduction Strategy processes and Sector Wide Approaches (SWAPs). In this regard, we attach great importance to the work now under way on how to enhance IFAD’s field presence by strengthening in-country capacity and look forward to participating actively in the process.

The Monterrey consensus confirmed the commitment of the international community to the Millennium Development Goals. It is encouraging to see how focus is now on what happens at the country level, on development effectiveness and on donor harmonization. Having a common agenda does not, however, imply that we all have the same role to play. If we are to be effective, and if harmonization is to alleviate the burden on developing country governments, an adequate division of labour is required. Last year’s review of IFAD identified areas where IFAD has successfully made a difference – such as in empowering the poor, strengthening their organizations and facilitating their participation in the development process. IFAD must build on these strengths and further specialize in what it is good at.

The Strategic Framework for IFAD is clear concerning IFAD’s ambition to contribute to the efforts to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty. Some 75% of the extremely poor people live in rural areas in developing countries. To these 900 million women, men and children who are living on less than one dollar a day, IFAD can become the catalyst that enables them to overcome their poverty.

However, ambitions are not enough if a critical mass of financing is to be maintained. Donors need to be able to assess the results of their funding. IFAD must thus continue – and strengthen – its work on implementing results-based management, and establish clear objectives, goals and targets for its activities, as well as develop means to measure and document results for its membership and partners. In this regard, the IFAD V Plan of Action has proven a valuable tool, which should be updated and developed with a view to incorporating the key objectives of the 6th Replenishment, as well as targets and benchmarks that will enable the objective monitoring of results.

We expect that the independent evaluation that will be undertaken, and which we strongly support, will identify further areas where IFAD may need to change and improve its capacity.

Mr Chair, we see the initiation of a new era, where the development paradigm is changing, and changing favourably, with a common global agenda focused on poverty eradication, a greater emphasis on country-led development, new partnerships and enhanced harmonization in the field of development assistance. IFAD must participate fully in these partnerships and take the role that it has the potential to play. The Nordic countries look forward to working with the Fund in facing these challenges.

Thank you.