Governors, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to attend the 29th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD on behalf of Austria.

The past year 2005 was again a busy year for IFAD and its management. Last February the Seventh Replenishment negotiations were launched.  During five Sessions pertinent issues were discussed. Today we can congratulate the Institution and ourselves that this replenishment exercise could be successfully concluded.

The negotiations started with the findings of the Independent External Evaluation of the Institution. Some of the findings were very sobering. They highlighted clear weaknesses.  But the study also confirmed the relevance of IFAD's mandate to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and to the rural poor.

Allow me to make some comments on what the Institution should do better. IFAD as part of the Multilateral Development System must put greater efforts into facilitating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. IFAD can only contribute to these objectives commensurately by increasing its development effectiveness. Higher effectiveness means working harder on performance and impact. A sharper focus on clients and issues should translate into enhanced sustainability of projects and programmes.  There is a need to concentrate stronger on the core clientele which are the rural poor and to help them increase food production and attain incomes for a life beyond mere survival.  

IFAD must support the empowerment of the rural poor by addressing vital issues such as land and water rights and access thereto, rural financial services, market access for rural products, dissemination of production and marketing techniques and strengthening of the organizations of the rural poor.
IFAD's projects must not be stand alone efforts carried out in its great number of client countries only every couple of years. Projects should be embedded into country processes; their performance should be monitored over longer periods in order to enable the Fund to gather lessons learned and to use these findings for useful innovations and replications. 

In this context I want to encourage the Fund again to take part more visibly and constructively in the national PRSP processes of its recipient countries. This should be facilitated by the recently approved stronger field presence and corresponding organizational changes at headquarter.

 

With regard to the just completed Seventh Replenishment of IFAD, I want to underline that my country's participation signals our continued support of the Institution and its mission. Austria subscribes to the Millennium Development Goals and sees IFAD as a suitable instrument in this regard.

We believe that the approved increase of the replenishment level will enable the Fund to strengthen its contribution to the attainment of the MDG's by way of higher annual lending levels. As outlined above IFAD will have to make all the necessary efforts to achieve higher impact and sustainability to improve food security and reduce the poverty and vulnerability of the rural poor, which comprise the world's poorest population group.

We expect IFAD to demonstrate its comparative advantage by addressing the rural poverty issues from the so-called grass-roots level, i.e. from the perspectives of the poor people with and through their own organisations. IFAD's target group comprises all poor rural people, from small scale farmers, herders, fishers to landless.

Let me underline that we expect the Fund to pay special attention to the alleviation of the plight of poor rural women. It is them who carry the heaviest load in developing societies. Their empowerment, education, improvement of sanitary conditions is key to the successful development and modernisation of poor and often marginalised social groups.

Now, I would like to highlight some important recommendations of the Replenishment Consultation.

We are confident that the implementation of the Action Plan for improving IFAD's development effectiveness will initiate the necessary change process that will sharpen the Fund's role and focus and hence its comparative advantage.

Given the scarcity of the Fund's resources we support the application of a Performance Based Allocation System in order to encourage recipient countries to make most effective use of resources. However, special regional needs like those of Sub-Saharan African countries and priorities of similar highly concessional borrowers must be taken into account.

We agree that proposals for a Debt Sustainability Framework along the lines of the IDA model, while taking into account implications for IFAD's finances, should be developed by management and presented to the Board by the end of this year.

Some comments on the Programme of Work for 2006. In light of the completed Seventh Replenishment we support the proposed increased annual financing level of up to USD 550 million. This constitutes a 10 percent hike over the previous year and should strengthen the Fund and enhance its impact on rural poverty alleviation in line with the Millennium Development Goals.   Let me reiterate that the distribution of the scarce resources should in principle reward performance and good governance.

We can approve the proposed Budget for 2006 which for the first time shows an increase over the previous year. Such an augmentation obviously is in line with similar budgeting developments in other Multilateral Development Institutions. We understand that the increase is due to a heavier work load for 2006 and higher related administrative costs.   

IFAD's membership is steadily growing. Allow me to welcome Niue as a new member of IFAD.
Before coming to the end I wish to pay my respect to Mr. Christian Codrai, the late General Counsel, who passed away only a couple of weeks ago. He was a competent lawyer and a familiar face to many of us and he will surely be missed.

In conclusion I want thank you, Mr. President, for your excellent leadership and work done for the institution and wish you continued success.

My thanks also go to the excellent staff of the institution for its professional work and proven dedication.