On 14 February 2013 at 10.00 a.m. you may follow via webcast a side event on "High-level round table with Governors: Partnerships for financing agricultural and rural development ".

At a time of changing climate and rapidly growing demand for agricultural products and investment, new types of partnerships are needed to finance and transform the agricultural sector and to ensure that smallholder farmers are included in the financing equation. This high-level round table serves as a forum for IFAD Governors to exchange experiences and share insights into building and financing partnerships that can  support smallholder farmers and transform agricultural systems and rural economies to achieve greater prosperity, sustainability, and equity.

Panellists

Khalida Bouzar  is the Director of the Near East, North Africa and Europe Division (NEN) of IFAD, which includes also Central Asian countries. Before joining, she was the Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Paris-based Division of Technology, Industry and Economics. Between 2004 and 2008, she established IFAD’s Global Environment and Climate Change division. She has more than 25 years of experience, 17 of them  in the UN system, where she has mainly worked on  environmental protection, dryland and sustainable development, industry and natural resources management in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Near East and North Africa regions. She began her career as a researcher and then in the private sector, as a Business Development Manager for the oil and gas joint venture between Brown Root and Sonatrach.  She then moved to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as Regional Sustainable Development adviser and later as an international technical expert in drylands development in New York. 

Carlos Seré is the Chief Development Strategist at IFAD and heads the Office of Strategy and Knowledge Management.  Prior to joining IFAD, he worked as Director General for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. Before that, he worked for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) as Director of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Montevideo, Uruguay.  From 1982 to 1990, he worked as Senior Economist and Head of the Economics Section of the Tropical Pastures Program at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Colombia.

Josefina Stubbs is the Director of the Latin America and the Caribbean Division (LAC) at IFAD. She has over 25 years of experience in the areas of development and management, which she gained through her work at national, private and multilateral development organizations. Prior to joining IFAD, she worked at the World Bank, where she held various positions in the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, she worked for 16 years at Oxfam UK and for the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic.

Social media and webcasting

The Thirty-sixth Session of IFAD’s Governing Council is an interactive event thanks to a number of social media components. Social reporters will keep the outside world informed through blogs, tweets, posting interviews and pictures on the following IFAD social media channels. You can follow the event via webcast and by following #ifadgc

• Blog:  http://ifad-un.blogspot.it/search/label/ifadgc
• BlipTV: http://ifad.blip.tv
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IFAD (follow #ifadgc)
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ ifadnews
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/IFADTV