Ms. Chairperson of the Governing Council,
Governors,
Mr. President Kanayo Nwanze,
Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Brazilian government, it is an honor and a pleasure to address
the 36th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD. Let me start by expressing my sincere gratitude to the people of Italy for their hospitality.

We would like to express our satisfaction with the fact that IFAD will continue in the extremely capable hands of Mr. Nwanze. Among the important advances during his first term, we highlight the successful negotiation of the 9th replenishment of IFAD’s resources. Mr. Nwanze, you can count on the support of Brazil for meeting IFAD’s great challenges in your new term.

The main challenge is to keep at the top of the international agenda; the fight against poverty, particularly in rural areas and especially in times of global economic crisis. Fighting poverty is in fact a topic to which the Brazilian Government attaches particular importance, both domestically as well as in its actions in the framework of South-South Cooperation.

Among the main tasks of this agenda are the need to guarantee access to land, to strengthen associations and cooperatives, to grant access to credit, financial services and markets, to empower rural women producers, and to address the challenges posed by climate change.

IFAD is already active in all of these areas which should contribute to make the Fund play in an even more vigorous manner, its role as a development organization, offering financial products befitting the needs of borrowing countries. We believe it is important that IFAD continues to promote innovative solutions, in addition to acting as a catalyst and disseminator of knowledge and experience.

To this end, it is essential for IFAD to work together with other multilateral organizations committed to fighting hunger and rural poverty, such as FAO, whose Director-General is my dear compatriot José Graziano, as well as the World Food Programme.

We consider it  important that IFAD continues to expand its country presence, which contributes to closer project supervision and enables greater IFAD involvement in  policy dialogue.

We also support the preferential allocation of resources to low-income countries. At the same time, we consider it important to keep a program of work with middle-income countries, which have an increasingly relevant role in the Fund’s sustainability and in the generation of knowledge that may be shared with other countries.

In this perspective, we consider knowledge sharing and the exchange of experiences two of the most important pillars to materialize South-South cooperation.

The reforms implemented to make IFAD more efficient, including the rigorous management of its administrative budget, have our support as long as they do not compromise IFAD’s raison d’être, as materialized in its program of work.

I conclude, Mr. President, reaffirming our commitment to IFAD and  the fight to eradicate rural poverty, which is shared by all of us, and with the certainty that the three institutions committed to this agenda are in good hands.

Thank you very much