Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished Governors,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Nordic Countries; Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and my own country, Iceland.

The Nordic countries congratulate Mr. Kanayo Nwanze upon his re-election as the President of IFAD and welcome his emphasis on human resources, gender equality and fragile states. The contributions to the Ninth Replenishment demonstrate that the donors have confidence in the Fund. We note the progress made towards full alignment between the IFAD and IDA lending terms, and urge this to be achieved, since it would increase IFAD’s resources even further.
Allow me also to welcome the new IFAD member countries; the Republic of Nauru, Tuvalu and the Republic of Vanuatu.

The Nordic Countries welcome the overall theme of forging partnerships, public and private, strengthening the position of poor smallholders in the agricultural value-chain. It is positive that IFAD is exploring ways to building new, stronger and innovative partnerships. At the same time, it is important that IFAD carefully considers its capacity constraints, as well as its unique characteristics as a  multilateral organization, when considering such partnerships.

We welcome increased awareness in IFAD of the importance of good human resources management. The Fund can only be as good as its staff, both in headquarters and the field. This goes hand in hand with more openness and transparency, as well as strengthening of communication between the management and the membership.
Gender equality applies to all aspects of the Fund’s management and projects. The gender balance in the upper echelons of the Fund has improved, but more needs to be done in the mid-level and field offices. Poor rural women as a primary target group cannot be underestimated. Enhancing the rights of women increases food security in the communities in question. IFAD’ s contributions to gender equality, internally and for its beneficiaries, must be visible in its budgets and work programme.

We welcome the Fund’s commitment to projects in fragile states. There is a need for a twin-track approach of providing emergency aid and to build up the resilience of vulnerable communities to future shocks and disasters. We underline the importance of IFAD’s rights-based approach towards the most vulnerable and poorest smallholders in building their capacity to tackle risks and enhance resilience.

Mr. Chairman, allow me to conclude by welcoming the ongoing cooperation of the Rome-based agencies, such as their joint input in the Rio+20 Conference and their active participation in the dialogue on post 2015.