IFAD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are pleased to present a two-day round table to discuss the legal dimensions of building inclusive value chains and turning smallholder agriculture into a business.
IFAD has launched an institution-wide effort to identify ways to increase the involvement of and support to the private sector in rural development projects. There is also a growing emphasis on building inclusive value chains for agriculture to yield higher financial returns and produce greater social impacts for smallholder farmers.
These new focal areas represent an invitation for IFAD’s Office of the General Counsel to innovate and deepen its participation in project development and implementation processes. This event, and the knowledge it will produce, constitute one dimension of the Office’s larger effort to practise development lawyering, in addition to contractual lawyering.
These institutional developments also present opportunities for partnership and knowledge sharing with other international organizations that have particular areas of expertise, such as the IFC, which deals exclusively with private sector financing, the International Development Law Organization, which promotes the rule of law in developing countries, with a strong focus on capacity-building, and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, which seeks to harmonize private and commercial law internationally.
Objectives
- An action plan for in-house development lawyers regarding how to support enabling business environment in rural areas.
- An evaluation of the legal instruments at lawyers’ disposal and recommendations for their improvement.
- A framework for increased collaboration and knowledge sharing between IFAD and other international organizations.
