Today, on World Food Day, let us take one minute to ask ourselves – how can we create a world without hunger?

The answer can be found wherever groups of people are working together towards a common goal.

Maximization of cooperative advantage, where motivation of collective interest overshadows self-centred interest, has shaped human societies and economic activity for thousands of years. Today, cooperatives produce about 50 per cent of global agriculture output.

Some of our largest financial institutions – such as Rabobank and Crédit Agricole – have their roots in farmers’ cooperatives. The ILO has noted that cooperatives are more resilient to market shocks than capital-centered banks because they stay close to the roots of the banking system and the real economy.

We are stronger and can achieve more when we work cooperatively.

This is particularly true for poor farmers in developing countries. Individually, these smallholders have little power. But when they join together, they have greater purchasing power. They have greater bargaining power in the marketplace. And they have greater power to influence the policies that affect their lives.

But they must be organized with norms and institutional values, a governance structure -- no matter how rudimentary -- with shared objectives and goals.

At IFAD, we have long recognized that we can best help poor farmers grow their businesses if we support and work with their organizations. A process we refer to as CDD – community-driven development

Farmers’ organizations are IFAD’s business partners from Africa, to Asia to Latin America.

In Guinea, IFAD is putting development funds into the hands of farmers themselves, allowing them to choose how and where they spend.

In Guatemala, farmers in a producers’ association have bought irrigation equipment, built a new storage facility and worked with private-sector partners to bring their produce to new markets. Today, they sell to some of the biggest retailers in the world.

Working with famers through their organizations is the best way of ensuring enduring and sustainable economic growth and poverty eradication.

This includes working with agricultural cooperatives such as SIDC in the Philippines, which has a scheme for Filipino workers here in Italy to invest in agriculture at home. The remittances are creating jobs in the rural Philippines and providing a good rate of return for the migrant workers on their investment.

Of course, the adage that we are stronger united applies to the Rome-based agencies as well as the people we work with.

In recent years, our collaboration has grown closer, each of us bringing our separate areas of expertise as we work to ensure food and nutrition security for all. Bringing our synergies and comparative advantage together, as in a value-chain approach.  We work together in the field, developing joint programmes that support our Member States in areas such as gender, rural finance and land tenure.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, 870 million people are not getting enough food for their most basic dietary needs.  Whether the number is 950 million or 870 million is irrelevant.  In a world of plenty, as long as one child dies of hunger or suffers from malnutrition, our work is not done yet.  And there is nothing to celebrate.

Today is an occasion to appreciate the sustenance that we too often take for granted. Yet every day millions of people struggle for it, and thousands die without it.

On this World Food Day, IFAD would like to renew its commitment to working with cooperatives – this year and every year. Let us improve their capacity in developing countries so that the 2 billion people who depend on the world’s small farms can lead healthier, more productive and fulfilling lives.

Let us work together, as an international community, united in our effort to end poverty and hunger.

Thank you.