Governors,
Heads of delegations,
Esteemed colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this high-level round table on partnerships for financing agriculture and rural development.

In yesterday afternoon’s panel discussion, we had the opportunity to take a broad look at the requirements of good partnerships. In this round table, we will have an opportunity to explore more deeply the ways in which we can drive and support partnerships that transform smallholder agricultural and rural economies.

I am proud to say that IFAD has been at the forefront of development practices that today are becoming mainstream.

These include financing through lending rather than grants; participatory design of programmes and projects; and an emphasis on country ownership and cofinancing by domestic partners. These are all areas that are now considered cutting edge in development, and they are areas where IFAD has sustained experience.

 Today, we face new challenges. In response to higher and more volatile food prices, the impacts of climate change and a growing concern about how to feed the world’s ever expanding population, we must think in terms not just of expansion but a real transformation of agriculture and rural development.

In recent years, we have been scaling up what we know works. That includes strengthening value chains, extending rural finance, and creating new market opportunities for smallholders and other poor rural people. We have also been exploring public-private partnerships in support of smallholder agriculture. The private sector has become the engine of growth in rural economies.

Our ambition is large – to create vibrant rural economies that contribute to poverty reduction, while helping smallholders to play a critical role in contributing to food and nutrition security. No single entity – whether public or private, including smallholder farmers themselves– can succeed by itself. But working together, we can create partnerships that are sustainable, productive, profitable and inclusive. Rural areas need more investment, and also the right kind of investment.

During this morning’s round table, we would like to explore how we can better share our knowledge and support our partners.

We would also like to learn about your experiences in building partnerships in agriculture and how they have contributed to productivity, inclusiveness, profitability and sustainability.

A question that we must always ask ourselves is, what can IFAD do to improve its role as a broker and catalyst for successful partnerships? In other words, how can we facilitate partnerships that connect smallholders to markets and value chains?

Your answers to such questions will help IFAD become a better partner, and by stimulating our thinking on these issues I hope that all of us will leave here with new ideas and renewed enthusiasm for our joint work in rural development.

Thank you.

Rome, 14 February 2013