In 2008, IFAD marks 30 years of fighting rural poverty and hunger. IFAD was created in response to the droughts and famines that killed many millions of people in Africa and Asia in the early 1970s. World leaders at the 1974 World Food Conference decided to form a global alliance to fight rural poverty, an underlying cause of hunger and malnutrition. Their vision was a new and unique partnership between the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other developing countries dedicated to agriculture and rural development.

IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency. Since 1978, IFAD’s member countries have together invested almost US$10 billion in loans and grants, helping more than 300 million poor rural women and men to grow more food, improve their land, learn new skills, start businesses, build strong organizations and communities, and gain a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. But hunger and poverty remain widespread in many countries, and poor rural people face new and daunting challenges, such as climate change. Now on the 30th anniversary of IFAD’s founding, we honour our founders’ vision and renew our commitment to enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty.