Press Release No. IFAD/GC/01

Rome, 20 February 2001. A new President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised agency of the UN, will be elected today by the Fund’s Governing Council. Ms Chandni Joshi from Nepal is one of the four candidates along with Mr Lennart Bage of the Kingdom of Sweden; Mr Anthony Beattie of the United Kingdom; and Dr Seyed Mohammad Saeid Noori Naeini of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ms Joshi, who is an official nominee of the Kingdom of Nepal, is South Asia Regional Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). She served as the Joint Secretary and Chief of Women Development Division, for the Ministry of Panchayat and Local Development of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, and the Assistant Director of Foster Parents Plan International, before she joined UNIFEM in 1990. As regional director of UNIFEM, Ms Joshi is responsible for 9 countries in South Asia, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Mr Bage is presently the Deputy Director General and Head of Department for International Co-operation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden. He has 25 years of experie nce of development co-operation, including rural development, on project, programme and policy level. Prior to his present position he has served as Ambassador for the Government of Sweden, based in Zimbabwe, and as Assistant Under Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has represented Sweden in several international resource mobilisation negotiations.

UK official nominee Mr Beattie is presently the Director of the Department for International Development (DFID), in London. He is also seconded to her Majesty's Diplomatic Service as UK Permanent Representative to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome. Prior to his present position he was the Director of the Natural Resources Institute (the executive agency of what is now the Department for International Development) and the Head of Overseas Pensions Department, Overseas Development Administration (ODA). Mr Beattie chairs IFAD's Audit Committee and is Convenor of IFAD's List A that comprises OECD member states.

The fourth candidate for the office of IFAD President is Dr Seyed Mohammad Saeid Noori Naeini, who has been officially nominated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is presently the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to IFAD, FAO and WFP as well as the President of the Executive Board of WFP. Prior to his current position, Dr Noori Naeini served as the Vice Chancellor of Shahid Beheshti University in Iran, as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, and as Professor of Agricultural Economics. He is the author of over 30 articles on various topics ranging from resource allocation in smallholder agriculture, food security and rural poverty alleviation projects to evaluation of agricultural projects and land tenure issues.

---

IFAD is a specialised agency of the United Nations with the specific mandate of combating hunger and poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Since 1978 IFAD has financed 578 projects in 114 countries, allocating almost US$ 7 billion in the form of loans and grants. Through these projects, about 250 million rural people have had a chance to move out of poverty.

IFAD makes the greater part of its resources available to low-income countries on very favourable terms, with up to 40 years for repayment and including a grace period of up to ten years and a service charge of 0.75% per year.