Press release number: IFAD GC/03

Rome, 20 February 2001. Mr Fawzi H. Al-Sultan, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised agency of the United Nations, urged the international community Tuesday to give greater priority and resources to agriculture, which provides the economic basis of the rural poor. Opening the two-day Governing Council session, Mr Al-Sultan said, ''a good place to start with larger resources for the poor would be in IFAD, a tested and proven instrument to fight poverty''. Mr Al-Sultan has served as IFAD President for the last eight years.

He regretted that agriculture had received a falling share of international aid, now about 12 percent of overall official development assistance (ODA), which itself has declined in real terms in the 1990s. In fact, international financing for agriculture fell by nearly 40 percent between 1988 and 1998, even as the declared support for poverty alleviation has become more intense.

In this context, the IFAD President referred to the Rural Poverty Report 2001, launched by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on 5 February. The report showed that ''the dominance of rural poverty is likely to continue well into this century,'' contrary to the misconception that the main poverty problem has moved from the countryside to the burgeoning megacities of the developing world. The Rural Poverty Report highlights that the present rate of poverty reduction is about one-third of that required to fulfilling the Millennium Summit target of halving poverty by 2015. In Africa it is barely one-sixth, Mr. Al-Sultan said.

He added: ''IFAD has a strong reputation for delivering imaginative and participative poverty alleviation projects. We are also intensifying our efforts to make IFAD a knowledge organisation on poverty, improving access to insights from our own experience and sharing and testing them with the lessons drawn from the experience of others.''

The Fund’s replenishment process, however, still provides a continuing challenge. Though a consensus on the Fifth Replenishment was reached by July 2000, confirmation of pledges by individual countries have come slowly. Mr. Sultan added: ''The delays experienced in the Fifth Replenishment contributions make it imperative for member states to give attention to ways of streamlining the Replenishment process further and to ensure that the Sixth Replenishment, covering the period 2003-2005, starts on time.''

---

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 584 projects in 114 recipient countries and in the West Bank and Gaza for a total commitment of approximately USD 7.2 billion in 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.