Press release number: IFAD 27/06

Beijing and Rome- 26 May 2006. The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Lennart Båge, will visit Beijing at the invitation of the Government of the People’s Republic of China from 29 May to June 1.

Båge is expected to meet China’s Vice Premier Hui Liang Yu, and the Vice Minister of Finance, Li Yong.

China is an important partner for IFAD. The Government has recently announced it will contribute US$16 million to the Seventh Replenishment of IFAD’s resources, which represents a substantial increase over its US$10.5 million contribution to the Sixth Replenishment.  

Since 1981, when it became one of the first international financial institutions to operate in China, IFAD has provided US$473 million in loans for 19 rural development projects in the country, which are worth a total of just under US$1.3 billion.

Båge’s visit to the country will coincide with the Beijing Conference on Women and Desertification, one of a number of thematic conferences being held during 2006 to mark the United Nation’s International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD).

During the conference, IFAD will host a seminar entitled “Empowering rural poor women to combat desertification”. Recognizing that women are most affected by environmental degradation, this event will also be a platform for the launch of an IFAD report on “Gender and desertification: Expanding roles for women to restore dryland areas”.

The conference will bring together 120 international experts on gender issues and sustainable development, representatives of civil society, as well as 50 participants from China.

Over the past 23 years, IFAD has committed over US$3.5 billion to support dryland development and combat land degradation in developing countries. Of IFAD-supported projects, 70% assist pastoralists and small farmers in ecologically fragile and marginal environments.  IFAD has provided financial and technical support to initiatives that specifically target women’s active participation in the implementation of dryland management.  

Lessons from IFAD-supported projects show that both women and men benefit from a gender approach that reinforces their joint participation in restoring the productivity of degraded land.

The joint IFAD-World Food Programme Wulin Mountains Minority-Areas Development Project focused on one of the steeper, less fertile, less accessible and less developed mountainous areas of China. The project was successful in rebuilding soil productivity thanks to environmentally friendly farming and in reducing women’s workloads by two to three hours per day due to improved drinking water supply systems and the introduction of labour- and time-saving technologies. 

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IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. Through low-interest loans and grants, it develops and finances projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 187 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totalling US$6.2 billion. IFAD has invested more than US$2.9 billion in these initiatives. Cofinancing has been provided by governments, beneficiaries, multilateral and bilateral donors and other partners. At full development, these programmes will help nearly 80 million rural poor women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.0 billion in 705 programmes and projects that have helped nearly 300 million poor rural men and women achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Governments and other financing sources in the recipient countries, including project participants, have contributed almost US$8.8 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors have provided another US$7.0 billion in cofinancing.