Release number IFAD/17/07

Rome, 26 February 2007 – About 32,000 families will take part in a new programme to fight rural poverty in the Caribbean and the Andean regions of Colombia.
 
Participants will gain better access to financial resources and technical assistance so they can develop small-scale agricultural activities and microenterprises.

The US$32.1 million Rural Microenterprise Assets Programme, partly financed by a US$20.0 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), will help them to improve their living conditions. The Government of Colombia will contribute US$10.0 million to finance the programme. Participants in the programme will provide the rest of the funding – US$2.1 million. The loan agreement was signed on 19 February at IFAD headquarters in Rome by Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, Ambassador of Colombia to Italy, and Lennart Båge, President of IFAD.

In a country hit by high unemployment rates, the Rural Microenterprise Assets Programme will focus specifically on offering poor rural people better access to microcredit and providing training in business skills.

The programme will pay particular attention to improving the living conditions of women, Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples, who are the most underprivileged social groups, and have limited access to assets and resources.

Programme activities will focus first on areas with a high density of poor families, starting with the Departments of Bolívar, Córdoba and Sucre in the Caribbean Region and the Departments of Boyacá and Santander in the Andean Region. Activities will then be extended to the rest of the country.

IFAD is expected to open an office in Bogota in April this year. This will improve its ability to respond to the needs of the country’s poor rural people and to monitor the impacts of its programmes. The office will be responsible for programmes in Colombia and other Andean countries.

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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 poor rural people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 185 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totalling US$6.1 billion. IFAD has invested 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 77 million poor rural women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.5 billion in 732 programmes and projects that have helped more than 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 US$9.1 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors have provided another US$7.1 billion in cofinancing.