31 January 2007 - Lennart Båge, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will attend the annual high-level meeting of the Heads of the Arab Funds Coordination Group, convening the eight most important aid agencies of the Arab world in Kuwait on 4 February.

Båge will be accompanied by Matthew Wyatt, Assistant President for External Affairs, and Mona Bishay, Director of the Near East and North Africa Division of IFAD. On his way to Kuwait, the IFAD delegation will visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where they will visit the headquarters of a number of research centres, foundations and academic institutions and also call on senior government officials.

The visit is part of IFAD’s efforts to enhance and broaden its strong partnership and cooperation with the UAE and Kuwait, two founding member states of IFAD. Meetings with top leaders in the two countries are expected to focus on a range of issues of mutual interest, among them IFAD’s on-going operations in the Near East and North Africa region and opportunities for joint funding of new projects in the region, including Yemen, the Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza and the West Bank.

In the Sudan, poverty and lack of development have been major causes of armed conflict. In 2000, IFAD approved a US$17.9 million loan to fund the South Kordofan Rural Development Programme. It supports the Sudanese peace process in one of the country’s most affected regions through post-crisis rehabilitation and development. IFAD has recently been invited by the Sudanese Ministry of Finance to develop a project on natural resource management in the war-torn Darfur region.

In Iraq, despite the current situation, IFAD is developing a grant project to support agriculture training and the production of fertilizers in three areas: around Baghdad, Basra and Erbil, in the north. The project will be reviewed by IFAD’s Executive Board at the end of 2007.

It has been 30 years since Member States of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) set off the chain of events that led to the establishment of IFAD and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). Created in response to the world food crisis that devastated many developing countries in the mid-1970s, IFAD represents the recognition by the international community that a global alliance with shared goals is needed to eradicate poverty and hunger. IFAD became the first multilateral institution dedicated to the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world: poor rural people.

As the UN specialized agency dedicated to the fight against rural poverty, IFAD is supporting local people to sustainably manage the natural resources on which their livelihoods depend. In one of the driest regions in the world, IFAD has been involved in successful land reclamation and water conservation programmes in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.

IFAD is also addressing youth unemployment as an integral part of rural poverty reduction programmes in the region. Supporting the recent introduction of rural microfinance and linking smallholder farmers with international markets are two additional priorities for IFAD’s Near East and North African division in the coming years.

Since its establishment, IFAD has maintained a strong presence in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. As of December 2006, total IFAD loan commitments in the region amounted to US$1.3 billion invested in 105 projects and programmes in 15 countries. The ongoing loan portfolio amounts to US$500 million and supports 31 agricultural and rural development operations to reduce rural poverty. The ongoing grant portfolio consists of 38 regional and country-specific research grants for a total of US$26 million.

IFAD also works closely to design, finance, implement and monitor its rural development projects with many other Arab development institutions and funds, such as the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and the Arab Bank for the Economic Development of Africa.

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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 196 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totalling US$6.6 billion. IFAD has invested more than US$3.1 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 89 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$9.0 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors have provided another US$7.1 billion in cofinancing.