IFAD 02/07

Rome, 26 March, 2007– Lennart Båge, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, will visit India from 24 to 31 March to review IFAD operations in the country and learn firsthand from project participants how IFAD-funded programmes are contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction in the country.

On 25 March, Båge will travel to the southwest region of the state of Orissa to visit the IFAD-funded Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme, the second phase of which will be launched during the visit of President Båge. The programme is helping approximately 75,000 rural households build their capacity to plan and manage their own development by improving their access to natural resources, financial services and markets and opportunities for non-farm enterprises.

Southwest Orissa is one of India’s poorest areas, with poverty rates reaching 75 per cent. More than half of the population belongs to either a tribal groups or a schedule caste.

While in Orissa, Båge will also meet with Mr. Shri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, in Bhubaneshwar.

While in New Delhi, Båge will meet with Mr Montek S. Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. He will also hold meetings with Mr Ashok Jha, Secretary of Finance, Mr Pawan K. Bansal, Minister of State for Finance, Mr P.R. Kyndiah, Minister for Tribal Affairs, Ms Renuka Choudhary, Minster for Women and Child Development, among others.

India has received more funding from IFAD than any other country in the world. Roughly two thirds of India’s 260 million extremely poor people live in the country’s rural areas. Since 1979, IFAD has approved more than US$564 million in loans to finance 21 programmes and projects in India.

A number of IFAD’s initiatives, particularly in the areas of microfinance and women’s empowerment, have been adopted by the government and implemented on a larger scale elsewhere in the country. Last year, the Government of India decided to build upon the lessons of the successful IFAD-funded North Eastern Region Community Resources Management Project for Upland Areas, which was piloted in two districts in each of the states of Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur, and extend the project to cover the entire northeast region. IFAD will assist with this government initiative, with support from the World Bank.

The most recently approved IFAD-support project in India is the Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme in the mid-Gangetic plains, an area with the country’s largest concentration of poor people. The programme will operate in four districts in Uttar Pradesh and two districts in Bihar to ensure local women and adolescent girls have access to the microfinance and business development services they need to establish sustainable grassroots institutions.

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IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD develops and finances programmes and projects that enable poor rural people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 191 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, worth a total of US$6.6 billion. IFAD has invested US$3.1 billion, with cofinancing provided by partners including governments, project participants, multilateral and bilateral donors. These initiatives will help about 82 million poor rural women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.8 billion in 751 programmes and projects that have reached more than 310 million poor rural women and men. Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries, including project participants, contributed US$9.2 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors provided another US$7.2 billion in cofinancing.