IFAD 05/07

Rome, 12 June 2007 – IFAD will provide an additional US$20 million in grant funding to combat food insecurity in Niger during the period 2007-2012. Matthew Wyatt, IFAD’s Assistant President for External Affairs, announced the grant today at the International Donors’ Conference on Consolidating Food Self-Sufficiency in Niger. It is being hosted by the Government of Qatar in the capital city of Doha.

The donor conference is a joint initiative by the Government of Niger, the Government of Qatar and the General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to encourage donors to support programmes that will enhance food security in Niger. The meeting will provide a forum to explore new financing channels and investment opportunities as well as discuss better coordination on the ground.

Unfavourable climatic conditions and widespread poverty have resulted in chronic food insecurity that affects more than 24 per cent of the rural population in Niger. Locust attacks in 2004 and poor rains in 2005 resulted in an eight-month dry season that created food shortages and severely affected food supply.

“IFAD is committed to helping Niger find ways of coping during severe food crises and combating malnutrition,” says Matthew Wyatt.

IFAD currently finances a project that has created cereal and pre-harvest supply banks in Maradi, one of Niger’s hardest-hit provinces during the 2004-2005 food crisis. Previous IFAD-funded cereal banks in Niger were used to store crops immediately after harvest to sell during the dry season when market prices tend to rise. But the Project for the Promotion of Local Initiatives for Development in Aguié has tested a new type of bank that provides poor farmers with access to cereals when they are unable to feed themselves and their families at least two meals a day.

These banks, known as soudure, are operational from mid-July to mid-September on the basis of exchange. Farmers can take food as a credit during the planting season to ensure proper nutrition while they work in the field. Then farmers “pay back” this loan with the cereals they harvest, with 25 per cent interest to replace the stock and cover the cost of storage and maintenance.

At the end of last year, there were 111 soudure banks in Maradi containing more than 680 tons of cereal, which can reach about 200,000 people during the harshest period. 

Another IFAD-supported project will soon become operational in Maradi to strengthen national and local capacities to prevent or address periodic food crises. The US$36 million Agricultural and Rural Rehabilitation and Development Initiative Project will be partly supported by a US$15.25 million loan and a US$400,000 grant from IFAD. The Government of Niger will contribute US$4.15 million to the project. Additional funding will be provided by the World Food Programme (US$2.10 million), the Belgian Survival Fund (US$5.71 million) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (US$6.36 million).

Since 1980, IFAD has provided almost US$95 million in loans and grants to Niger to finance seven projects to combat food insecurity and for agricultural and rural development. IFAD has also supported several grants to various non-governmental organizations working in Niger.

As the host of the donor meeting, the Government of Qatar continues to demonstrate its commitment to helping poor countries meet their social, economic, health and education needs. Qatar supported the creation of the new G-77 South Fund for Development and Humanitarian Assistance in 2005, and will host the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus in Doha in 2008. Between 1970 and 2003, Qatar provided more than US$2.6 billion in international development assistance.

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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.