IFAD 08/07

Rome, 12 September 2007 - IFAD’s Vice-President, Kanayo Nwanze, will stress the role of rural development in halting land degradation when he speaks this week at the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Madrid.

“People tend to view desertification as simply an environmental problem, yet it is also an economic and agricultural one,” said Nwanze. “The best way to protect natural resources is through rural development to lift poor farmers and herders out of hunger and poverty.”

Nwanze will be in Madrid on September 13 and 14 to address the UNCCD’s High Level Segment. During his visit, Nwanze will also hold bilateral talks with senior officials at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IFAD works with subsistence farmers, nomadic herders, day labourers and others whose survival depends upon fragile lands. Experience shows that desertification and land degradation are both causes and consequences of rural poverty.

IFAD has extensive experience in combating desertification. The decision to create the Rome-based UN agency dedicated to fighting rural poverty was taken in 1974 in the wake of the droughts and famines that had struck Africa in the previous six years.

Today, 70 per cent of IFAD-supported programmes and projects are located in ecologically fragile and marginal environments. Between 1999 and 2005 IFAD committed $US2 billion in loans and grants to programmes and projects relevant to land degradation and desertification.
IFAD is a major supporter of the UNCCD and hosts the Global Mechanism (GM), a UNCCD subsidiary that helps countries raise and manage funds to halt desertification. IFAD is the largest single donor to the GM, enabling GM Action Plans to be implemented in 29 different countries. This is in addition to IFAD’s role in providing technical and financial support to other UNCCD-related initiatives.
The Conference of the Parties is the decision-making body of the UNCCD. It is meeting in the Spanish capital from September 3 to 14.

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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.