Release number IFAD/24/08

Rome, 23 April 2008 – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today announced its contribution of US$50 million to the 8th Replenishment of IFAD’s resources. The Kingdom became the first IFAD Member State to pledge resources to this Replenishment. The announcement was made by Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Representative to IFAD, HE Bandar Bin Shalhoub, during a two-day Replenishment Consultation Session in Rome attended by representatives of IFAD Member States. This contribution is a five fold increase over Saudi Arabia’s US$10 million contribution to the 7th Replenishment of IFAD’s in 2005.

Welcoming the announcement, IFAD President, Lennart Båge, expressed his “gratitude to His Majesty King Abdullah Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, for this gesture of strong support to IFAD’s mission to increase food production through higher investment in agriculture in developing countries, particularly in the context of meeting the challenge of the present global food crisis.” 

In light of these new challenges and the need to meet the Millennium Development Goals, IFAD is reviewing its programme of work for the period 2010-12 and assessing its financial requirements in consultation with Member States. The Fund is proposing to increase its programme of work up to USD 3 billion to help meet new demands and increase its impact on food availability and the livelihoods of poor rural people.

Båge expressed the “hope that Saudi Arabia’s increase of contribution will inspire IFAD’s Member States to consider increasing their contributions.”

With its new contribution pledge, Saudi Arabia’s total pledged contributions to IFAD’s resource since the agency’s establishment in 1977, amounts to US$440 million.

At the same Replenishment session, Bangladesh became the second IFAD Member State to announce its contribution, that of US$600,000. 

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IFAD was created 30 years ago to tackle rural poverty, a key consequence of the droughts and famines of the early 1970s. Since 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped over 300 million very poor rural women and men increase their incomes and provide for their families.

IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency. It is a global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. Today, IFAD supports more than 200 programmes and projects in 84 developing countries.