Press release No.: IFAD/46/08

Rome, 23 September 2008 - A unique UN forum tomorrow will see business leaders invited for the first time to UN Headquarters in New York to discuss poverty reduction. The UN Private Sector Forum: “Food Sustainability and the Millennium Development Goals” on 24 September 2008 will be attended by the IFAD President and will bring together global business leaders, heads of other UN agencies and civil society leaders to debate how the private sector can work with the UN to achieve the MDGs by 2015. 

“Private sector entities such as investors, agro-processors, traders and market agents are key partners in IFAD-supported programmes in developing sustainable and innovative solutions to problems facing small holder farmers in order to accelerate rural growth and development,” says IFAD President Lennart Båge. 

Under the title ‘Agricultural Inputs and Infrastructure’ the IFAD President will co-host an IFAD/FAO roundtable session at the Forum which will consider how to improve sustained investment in the agricultural sector by donors and private investors. ‘We must increase available tools to strengthen partnerships with private sector actors so as to launch successful and profitable economic activities involving small holder farmers,’ says Båge.

The roundtable discussion will be chaired by Jacques Diouf, Director-General, FAO and the IFAD President. Public-private partnerships are urgently required to facilitate training, reduce transaction costs and link smallholders with suppliers and buyers. Representatives of the private sector will also be able to articulate the business perspective on what can be done to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

There are 1.4 billion people suffering from extreme poverty in the world today. The current global food price crisis is expected to push about 100 million more people into poverty and food production will need to rise 50 per cent by 2030 to meet growing demand. Increasing agricultural production in developing countries will only be achievable by more public and private investment, working together. ‘The private sector provides the key links in the value chain, from farmgate to - increasingly - supermarkets, to assist and address the needs of the rural poor’ says Båge.

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Notes to Editors:

• The UN Private Sector Forum on Food Sustainability and the MDGs will take place at UN Headquarters on 24 September from 12:00-15:30. There will be seven roundtable discussions on the role of business contributing to the Millennium Development Goals.
• The results of seven thematic roundtables at the Forum will be shared with those business leaders that have been invited to speak during the 63rd General Assembly’s High-level meeting on the MDGs on 25 September.
• The UN will launch the ‘Food Sustainability and the Role of the Private Sector’ guidebook at the Forum, with a Forward signed jointly by the FAO and IFAD. It will include examples of how the UN and private companies can contribute to the long term, developmental aspects of the food crisis.
• Examples of IFAD public-private partnerships supporting rural development projects include smallholder cocoa programmes in São Tomé and Príncipe and in Papua, Indonesia and a vegetable-oil development project in Uganda.
• There will be a UNGA Interactive Marketplace on Food Value Chain and Public Private Partnerships held during the week of 22-26 September at the UN. The displays will include IFAD experiences with private sector partnerships.

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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 400 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 85 developing countries and one territory.