Press release No.: IFAD/57/08

Rome, 11 December 2008 - A USD30.17 million loan to the Republic of India from IFAD will assist in increasing the social and economic empowerment of rural women, giving them greater access to microfinance and business development services.

The total cost of the Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme in the Mid-Gangetic Plains is USD52.47 million.

The loan agreement was signed today in Rome by Shri Arif Shahid Khan, Ambassador of the Republic of India to Italy and Lennart Båge, IFAD President.

The Mid-Gangetic Plains constitute India’s largest pocket of poverty in terms of population. The rural economy suffers from acute population pressure, low crop productivity and inequitable land tenure.

Women experience deeper deprivation here than elsewhere in India because of strong patriarchy and rigid caste divisions. As well as increasing access to financial institutions, the programme will empower rural women by establishing grass-root organizations and increasing their participation in local government. 

Women from an estimated 108,000 poor rural households will be targeted. The programme is expected to mobilise more than 6,000 self-help groups, thereby empowering the target groups through their own institutions. It will bring about increased productivity and incomes by introducing market-linked enterprises.

An innovative feature of the project is the establishment of sustainable community service centres which will include business facilitators.

The programme supports several elements of the Indian Government’s poverty reduction strategy by investing in agriculture, focusing on scheduled castes, tribes and vulnerable groups and equipping people with the necessary assets and skills for self-employment. 

India receives more funding from IFAD than any other country in the world. To date, IFAD has financed 22 programmes and projects in India, approving loans for a total of USD595.3 million.

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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.