Project and programme managers, experts in rural and agricultural development and IFAD officials discuss how market access and crop and livestock integration can serve to improve agricultural productivity.

Bujumbura, 16 November 2009. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) holds a workshop on project and programme implementation in Eastern and Southern Africa from 16 to 19 November in Bujumbura, Burundi. The workshop goal: improve implementation of IFAD-financed projects and programmes.

The main theme of such regional workshops is enhancing agricultural productivity in response to market demand. For some 200 participants from across the region, this entails examining in depth the issues of market access and sustainability and crop and livestock integration with a view to boosting agricultural productivity.

The inaugural ceremony, held at the CELEXION conference centre in Bujumbura on 16 November 2009, was chaired by Her Excellency Clotilde Nizigama, Minister for Finance of Burundi and attended by Ms Mercy Miyang Tembon, Permanent Representative of the World Bank; Mr Youssef Mahmoud, Executive Representative of the United Nations Secretary- General; and Mr Ides De Willebois, Director of IFAD’s Eastern and Southern Africa Division. Representatives of the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also took part.

“Stronger financial support is needed for greater investment and resources in the rural sector” stated Ms Nizigama. The Minister for Finance of Burundi applauded the results that have been achieved by IFAD-financed programmes in the country, highlighting that "even during Burundi’s most troubled times, IFAD did not withhold financial support”.

According to Ides De Willebois, “the effects of climate change are creating an increasingly urgent need for an effective response based on improved cultivation techniques and soil fertility management and enhanced soil and water management." The workshop is specifically aimed at strengthening the efforts currently under way to promote agricultural performance and bring about an improvement in the living conditions of rural poor people. “We support knowledge building at all levels: in the projects, at the country and regional levels and through global forums to ensure that policy decisions reflect and respond to the needs of the rural poor” added the Director of the Eastern and Southern Africa Division.

"Today's event could not have been timed better” commented the United Nations Executive Representative. “It falls on the day that the international community has gathered in Rome to participate in the World Food Summit.”  For Youssef Mahmoud “this bears out, once again, the fundamental role that agriculture plays in overall economic and social development, and, in particular, in ensuring peace in the world today.”

The World Bank estimates that by 2050 approximately 2.3 billion more people will need to be fed. These statistics – and others – forecast tension over food prices, accelerating the rate of deforestation as the area under crop cultivation expands" commented Mercy Miyang Tembon.

The World Bank Representative in Burundi added that, as a consequence, “major growth in agricultural productivity and in all key factors of production is indispensible.”

In the course of their work, participants at the Bujumbara workshop will exchange experiences of project implementation in Eastern and Southern Africa and, in particular, identify constraints on effective implementation and best practices in rural development.

Press release no.: IFAD/55/09

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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$11 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering some 350 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 165 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).