Project to benefit 20 provinces and 24,000 families

Rome 28 May 2010 – With the goal of improving the lives of poor rural people in the Dominican Republic, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed a new loan agreement for approximately US$14 million.

The loan was signed by Mario Arvelo Caamaño, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic for IFAD, FAO and WFP, and Yukiko Omura, IFAD Vice President.

“Building on close to 30 years of cooperation in the country, this project represents an important step in consolidating the Fund’s role as a strategic partner of the Dominican government,” Omura said.

The loan will be used for a new program – the Rural Economic Development Project in the Central and Eastern Provinces – which looks to better the capitalization levels of smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs, while at the same time improving their risk profile and ensuring sustainable access to financial markets.

“This is an excellent example of the work that IFAD does,” said Arvelo Caamaño. “President Leonel Fernández is happy to deepen and expand this relationship with the organization.”

The purpose of the new project, which is expected to be launched by the end of the year, is to increase the incomes and resources of poor people in the region, especially women and young people.

“This project especially supports banana, coffee and cacao producers, and will also stimulate the agro-tourism industry,” said Josefina Stubbs, Director of IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division. “The most important thing is to support these people with the necessary tools to rise up from poverty on their own.”

IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger in rural areas in the developing world. The organization authorized a $13.8 million loan in April 2009 for a development project along the country’s border with Haiti. To date, IFAD has provided six loans to the Dominican Republic for a total of approximately $69 million.

Press release No.: IFAD/37/2010

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 UN agency based in Rome – the UN’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).