Top of the agenda: High impact agriculture development to ensure human and food security in developing countries

Rome, 16 September 2011 – Kanayo F. Nwanze, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), will visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 17-20 September. This will be his second visit to the country since he took office in April 2009 as President of the United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty.

“As a founding member of IFAD, Saudi Arabia played a key role in the Fund’s establishment and its transition into a mature development agency and international financial institution,” said Nwanze on the eve of his departure to Riyadh. “Now with urgent challenges ahead, such as a precarious global food supply, rising commodity prices and the increasingly evident effects of climate change, our long-standing partnership against poverty and hunger is more crucial than ever.”

In the wake of great droughts and famines that struck Africa and Asia, world leaders at the 1974 World Food Conference agreed that “an international fund” should be established immediately to finance agricultural development projects, which led to the creation of IFAD in 1976.

Nwanze will meet with Fahad Bin Abdulrahman Balghunaim, Minister of Agriculture, to discuss how IFAD, an international financial institution, can work further on rural poverty to improve the living conditions of unemployed young women and men in the region and  upgrade the agriculture sectors to create decent jobs in the rural communities.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has pledged US$60 million for the current crisis in the Horn of Africa, the largest pledge from the region.  “I hope that others will follow the continued example set by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that shows in times of crisis, investment in agriculture remains a priority,” Nwanze said.  He added that the current challenges of food security, food price volatility and climate change can only be met though strong partnerships at all levels. IFAD values the generosity of His Majesty King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Al Saud, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, towards countries affected by food insecurity.

While in Saudi Arabia, Nwanze will also meet with the Vice Chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development; Ahmed Mohamed Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank; the Deputy Secretary General (Economic Affairs) of the Gulf Cooperation Council and high-ranking officials of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss a new and concrete partnership for long-term investment in smallholder agriculture to reduce rural poverty.

The Islamic Development Bank is a strategic partner for IFAD to combat rural poverty and hunger.  The institutions have cofinanced projects totalling more than US$112 million and jointly supported agricultural research, particularly on water-related issues. In 2010, IFAD and IDB signed a US$1.5 billion cofinancing agreement that will benefit people in 26 of the neediest countries where both organizations work. The OIC Member States have contributed nearly 22 per cent of IFAD’s total financial resources, with the Gulf countries offering the largest share. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is among the largest contributors to IFAD. About 47 per cent of IFAD-supported programmes and projects are in OIC Member States.

Press release No.: IFAD/59/2011

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$12.9 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 166 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).