IFAD annual meeting on 13-14 February 2013

Rome, 7 February 2013 – Speakers at the 36th session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will include:

Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China and Vittorio Grilli, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Italian Republic will deliver the keynote addresses at the opening session.

José Graziano da Silva, Director-General, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President, and Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme, will together confer the first Rome-based agency Award of Excellence for collaboration in the field.

Ingmar Streese, Director Global Programs and Partnerships, Mars Incorporated, James Mwangi, CEO and Managing Director of Equity Bank in Kenya and 2012 Forbes Magazine Africa Person of the Year, and Tadesse Meskela, founder and General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union of Ethiopia, will share their experiences during panel discussions on how partnerships with the private sector can lead to success.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, the culmination of 35 years of IFAD engagement with indigenous peoples, will have its first global meeting on 11-12 February including speakers such as Myrna Cunningham, Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Victoria Tauli- Corpuz, Executive Director, Tebtebba Foundation.

A press conference will be held at IFAD headquarters on 13 February at 1:30 p.m. immediately following the appointment of IFAD’s President.

Journalists must accredit by 11 February 2013.

Please fill in the accreditation form and send to ifadnewsroom@ifad.org.

The IFAD social reporting team will report live from the Governing Council. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

 

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Media Alert No: IFAD/02/2013

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 almost US$14.3 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering about 400 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nations’ food and agriculture hub. It is a unique partnership of 169 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).