IFAD 02/08

The President of IFAD is to address a press conference about rising food prices, climate change and the opportunities and threats presented by biofuels for poor rural people in developing countries.

The press conference follows IFAD’s two-day annual Governing Council attended by delegates from IFAD’s 164 member states.

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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 almost US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped more than 300 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 84 developing countries.