Media Advisory no.: MA/10/08

Rome, Berlin - 14 October, 2008 - German parliamentarians will gather to hear IFAD President Lennart Båge address a range of critical issues facing poor rural people in developing countries, as the emerging financial crisis and volatile food prices underline the need for a comprehensive global response.
 
As the UN system has swung into action over the food price crisis, Båge has emphasised the importance of investing in agriculture not only to avert further crises but to unleash the potential of poor rural people to escape poverty.

As an international financial institution and a specialised UN agency, IFAD works for and with the rural poor - some 450 million small farm holders on whom depend 2 billion people.
 
The Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development of the Bundestag is assessing how microfinance, land and property rights, farmers and producers’ cooperatives and agricultural technologies can best be harnessed for rural development.

Date: 15th October 2008
Time: 09.30-12.00
Venue: Bundestag, Paul-Löbe-Haus, Raum E 800

---

NOTE TO EDITORS

• Nearly 50 per cent of all IFAD funding goes to Africa, placing the agency among the top three multilateral institutions on the continent.
• Two thirds of IFAD’s current projects involve rural financing. Most of IFAD’s target groups are small agricultural producers and those in the value chain. Access to financial services is vital if the rural poor are to boost their productivity and food security.
  
• IFAD works at grass roots level with farmers’ organisations to help meet their needs. IFAD is closely involved with The Farmers' Forum, a bottom-up process of consultation between small farmers' and rural producers' organizations, IFAD and governments.
• IFAD is active in implementing pro-poor land policy, promoting individual titling and supporting land redistribution and strengthening the security of land tenure.
• Over the years, Germany has been a major contributor to IFAD replenishments, supplementary funds and cofinancing.

---

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 more than US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped over 400 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 85 developing countries and one territory.