Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will lead discussions on supporting rural youth

Rome, 15 February 2011- The 34th session of the Governing Council, IFAD’s annual meeting, will take place this weekend at the agency’s headquarters in Rome. The two-day session will feature an opening ceremony with remarks from high-level participants, a plenary panel discussion on “Feeding future generations: Young rural people today – prosperous, productive farmers tomorrow” and four regionally-focused side events on rural youth.

International leaders and high-level civil society representatives will discuss opportunities for rural young women and men in smallholder agriculture and the broader economy:

• Kofi Annan, Nobel laureate, former United Nations Secretary General, and Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa;
• HRH Princess Haya Al Hussein, UN Messenger of Peace;
• Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture, Ghana;
• Carlo Petrini, founder, International Slow Food movement;
• Dayana Rivera Rivas, Association of Small-scale Coffeegrowers of La Marina – ASOPECAM;
• Kevin Cleaver, Associate Vice-President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD);
• Tumi Makgabo, WEF Young Global Leader and former CNN International presenter, will moderate the panel.

There will be a press conference at noon on Saturday.

• For more information on IFAD’s annual meeting and a detailed program, please visit the website.
• The IFAD social reporting team will report live from the Governing Council. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
• Journalists are requested to accredit by 17 February 2011. Please fill in the attached form and send to ifadnewsroom@ifad.org.
• Television crews, in particular, are advised to arrive early in order to ensure smooth security clearance of their equipment prior to enter the IFAD premises.
• For images of IFAD’s work please visit the IFAD image bank.
  

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Media Alert No: IFAD/03/2011

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$12.5 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 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 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).