Media backgrounder MB/05/08

Impact of the global food crisis on the livelihood of poor people is the focus of an official visit to Kuwait by the President of IFAD, Lennart Båge

Rome, 30 April 2008 – His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Sobah Al-Salem Al-Sobah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait will meet with IFAD’s President Lennart Båge in Kuwait city on Tuesday, 6 May 2008.

The impact of the global food crisis on the livelihood of poor rural people will be the focus of their discussion. Earlier Båge announced that USD 200 million will be made available by IFAD to countries worst hit by rising food prices.

Båge who will be on a two day official visit to the country will also call on His Excellency Dr Mustafa Jesem Al-Shamali, Minister of Finance and IFAD Governor, Excellency Abdulwahhab Al-Badr, Director-General of the Kuwait Fund and His Excellency Abdullatif Al-Hamad, Director General of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD).  Hesham Al-Waqayan, Deputy Director-General of the Kuwait Fund and Member of IFAD’s Executive Board will be present during the meetings. 

Kuwait is a founding member of IFAD and Båge’s third visit to Kuwait as President of IFAD signals the important role of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced its contribution of USD 50 million to the 8th Replenishment.

The high level discussions in Kuwait will also deal with aspects of operational cooperation between IFAD and Kuwait, including opportunities to resume co-financing of agricultural and rural development projects. With emphasis on increasing food production, joint interventions will help reverse the trend of impoverishment of large segments of poor people in rural areas, particularly in Arab and Islamic countries. The talks will also address on-going IFAD projects and programmes in the 55 member countries of the Islamic Conference Organization (OIC) and in the Near East and North Africa region.

Båge will also brief officials on progress achieved by a large number of IFAD’s financed research programmes, of which member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) including Kuwait are beneficiaries. This also includes support to Qatar’s recently established Regional Centre for Plant Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Doha and the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai.

Båge’s talks with the Kuwaiti officials will also address cooperation in the area of capacity building, including the possible participation of Kuwaiti nationals in IFAD supported training programmes in management and evaluation of agricultural development projects. Nationals of other GCC countries have benefited from training opportunities provided by the IFAD-supported Agriculture Management Training Program (NENAMTA). IFAD’s President will also explore with his interlocutors ways of developing a joint Associated Professionals Programme (APO), under which young Kuwaiti nationals would gain expertise in managing rural development through temporary employment in IFAD and participation in its field mission.   

IFAD and Kuwait partnership for development

Kuwait, along with other OPEC members, was among the first founding Member States to ratify the Agreement Establishing IFAD in 1977, which was formulated at the Kuwait Fund in Kuwait city. A Kuwaiti national, Fawzi Al-Sultan, held the Presidency of IFAD from 1993-2001.

Kuwait is the third largest contributor to IFAD resources (following Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) among members of the OPEC group (List B) of IFAD’s member states. Kuwait contributed US$8 million to the 7th Replenishment of IFAD’s Resources in 2005, bring the country’s total contributions up to US$176 million (including Kuwait’s contribution to the Special Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa). This has helped IFAD increase its investment in rural poverty reduction by 10 percent per year to US$2 billion over the period 2007-2009.

At the operational level, Kuwait provided cofinancing to three IFAD-supported projects through the Kuwait Fund in Burundi, Morocco and Yemen. It has also has indirectly cofinanced a large number of other IFAD projects through the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (based in Kuwait), the Islamic Development Bank and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development.

Bilateral and sub regional cooperation

Kuwait has benefited from a number of regional programmes financed by IFAD, especially in the field of agricultural research. By December 2007, IFAD provided more than US$110 million in grants to fund programs that support agricultural research, capacity-building and technology transfer activities.  Many of these grants directly or indirectly benefited member countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), including Kuwait.

Contributing to the evolution of the agricultural and food processing sectors in GCC countries, IFAD grants supported the treatment of date palm and livestock diseases, development of marine resources, promotion of rational use of water resources and introduction of brackish and saline water irrigation in the forage production cycle. These are carried out in partnership with national, regional and international research centers such as the International Research Centre in Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Dubai-based International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and the Arab Centre for the Studies of Dry Zones and Arid Lands (ACSAD). Among several other on-going programmes, the Red Palm Weevil Integrated Pest Management Programme in the Near East has largely contributed to the containment of this pest afflicting the Gulf’s date production.

Others pioneering programmes include the Regional Water Demand Initiative (WaDImena) to raise public awareness of rational water use in the Gulf countries, and the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Improvement of Major Production Systems of the Arabian Peninsula. Kuwait will also benefit from the recently established regional facility in Doha, which IFAD supports to promote regional genetic engineering capacity.

Helping the poorest communities in OIC countries in Asia and Africa

IFAD, with the support of Kuwait and its 164 Member States, has gone a long way in helping the neediest and least developed countries to tackle extreme poverty and hunger. These include the 55 member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), in which IFAD has financed 333 projects for total of US$4.38 billion. In fact, 43 percent of IFAD’s loans and grants have gone to OIC countries.  IFAD works closely with OIC and Arab financial institutions, such as the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Islamic Development Bank. Some 110 IFAD-supported projects worth a total of US$5.2 billion are cofinanced by these partners.

Through efficient farming practices, improved business skills, rural infrastructure and access to financial services and markets, these projects and programmes are enabling millions of the poorest rural families grow out of poverty and achieve food security.

Focussing on development priorities in the Near East and North Africa

Cooperation between IFAD and Kuwait has also helped sharpen IFAD’s approach and enhance the impact of its projects in the Near East and North Africa (NENA). By December 2007, IFAD’s had invested in 106 projects in the NENA region through soft loans and grants in excess of US$1.3 billion to the benefit of more than 30 million rural poor people. IFAD’s interventions in the region focus increasingly on national development priorities. These include expanding poor rural people’s access to rural finance, rural youth unemployment, linking small growers of non-traditional crops with domestic and international markets, improving management of land and water resources, reducing vulnerability to water scarcity and resilience to climate change.

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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 more than US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped over 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 81 developing countries and one territory.