Given IFAD's mandate to promote sustainable rural development and increase the access of the rural poor to financial services, the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) facilitates development of innovative pilot projects that will exert an important development impact on rural communities. The FFR is based on the growing demand from a variety of RFIs and practitioners from both from the North and South to implement concrete initiatives to promote access to remittance services in developing countries, maximize their development impact at the household level, and address some of the constraining factors that hinder the development of such services.

Building on the experiences and the success of the IFAD/MIF initiative, the FFR was established to promote innovations in remittances worldwide, not limiting the programme to only Latin America and the Caribbean. A close cooperation framework has been developed between the global and the Latin America and the Caribbean facilities in order to maximize synergies and develop cross-learning opportunities.

IFAD acts as the coordinating institution for the overall initiative and provides administrative support and supervision of programme activities. All FFR donors are active participants in the FFR Steering Committee and the FFR Investment Committee as proactive decision makers on the FFR activities. Current FFR members include:

• Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
• European Commission
• Ministry of Finance of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain
• Multilateral Investment Fund
• United Nations Capital Development Fund

Steering Committee. The Steering Committee selects the initiatives to fund, reviews their progress, and suggests adjustments that may be required as a result of changed circumstances, while assuring general supervision of the activities financed. The Steering Committee meets annually, with additional meetings as needed.

It provides strategic guidance, technical analysis of the FFR proposals, knowledge dissemination, overall monitoring, recommendations on proposal selection, approves annual work plans, and gives recommendations to the Investment Committee. This committee includes the FFR donors, special technical advisers and the FFR team.

Investment Committee. The Investment Committee reviews the technical aspects of the proposals, selects proposals and officially approves their funding. This committee includes the FFR donors and relevant IFAD staff.