IFAD’s US$22 million multi-donor facility, Financing Facility for Remittances, increases economic opportunities for the rural poor through the support and development of innovative, cost-effective, and easily accessible international and/or domestic remittance services. The main objective of the Facility is to support projects and activities that:

• reduce the transfer costs of remittances
• develop institutional partnership
• bank the unbanked rural population
• promote innovative remittance and financial services
• promote productive rural investment of migrants’ capital in their countries of origin.

To achieve these objectives, the FFR launches competitive annual calls for proposals to:

• improve access to remittances in rural areas
• link remittances to additional financial services and products
• develop productive rural investment channels for migrants and community- based organizations
• promote awareness-creation and foster an enabling environment for rural remittances.

The Facility was established to promote inclusive financial systems and innovative strategic partnerships between rural financial institutions and remittance operators linking non-profit organizations with formal financial intermediaries, money transfer operators, microfinance institutions, financial cooperatives, non-financial institutions, postal networks and philanthropic organizations, among others. The Facility aims to scale up and replicate the lessons learned from the programme across other regions of the world.

During the 2009 Global Forum on Remittances , the Sending Money Home to Africa regional report was officially released.

This study summarizes regulatory issues relating to foreign currency transfers, competition in the marketplace and areas in which remittances intersect with financial intermediation. African workers send home more than US$40 billion to the region each year but restrictive laws and costly fees hamper the power of remittances to lift people out of poverty, according to this new report by the UN’s rural poverty agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).