IFAD inaugural bond issuance to Asian investor Dai-Ichi Frontier Life ramps up investments to strengthen small-scale farmers’ resilience to climate change and fight hunger and poverty

Rome / Tokyo, 22 June 2022. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has today issued its first-ever bond in Asia of US$50 million with the Dai-ichi Frontier Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (Dai-ichi Frontier Life), setting the stage for increased investment in some of the world’s most vulnerable rural communities. The investment comes at a time when millions of rural people are at risk of falling into hunger and poverty due to skyrocketing global food, energy and fertilizer prices, and more frequent and extreme weather shocks driven by climate change.

“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Dai-ichi Fronter Life on this inaugural issue in Asia. They share our commitment to diversify and scale up funding to ensure that small-scale farmers who produce one third of the world’s food can adapt to climate change and other shocks and continue producing food and building better lives for their families,” said Katherine Meighan, Associate Vice-President of IFAD, General Counsel and acting Chief Financial Officer.

“In what are currently very volatile market conditions, we are especially pleased to have been able to secure such a long maturity. This is another step toward building a strong funding track record for IFAD,” said Natalia Toschi, IFAD’s Head of Funding, at IFAD’s Financial Operations Department.  

“IFAD-financed programmes and projects in countries around the world make a tangible contribution to many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We believe our commitment to our policy-holders is best achieved by investing the assets we manage on their behalf into initiatives such as those of IFAD to realize beneficial changes that bring about a sustainable society,” said Masakatsu Mizukami, Executive Officer from Dai-ichi Frontier Life.

With approximately JPY 9 trillion of assets under management as of 31 March 2022, Dai-Ichi Frontier Life, a provider of savings-type life and pensions insurance, is focused on being a life-long partner to its policy holders in the era of the 100-year life. Dai-Ichi Frontier Life’s support for the UN’s 17 SDGs is at the heart of its promotion of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) investments, as well as being core to achieving the Group’s goal of ‘realizing well-being’ and to upholding its corporate principles of ‘respecting human rights for all’ and ‘responding to climate change’.

The notes are being issued under a structure arranged solely by J.P. Morgan.

Three quarters of the world’s poorest people live in the rural areas of developing countries. Most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. With a growing global population and volatile food and energy prices, climate change has the potential to push millions more vulnerable people into extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. Today, one in ten people (more than 800 million globally) suffer from hunger. Those numbers will likely increase in the coming years without greater investment in small-scale farmers’ resilience to climate change impacts, market disruptions and other economic shocks. IFAD addresses these fragile situations through GDP growth generated by agriculture which is two to three times more effective at reducing poverty and food insecurity than growth in any other sector.

IFAD has been exploring new funding models to channel more resources to developing countries and vulnerable rural populations. IFAD issued its first bond placement in early June this year. It is the first United Nations Fund and the only UN body and specialized agency other than the World Bank Group to enter the capital markets.

Examples of IFAD funded projects:

• How farmers around the world are protecting nature’s delicate balance – and reaping the rewards
• Protecting homes and livelihoods in Bangladesh’s Haor Basin
• In Rwanda, public-private partnerships benefit small-scale cassava farmers
• Social media helps young rural Kenyan entrepreneurs battle the COVID-19 shutdown
• Cote d’Ivoire: making small-scale farmers resilient to climate change

Related photos

• Kenya - copyright: @IFAD/Edward Echwalu
• Ivory Coast - copyright: ©IFAD/David Paqui
• Bangladesh - copyright: ©IFAD/GMB Akash

Outline of bonds:

• Issue amount: USD 50 million
• Issue date: June 22, 2022
• Maturity: June 22, 2037 (15 years)

Contacts:

• International Fund for Agricultural Development: Caroline Chaumont, [email protected] / Tel +393496620155
• The Dai-ichi Frontier Life Insurance Co., Ltd.: Asset Management Department, [email protected]

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Press release No.: IFAD/39/2022

About International Fund for Agricultural Development

IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency. Based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub – IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided more than US$23.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to fund projects in developing countries. Last year, IFAD-supported projects reached an estimated 130 million people. A wide range of photographs of IFAD’s work in rural communities are available for download from its Image Bank.

About The Dai-ichi Frontier Life Insurance Co., Ltd.

Dai-ichi Frontier Life Insurance, is a life insurance provider and member of the Dai-ichi Life Group, guided by the Group’s ‘By your side, for life’ management philosophy. It aims to achieve the well-being of all the people it serves in the era of the ‘100-year life’ through savings-type insurance solutions and services to support their ‘asset building’ and ‘asset succession’. For more information about our company, please visit our official website.