Asia and the Pacific

Context

Home to 60 per cent of the world’s population, Asia and the Pacific is a region of dizzying contrasts, cutting-edge innovation and dynamic societies.

Economies are growing, but so too is the number of people. Despite the region's progress, more than half the people in the world who are hungry live in Asia and the Pacific. Food insecurity threatens to undo decades of development and prosperity.

With changing weather patterns, increasingly scarce natural resources, and rising costs of food, energy and fertilizer, it’s getting harder for rural people in the region to feed themselves, let alone their countries.

Climate change, natural disasters and degraded natural resources are growing problems. In some places, climate change poses an existential threat. Already, various Pacific islands are being submerged by rising sea levels.

Despite being the region with the highest climate finance flows, only a tiny fraction of these go to small-scale farmers, who are the backbone of food security in low- and middle-income countries.

Nearly half of South Asia’s population is under the age of 24. Over one million young people are set to enter the labour force every month until 2030. However, a looming jobs and skills crisis threatens this potential demographic dividend.

Though the challenges are enormous, so too are the opportunities. Over half the people in the Asia-Pacific region live in rural areas. Therefore, investing in rural people is paramount for sustainable development.

Flanked by the Indian and Pacific oceans, the blue economy is a huge untapped opportunity for the region. Sustainably managing these enormous resources could catalyze development in many areas – from generating renewable energy and promoting ecotourism to climate-friendly fisheries and transport.

With more than three in four people in the region owning a smartphone, digital technologies could be gamechanging. They could improve extension services, connect farmers to markets and provide timely climate information. E-commerce, agri-digital financial services, climate-smart agriculture and other digital tools could make agricultural value chains more efficient and inclusive.

Strategy

Rural people are at the core of IFAD’s mandate. In Asia and the Pacific, our investments focus on promoting gender equality, improving food security, increasing rural youth employment and strengthening climate resilience.

To date, IFAD has invested over US$2.8 billion in loans and grants in 20 countries, improving the lives of almost 43 million people in the region.

Our impact is even greater when we work collectively. Regional cooperation helps tackle issues that are not confined by borders, including infrastructure gaps, trade connectivity and climate change. For example, IFAD works with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to address land degradation, fires and transboundary haze across 12 countries.

We partner with the private sector to link small-scale farmers to supply chains and improve their access to technology and services. For example, we connected small-scale farmers in Indonesia with Mars Incorporated. The farmers now have a reliable buyer and improved incomes, while Mars knows it is buying quality products.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, IFAD channels climate finance to underserved small-scale farmers to help them adapt to climate change. We do this by building climate-resilient infrastructure, providing climate-smart agriculture tools, advancing nature-based solutions and installing early warning systems. In Bhutan and India, IFAD-supported projects promote approaches that prioritize renewable energy. In Bangladesh, embankment roads means farmers can reach markets even during flooding.

We forge and nurture a wide range of partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region. This has resulted in strong co-financing ratios across our investment portfolio. Each dollar committed by IFAD in the region has catalysed nearly three dollars from co-financiers.

Going forward, IFAD will continue to invest in climate-smart agriculture, digital technologies and sustainable agrifood systems for a resilient future for the region’s rural people.