Arab Coordination Group Meeting

Distinguished Heads of Arab Coordination Group Institutions,

Friends,

It is a pleasure for me to address you today.

I am glad to be able to contribute to a discussion on how best to strengthen our already strong partnerships.

And a special thank you goes to the Arab Coordination Group Secretariat for the gracious invitation and the OPEC Fund for hosting.

The Arab Coordination Group plays a pivotal role in development finance. Your initiatives on food and climate, and your investments in infrastructure, are contributing to more resilient rural communities where the need is highest.

IFAD shares that mission and we value your partnership as we try to achieve it.

In fact - there would be no IFAD without the OPEC/Arab nations.

IFAD was born out of the terrible famines of the 1970s, when one-in-four people in the developing world did not have enough to eat, and millions of children were starving.

IFAD was a new kind of organization, a trio of firsts. It was the first United Nations specialised agency that was also an International Financial Institution.

It was also the first partnership between OPEC, OECD and developing countries. And it was the first IFI to be focused exclusively on rural areas.

OPEC countries were among the first Member States to ratify the Agreement establishing IFAD in 1977, and the Arab Gulf states contributed nearly 20% of IFAD’s initial resources.

Poverty and hunger run deepest in rural areas, and success depends not on charity, but on long-term investments in people, resilience, and infrastructure.

Since our founding, IFAD has provided more than US$24 billion in grants and low-interest loans, including to projects in Arab countries worth US$6.5 billion.

These investments have ensured access to basic needs and services for rural communities, such as financial services, natural resource management, enhanced productivity – and access to markets so they can sell their products at fair prices.

Colleagues,

All of us here today are committed to creating a world where no one is left behind, and to doing our utmost to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

But the problems we face together: climate change, entrenched poverty, hunger, the erosion of ecosystems and biodiversity – all have deep connections to agriculture.

And the solutions can be found in agriculture and rural areas.

We have probably all heard that agriculture emits 23 per cent of global greenhouse gases – but from 2007 to 2016, agriculture actually absorbed *29* per cent of all human carbon dioxide emissions.

When agriculture is done right, it can allow nature to work and find balance. Agriculture can be a vital ally in the battle against global warming because it can help sequester carbon in plants and soil.

Agroecology can help fight climate change and biodiversity together.

Investments in agriculture are two to three times more effective than investments in any other sector at fighting poverty.

And small-scale farmers play a critical role in providing affordable and nutritious food to their domestic markets.

Half of all the food eaten on earth is grown on small farms of less than 5 hectares[1]. Yet too often these farmers are excluded from financing, social services, even electricity, and paved roads.

These are basic services that no sustainable business can do without, no matter how small. Services that would help them grow more, earn more, and reach more markets – and provide more sustainably grown food.

Colleagues,

Even as we see development progress in many parts of the world, we are not seeing the divide closing nearly fast enough in Africa.

Despite the fact that Africa’s economy will be the second fastest growing this year[2] – the benefits are not yet reaching the most marginal rural communities.

For almost fifty years, IFAD has invested around half of our core resources on the continent – a number we plan to increase to sixty per cent.

With our strong track record of investing in projects that deliver sustainable and lasting results, IFAD has become a trusted partner for governments, NGOs, Public Development Banks, development agencies, and the private sector.

Most important of all: we are trusted by millions of African small family farmers.

This trust is the result of genuinely inclusive processes that are owned by the farmers and rural entrepreneurs who stand most to benefit from investments and policy decisions.

And this trust is also a result of our focus on vulnerable populations in fragile situations. We have decades of experience of investing in their ability to withstand climate extremes, instability, and harsh environments.

Let me give you two examples.

In Jordan, the Small Ruminants Investment and Graduating Households in Transition Project (widely known as SIGHT) has supported more than 35,000 households of Syrian refugees and host communities with food packages and grants for micro-businesses.

Forty percent of these households have moved out of poverty. Participants say the project provides more than just a stable source of income. It has helped families be less anxious about the future, and to preserve their dignity.

In Niger, we invested in farmers to plant grasses and trees to restore watersheds and conserve soil and water.

At its midpoint, over 100,000 hectares of degraded land was restored, reducing competition for grazing land, and lessening the risk of conflict between farmers and herders.

Yields of onions, cabbage and tomatoes are up 40 per cent. Sorghum production is up 63 per cent and rainfed millet is up an incredible 78 per cent.

Nutrition has improved. And the project is expected to sequester 33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.

Friends,

There is an African proverb that says – if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

IFAD has never tried to go it alone. We work with governments, NGOs, farmers and their organizations, the private sector, and a wide range of development partners.

We partner with them to ensure smallholder farmers have access to finance, information, training and inputs to improve their resilience and contribute to sustainable food systems.

And I am proud that we have partnered with many of you.

Over the years we have co-financed nearly 120 projects with the OPEC Fund, contributing to the well-being of rural communities in over 90 countries.

Today the OPEC Fund is one of IFAD’s largest co-financiers, with contributions of almost US$900 million. In Niger alone, 1.4 million people benefit from this partnership with improved farming facilities, better marketplace infrastructure and technical training.

Each member of the ACG plays important role in development finance to address pressing global challenges.

And together, your initiatives on food and climate action, and commitment to allocate up to US$50 billion for resilient infrastructure and inclusive societies in Africa is testimony to this.

IFAD also commits to devoting 100 per cent of our core funding to the poorest countries. Our Strategic Framework focuses our efforts on increasing the ability of poor rural communities’ ability to produce, add value to their products, and get them to market – all through an environmental lens.

We are now working on a new strategic framework, which will redouble our efforts to reduce rural poverty in Africa.

And as a global leader in assembling finance for sustainable solutions, we intend to continue to develop our financing and co-financing models for even better results.

Colleagues,

Sadly, like our founding days, we find ourselves again in a cycle of recurring crises, with a growing need to tackle conflict, hunger and poverty.

And so today we restate our shared ambition. By enriching the partnership between IFAD and the Arab Coordination Group, we can achieve our mutual goals of a world without poverty and hunger.

On behalf of IFAD, and also personally, I want to express my appreciation to all of you for your attention.

I look forward to working together to take our partnership to the next level.

Thank you.