Central Asia and Eastern European countries will be part of knowledge transfer and capacity building network 

Rome, 28 March  2013 –The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has provided a US$2 million grant for the Impact and Scaling up Pathways (ISP) programme to support the scaling up of rural poverty reduction interventions through effective learning networks and tailored approaches.

The grant agreement for the Regional Centre on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (CARDNE) was signed earlier this month by Ghaleb Tuffaha, Chief Executive of CARDNE and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.

IFAD is committed to an ambitious scaling up agenda to accelerate poverty alleviation and to continuously improve the performance and development results of its implementing partners for improved wider impact. The ISP programme is a good example of this as it will build upon on the successful experiences of rural development projects and programmes in six selected countries by identifying best practices for replication and scaling-up. In addition, the programme aims to foster new partnerships in order to continuously improve operational performance and impact.

Learning networks will be created between the projects and programmes within the six selected countries, which will link national partners and project-related staff, as well as those working across the Near East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern European regions. An innovative feature of the programme is that the capacity building of IFAD's implementing partners will be tailored to their specific needs and rooted into their daily work as opposed to static, classroom training approach. An inter-active knowledge portal will also be established, which will serve as a valuable resource for sharing results.

Press release No.: IFAD/16/2013
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested about US$14.8 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering over 400 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nations' food and agriculture hub. It is a unique partnership of 172 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).