22/2/2002
The International Fund for Agricultural Development

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was established in 1977 to finance agricultural development projects, primarily for food production, to combat rural hunger and poverty in developing countries.

The 1974 World Food Conference reached the conclusion that the causes of food insecurity and famine lie not so much in failures of food production as in structural problems relating to poverty and to the fact that a majority of the developing world's poor populations are concentrated in rural areas.

The Fund tries to combat these difficulties by targeting its efforts at the poorest of the world's people: small farmers, the rural landless, nomadic pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous people and, across all groups, poor rural women. The Fund works in several areas to provide a strategic framework to its mission of enabling the world's rural poor to overcome poverty.

The Fund acts first as an innovator developing effective rural poverty-eradication instruments at the grass-roots level. It also seeks to build and share intellectual capital through a process of mutual learning and lesson-sharing with other groups and agencies active in this field. Through partnership with other donors, governments, NGOs and civil-society organisations, the impact of poverty-eradication efforts can be refined and extended, and through working directly with the individuals experiencing poverty, the Fund seeks to develop the capacity of the poor to themselves confront the issues they define as critical. This includes increasing access to knowledge, expanding the influence that the poor can exert over public policy and institutions; and enhancing the bargaining power of poor people in the marketplace.

However, the Fund's primary work is in providing grants and loans to poverty-alleviation projects. In line with the Fund's mission statement, the bulk of its resources are made available to rural projects in low-income countries. Loans are made on highly concessional terms, repayable over 40 years, including a grace period of ten years and a 0.75% service charge per annum.

Since its establishment, IFAD has financed 603 projects in 115 countries and independent territories, to which it has committed almost $8 billion in grants and loans. These projects have aimed at assisting 47 million rural poor households, equivalent to approximately 254 million people.

IFAD has three main sources of income: contributions from its members, loan repayments and investment income. The Fund began operations with initial contributions of almost $900 million in 1977, and has since had five replenishments of its resources. About two thirds of contributions have been provided by the industrialised member states; one third by the developing member states.

Membership of the Fund is open to any state that is a member of the United Nations or any of its specialised agencies. The Fund's highest authority is its Governing Council, on which all 162 of its Member States are represented. Sessions of the Governing Council are held annually and special sessions may be called when necessary. An Executive Board consisting of 18 Members and 18 Alternate Members, oversees the Fund's operations, particularly the approval of loans and grants. The President, elected by the Governing Council, is the Fund's chief executive officer. Mr Lennart Bage, fomer Head of the Swedish Government's Department for International Development Co-operation, is
the current President. Elected in February 2001, Mr Bage is the Fund's fourth president; the first from a developed country.

More information about IFAD can be found at www.ifad.org