NAIROBI, Dec 15 (IPS) – The world is not on track to end hunger and poverty as a future of growing food insecurity and climate challenges awaits. Small farmers are the backbone of food production, producing a third of the world’s food and up to 70 percent of the food consumed in Africa and Asia, but they are often deprived of the services they need to get by. of poverty. and food insecurity.
As small farmers and rural communities – home to 80 percent of the world’s poorest – move ever closer to the epicenter of climate-driven disasters, world leaders urgently need to increase funding to provide the essential tools for rural communities to adapt and mitigate these challenges.
To address these challenges, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has received record pledges to support its largest-ever replenishment, putting the organization on track to positively impact the lives of millions of people. rural people around the world.
“This is a clear sign of the confidence Member States place in IFAD and the importance they place on our ability to deliver results and impact through targeted investments that transform agriculture, rural economies and food systems. They understand that investing in rural people and small producers, who produce a third of the world’s food and up to 70 percent of the food in low- and middle-income countries, is the only path to a secure future. eating. » declared Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD, after the pledging session in Paris.
The fourth replenishment session, hosted by Angola and France in Paris, saw an increase in pledges. IFAD is both a United Nations organization and an international financial institution (IFI) working in remote rural areas where poverty and hunger are deepest, to ensure that rural people are not left behind and are equipped to escape poverty.
A replenishment session is the process by which IFAD mobilizes its core resources – an accountability exercise by which IFAD reports to its Member States on its strategy, reform and performance, usually midway through the replenishment session. previous replenishment period.
To date, 48 Member States have committed 1.076 billion USD to replenish their basic resources. Ten countries increased their previous contribution by more than 50%, and 31 countries pledged their highest contribution ever, marking a record level of financing achieved for IFAD’s work program 2025-2027 .
IFAD launched its 13th replenishment in February 2023, calling for increased investments in small farmers and rural populations in developing countries. Every three years, Member States replenish IFAD’s resources. The consultation culminated in a pledging session in Paris. Fundraising will then continue into 2024. Typically, more than 100 countries contribute to IFAD replenishments, making it the most widely supported of all major IFI replenishments.
“I am humbled by the positive momentum of today’s session and am confident that IFAD’s ambitious call to mobilize $2 billion in new financing to support an impactful $10 billion work program more than 100 million rural people will be achieved in the coming months,” Lario said.
To address the complex challenges facing rural communities today, IFAD has urged world leaders to increase rural investment. IFAD Member States have demonstrated their unprecedented support and IFAD’s central role in revitalizing the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals by investing in rural populations.
“We are counting on IFAD to guarantee the resilience we seek to build, taking into account climate change and all other factors that hinder our development,” said Carmen do Sacramento Neto, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Angola, at the opening of the session. .
“The living conditions of rural populations and fishermen where the IFAD project was implemented have improved, and this has had a significant impact. We announce that Angola will maintain its contribution and increase it in the years to come, as a clear sign of our commitment.
“With four out of five of the world’s poorest people living in rural areas, the road to a prosperous, resilient and food-secure future runs through rural communities. As multiple crises converge, rural populations need us to invest in them more than ever. As countries scramble to respond to unforeseen crises, development budgets are strained, and making the right investments is urgent and crucial. »
Working with Member States, IFAD invests in rural development and across food systems to help small farmers produce more and more diverse foods, access markets, apply new technologies and grow. adapt to climate change. IFAD ensures that Member States’ contributions reach those who need them most, with 45 percent of total concessional financing going to low-income countries and at least 30 percent of core resources dedicated to emergency situations. fragility.
By announcing funds for SDGs 1 and 2 today, we will spend less on development tomorrow. For every dollar spent on resilience, we now save up to $10 in emergency aid in the future, not to mention preventing hardship for millions of people around the world. IFAD’s work has a measurable impact.
Between 2019 and 2021, IFAD investments improved the incomes of 77.4 million rural people, while 62 million rural people increased their production and 64 million rural people improved their access to markets, allowing them to sell their production.
In addition, through improved agricultural practices, access to technical assistance and credit, and the diversification of their sources of income, IFAD helped 38 million people build their resilience, which is a measure of their ability to recover from climate and non-climate crises. shocks.
Report from the UN IPS Office
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
