The International Agricultural Development Fund (IFAD)

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), or IFAD for short, is a financial institution of the United Nations system that provides loans for food and agricultural development to developing member countries. According to the preparation of the World Food Conference held in Rome in November 1974 in 1976, the business activities officially started in January 1978.

IFAD has 173 member countries. Headquartered in Rome, Italy. Its purpose is to raise funds and provide them to developing member countries with preferential conditions for the development of food production, improve the nutritional level of the people, and gradually eliminate rural poverty.

UN Organization Name: International Fund for Agriculture Development

Abbreviated: IFAD

Location: United Nations specialized agencies

Member: 173 member countries (September 2014)

President: Gilbert Houngbo (Togolese)

Headquarters: Rome, Italy

Publications: Annual publication of "IFAD Annual Report" (IFAD Annual Report)

Date of establishment: November 30, 1977

Official website: http://www.ifad.org/

What is the History of The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)?

In the early 1970s, agriculture in many parts of the world was in short supply and a "food crisis" occurred. With the active promotion of developing countries, the United Nations held the World Food Conference in Rome in November 1974 and decided to establish the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in order to provide agricultural development for developing countries, especially food production. Funding is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

On November 13, 1977, the "Agreement on the Establishment of an International Fund for Agricultural Development" came into effect. IFAD was established in December 1977 and started its business activities on January 1, 1978. It has now developed into one of the three major UN agencies for food and agriculture.

November 1995, Conference on Hunger and Poverty (Brussels, Belgium).

In January 1998, the 20th anniversary celebration of IFAD was held in Rome, Italy.

In November 2000, the IFAD seminar participated in a project-oriented logical framework method cycle.

Participants: IFAD directors, national portfolio managers, regional economists and evaluators, project managers or mechatronics personnel, cooperate on behalf of institutions, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental organizations, action research scholars and practitioners.

The plenary session of the plenary session outlines different project management methods.

What is the Purpose of The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)?

The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) provides funds to developing member countries with preferential conditions by raising funds for the development of food production, improving the nutritional level of the people, gradually eradicating rural poverty, and promoting north-south agriculture Cooperation and South-South cooperation.

Organization

Main IFAD Institutions

President of IFAD: Gilbert Houngbo (Togolese), took office in 2017 and will serve until 2021.

IFAD's organizational structure includes: board of directors, executive board of directors and management institutions.

1. Council of Directors

The IFAD Council of Directors is composed of all member countries and is the highest authority of IFAD. Each member country has one director and one deputy director.

The director has the right to vote, and the deputy director has the right to vote only when the director is absent.

The board of directors convenes an annual meeting each year to review the previous year’s work report, prepare next year’s work plan and budget. Also, decide on major issues such as supplementary donations, elect of a new president, revise of loan policies and loan conditions.

2. Executive Board

The executive board is an important deliberation and decision-making body in IFAD, second only to the council.

It is responsible for major policy formulation, and approval and review of major issues such as loan and grant projects, financial reports, budgets, and project investment plans.

It consists of 18 executive directors and 18 deputy executive directors. Each term of office is three years.

Among them, there are 8 executive directors and deputy executive directors in Group A, 4 each in Group B, and 6 each in Group C. China's C2 team has two executive directors and two vice executive directors.

3. Management organization

The management organization consists of the Office of the President, the Office of the Chief Advisor (Legal Affairs Department), the Audit and Inspection Office, the Secretariat, the Ethics Office, the Cooperation and Financing Affairs Department, the Financial Operations Department, the Department of Organization Services, the Strategy and Knowledge Management Department, and the Project Management Department.

There is also an independent evaluation office that is independent of the management and directly reports to the executive board.

Mode of Operation of IFAD

The management committee is the highest decision-making power of IFAD. Each member state represents the governor of the management committee, alternate governors and other designated advisers.

The Executive Committee is responsible for overseeing the general operation and approval of IFAD projects.

The members of the executive board are determined by the board of directors and are distributed as follows: eight members and eight alternate members (mainly OECD countries).

B: list four members and four alternate members (mainly OPEC countries)

List C: Six members and six alternate members. Each C member country (developing country) on a different list in two or three regions.

As of March 2013, IFAD headquarters has 567 formal employees, including 1 president, 4 assistant vice presidents, 25 D directors, 306 P (Professional) employees, and G service (General Service) There are 231 employees.

Internal structure of IFAD

As of December 2014, the staffing of IFAD is as follows:

312 professional and higher positions, 226 general service positions, professional positions exclude the positions of president and vice president.

In the professional and higher categories, employees are citizens of 82 Member States, reflecting the diverse recruitment and merit-based recruitment of IFAD.

In the professional category, 43% of the employees are women, while in general services, women represent 81% of the category. Overall, women accounted for 59% of IFAD’s employees.

In its associate professionals, special project officials program, the organization benefits from 27 service professionals from ten donor countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and South Korea. Internship program.

IFAD has accepted 69 interns from 25 countries: Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Kuwait, Mali, Malta, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In the Enhanced Internship Program, IFAD accepts 4 interns from 4 countries: Pakistan, France, Kenya and South Africa.

Members of International Fund for Agricultural Development

The members of the International Fund for Agricultural Development are divided into three categories:

Developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Developing countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other developing countries.

The source of funds mainly depends on the proportion of pledges made by the first and second countries, and voluntary contributions by members of the third type.

As of February 1997, there were 161 members. The first category of countries are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

The second category of countries are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: Algeria, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Venezuela.

The third category of countries are other developing countries.

As of October 24, 2012, there were 168 member countries in IFAD, including:

23 members of Group A (OECD), 12 members of Group B (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), and members of Group C (developing countries) 133 countries.

Among the members of Group C, it is subdivided into 50 members of Group C1 (Countries in Africa),

51 members of Group C2 (Countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific),

32 members of Group C3 (Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean) Pcs.

China joined the agency in January 1980.

As of September 2014, there were 173 member countries (see below):

Member States of the International Fund for Agricultural Development

Group	Member States
Group A	Austria	Belgium	Canada	Denmark	Estonia	Finland	France
	Germany	Greece	Hungary	Iceland	Indonesia	Iraq	Ireland
	Italy	Japan	Luxembourg	Netherlands	New Zealand	Nigeria	Norway
	Portugal	Spain	Sweden	Switzerland	United Kingdom	United States
Group B	Algeria	Gabon	Iran	Kuwait	Qatar	Saudi Arabia	United Arab Emirates
Group B	Venezuela
C1	Angola Central	Benin	Burkina Faso	Burundi	Cameroon	Cape Verde	African Republic
	Chad	United Republic of Tanzania	Comoros	Côte d’ Ivoire	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Djibouti	Madagascar
	Equatorial Guinea	Eritrea	Ethiopia	Gambia	Ghana	Guinea	Guinea- Bissau
	Kenya	Lesotho	Liberia	Libya	Egypt	Malawi	Mali
	Mauritania	Mauritius	Morocco	Mozambique	Namibia	Niger	Rwanda
	Sao Tome	Principe	Senegal	Seychelles	Sierra Leone	Somalia	South Africa
	South Sudan	Sudan	Swaziland	Congo	Togo	Tunisia	Uganda
	Zambia	Zimbabwe
C2	Afghanistan	Albania	Armenia	Azerbaijan	Bangladesh	Bhutan	Bosnia
	Herzegovina	Uzbekistan	Kyrgyzstan	Lao People's Democratic Republic	Papua New Guinea	Republic of Moldova	Democratic People's Republic of Korea
	Fiji	Georgia	India	Israel	Jordan	Kazakhstan	Kiribati
	Cambodia	China	Lebanon	Malaysia	Maldives	Malta	Marshall Islands
	Mongolia	Myanmar	Nauru	Nepal	Niue	Oman	Pakistan
	Island	Philippines	South Korea	Croatia	Romania	Samoa	Solomon Islands
	Sri Lanka	Syria	Tajikistan	Thailand	East Timor	Tonga	Turkey
	Tuvalu	Botswana	Vanuatu	Vietnam	Yemen
C3	Antigua	Barbuda	Argentina	Bahamas	Barbados	Belize	Bolivia
	Brazil	Chile	Colombia	Costa Rica	Cuba	Cyprus	Dominica
	Dominican Republic	Ecuador	El Salvador	Grenada	Guatemala	Guyana	Haiti
	Honduras	Jamaica	Mexico	Nicaragua	Panama	Paraguay	Peru
	St kitts	Nevis	Saint Lucia	Saint Vincent	Grenadines	Suriname	Trinidad
	Tobago	Uruguay

What are the Main Activities of The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)?

IFAD is an international financial institution that provides financial services for poverty alleviation and agricultural development in developing countries.

By the end of 2013, IFAD had invested approximately US $ 15.7 billion in poverty-stricken areas in developing countries.

In terms of increasing food production, there are short-term projects, long-term projects and policy support projects.

i. Short-term projects are mainly to improve crop yields by improving land, improving irrigation and drainage, improving varieties, improving farming systems and management levels.

ii. The long-term project is mainly to improve and improve the production and living conditions of farmers through the construction of water conservancy, reclamation and immigration.

iii. The policy support project is mainly to assist the government to solve the capital needs for agricultural policy investment in land, price, credit, market, subsidies and so on.

In terms of poverty eradication, IFAD mainly emphasizes that loan projects should be directly used for individual farmers and rural women with poor economic conditions, but not for state-owned enterprises or for profit for private capital.

Funds

What are the Sources of Funds of The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)?

The funding sources of IFAD include:

i. Founding funds

ii. Member countries supplement

International Agricultural Development Fund in Brazil

Donations.

iii. Special donations from non-member countries and from other sources.

iv. Investment income from IFAD. The funding of IFAD funds is negotiated and proposed by the three categories of countries.

Type I and II member countries are the main donors of IFAD.

Type III member countries are the main recipients of IFAD, but they also donate part of the funds on a voluntary basis.

The IFAD replenishes funds every 3-5 years and makes a total of five supplementary fund pledges, totaling a total of 4.1 billion special drawing rights (including the founding fund).

How is Fund Allocation under The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) done?

IFAD mainly provides preferential financial support for poverty alleviation and agricultural development in developing countries, helping countries improve food security and promote the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

From 1978 to the end of 2011, IFAD invested a total of 12.945 billion US dollars in poverty-stricken areas in developing countries, supporting 892 projects and benefiting 330 million rural poor.

The grant is used for technical assistance and does not exceed 7.5% of the annual work plan. Loans are divided into three categories, namely:

Highly concessional loans, charge a service charge of 0.75% per year (1% before 1994), and a loan period of 40 years (50 years before 1994), including a grace period of 10 years.

Any country whose GDP per capita does not exceed US $ 805 can use such loans.

Moderate preferential loan, the annual interest rate is equivalent to 50% of the floating rate of other international financial institutions (now 3.54%)

This type of loan is applicable to countries with a loan period of 20 years, including a grace period of 5 years, and a GDP per capita between US $ 806-1305.

Ordinary loans, with an annual interest rate equivalent to 100% of the floating rates of other international financial institutions (now 7.07%), loan period 15-18 years, including a grace period of 3 years, applicable to developing countries with per capita gross national product of more than 1,306 .

The loan project involves nine fields including agricultural development, rural development, credit, irrigation, animal husbandry, fishery, immigration and settlement, agricultural product storage, processing and sales, scientific research and extension training, and emphasizes support for rural poor women.

IFAD Fund Application

Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD cooperates with the government in development and financial planning and projects to enable the rural poor to overcome poverty.

Since opening in 1978, IFAD has invested $ 14.9 billion in 954 projects and plans, and has reached about 430 million poor rural people.

In recipient countries, governments and other sources of financing, including project participants, contributed $ 13 billion and co-invested with multilateral, bilateral, and other donor agencies about $ 10 billion.

This is a total investment of about USD 23 billion.

IFAD’s poverty alleviation not only serves as a bank, but also as an advocate for the rural poor.

Its multilateral foundation provides a natural global platform to discuss important policy issues, affect the lives of the rural poor, and focus on the core role of rural development to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

In 2013, the new representative of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (FIDA) in Burundi Hamed Haidara told the media that the International Fund for Agricultural Development will provide Burundi with more support, the amount of which has increased from the previous US $ 150 million to US $ 300 million.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development has four major projects in Burundi, mainly related to the reconstruction of animal husbandry, agriculture and other fields and the employment of rural young people.

Principle of aid to China

On October 27, 1989, the IFAD's loan strategy to China included the following eight points:

1. Priority should be given to poverty-stricken areas in border areas.

2. Emphasis on helping poor farmers in collective development activities.

3. Pay special attention to strengthening the participation of farmers' organizations and other forms of organizations.

4. Encourage the use of new and applicable technologies,

5. Encourage institutional innovation to help remote and poor rural households obtain production inputs, credit and support services.

6. Support market sales to increase cash income of poor farmers.

7. Provide financial assistance to labor-intensive processing enterprises managed by the beneficiaries.

8. Emphasize business diversification in order to correct the past practice that only focused on food production.

Based on IFAD’s experience and lessons in implementing projects around the world, the following eight points have been added:

9. Determine the feasibility of the beneficiary method.

10. Tilt to minority areas.

11. Pay attention to food security and food and clothing issues.

12. According to the loan limit specified in the project activity.

13. Lending institutions and village committees should be strengthened to help with loan issuance and effective use.

14. On the basis of continuous planting experiments to make better use of land and water resources, encourage continuous development.

15. Support extension, skills training and the development of local institutions.

16. The project area should be appropriately reduced in order to more effectively determine the beneficiary target and facilitate the project implementation.

Relations with China

China officially joined the Agricultural Development Fund in 1980 and has maintained good cooperative relations with it. Since 1996, China has served as the Executive Director of the Agricultural Development Fund (as Deputy Executive Director in 2005).

In July 1979, the Chinese delegation took advantage of the opportunity to participate in the "World Conference on Rural Reform and Rural Development" in Rome, and contacted IFAD officials to begin cooperation between the two sides.

In the winter of 1979, while participating in the FAO Conference, the Chinese delegation consulted with IFAD officials on membership, and then officially joined IFAD in 1980 and promised to pledge.

In the second half of 1980, China submitted an application for the "Northern Grassland and Livestock Development Project" and began substantial cooperation with the Agricultural Development Fund.

With the development of the business, mutual visits of high-level officials from both sides have become more frequent. The first three presidents of IFAD:

Al Sultan, Sudri, and Yazeli have all visited China successively and met with Chinese leaders. When Chinese leaders visited Italy, they also met with high-level officials such as the then president A lot of work has been done to promote friendly cooperation between the two sides.

Since joining the IFAD in 1980, China has pledged a total of 30.385 million US dollars to the IFAD, including: initial pledge of 600,000 US dollars and 600,000 yuan.

The first phase of supplementary funds pledged was 1.3 million US dollars.

Supplementary funds pledged 1.8 million US dollars.

The third phase of supplementary funds

Pledged 8 million US dollars. The fourth supplementary funds pledged 8.5 million US dollars.

The fifth supplementary funds pledged 10 million US dollars.

As a category III member country, China had used highly concessional loans and medium concessional loans alternately in the early period of cooperation with IFAD.

Since 1987, IFAD has been providing highly concessional loans to China.

As of 1990, IFAD has provided 16 concessional loans to China with an agreed loan amount of US $ 400 million.

The IFAD loan project covers 150 poor counties (cities) in 17 provinces (cities and autonomous regions) in China, and about 9 million poor farmers directly benefited.

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