International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Agenda 2030 offers clear evidence that IFAD’s mandate of investing in rural people and enabling inclusive and sustainable transformation of rural areas, notably through smallholder agriculture-led growth, is of absolute global relevance today and over the coming decade.
IFAD’s work aims to catalyse country and global progress for rural people to overcome poverty and achieve food security through remunerative, sustainable and resilient livelihoods. All three strategic objectives of IFAD are related to water: SO1 to increase poor rural people’s productive capacities (incl. access to natural resources, agricultural technologies and production services), SO2 to increase poor rural people’s benefits from market participation (incl. water for agro-processing) and SO3 to strengthen the environmental sustainability and climate resilience of poor rural people’s economic activities (incl. environmental sustainability and climate change).
Estimated annual water and sanitation budget: IFAD water-related portfolio currently covers 118 projects in 68 countries, representing about 1.3 billion USD in loans, grants and technical expertise.
Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme
SDG 13, climate - IFAD has pioneered channeling climate and environmental finance to smallholder farmers with the establishment of its flagship "Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme, ASAP". ASAP is incorporated into IFAD’s regular investment processes and benefits from rigorous quality control and supervision systems. IFAD places strong emphasis on facilitating the restoration and sustainable management and use of ecosystems and their services in projects and through policy engagement and partnership-building. Its programmes develop capacities and incentives for rural people to become better stewards of natural resources by fostering creation of environmental service markets for carbon sequestration, watershed management and safeguarding biodiversity. By 2025, IFAD’s objective is to reach 100 per cent climate mainstreaming. POLICY ENGAGEMENT (supporting agricultural institutions in IFAD Member States seeking to achieve international climate change commitments and national adaptation priorities); CLIMATE RISK ASSESSMENT (facilitating the systematic use of climate risk information when planning investments to increase resilience); WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT (increasing the participation of women in, and their benefits from, climate-change adaptation activities); PRIVATE-SECTOR ENGAGEMENT (strengthening the participation of the private sector and farmer groups in climate change adaptation and mitigation activities); CLIMATE SERVICES (enhancing the use of climate information for when planning investments to increase resilience); NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT & GOVERNANCE (strengthening the participation and ownership of smallholder farmers in decision-making processes and improving technologies for the governance and management of climate-sensitive natural resources); KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (enhancing the documentation and dissemination of knowledge on approaches to climate-resilient agriculture).
IFAD President appointed Chair of UN-Water UN-Water 18 September, 2017 Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has been appointed the new Chair of UN-Water by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres. UN-Water is the UN’s coordination mechanism … Read more
