36th session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

13-14 February 2013. Rome. 36th session of IFAD's Governing Council. The power of partnerships: Forging alliances for sustainable smallholder agriculture.

Held annually at IFAD headquarters in Rome, the Governing Council consists of all of IFAD's Member States and is its main decision-making body. Against a global backdrop of unprecedented economic and environmental challenges, this year's Governing Council meeting looked towards new and improved forms of partnership with governments and other donors, the private sector and smallholder farmers themselves.

The power of partnerships: Investing in sustainable rural developmentUnited Nations Special Representative David Nabarro kicks off this high-level panel in conversation with James Mwangi, CEO and Managing Director of Equity Bank, Kenya. Their dialogue explored potential opportunities for smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs to strengthen food security, reduce poverty and build prosperity by forging alliances with public and private sector entities. Afterwards, a panel of experts discussed the pros and cons of different partnership models in the agribusiness value chain, ways to foster an enabling policy environment for such partnerships, and the circumstances under which they are a viable option for smallholder farmers.

Uploaded Feb 19, 2013 Duration 02:08:25


Secrets of mutually beneficial and successful partnershipsTulio Garcia, Executive Director of Cooperative 4Pinos; Salah Hegazy, Chairman of Agrofood; Mylène Kherallah, Senior Technical Advisor for IFAD on Private Sector Development; Tadesse Meksela, General Manager of Coffee Cooperative Orioma; Lucian Peppelenbos, Director of Learning and Innovation. Moderator: Alex Puissant, international journalist and facilitator. The speakers share their experiences in forging successful partnerships with public/private sector actors and also with and between smallholder producers, discuss the social impact of partnerships at community level, and examine the challenges and opportunities of: organizing smallholder farmers into cooperatives enabling smallholders to expand their operations in a cost-effective manner and gain access to markets providing smallholders access to knowledge, research, technology and finance developing policies that cater to the needs of all stakeholders and partners.

Uploaded Feb 18, 2013 Duration 01:50:02

Resources:

Keynote speeches and statements delivered at the 36th session of IFAD's Governing Council
Acceptance statement by Kanayo Nwanze, President of IFAD

Governing Council panels, round tables and side events:

1. Measuring impact – Understanding pathways to rural transformation
Concept note: Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Presentations:
Phillip Davies: The importance of measuring the impact of development projects. The perspectives of 3ie
Alessandra Garbero: Challenges of impact evaluation
Gero Carletto: Potential use of the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) for impact evaluation

2. High-level round table with Governors: Partnerships for financing agricultural and rural development
Concept note: Arabic | English | French | Spanish
Opening statement of IFAD President to the high-level round table with Governors: Partnerships for financing agricultural and rural development

First Global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD
First global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples' Forum at IFAD
Synthesis of deliberations of the first global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD
Indigenous Peoples' Forum Concept note: English | French | Spanish
Policy brief on IFAD's engagement with indigenous peoples: English | French | Spanish
Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility

Video: Watch the trailer for Black Gold, a documentary about Tadesse Meskela – one of the speakers at the IFAD Governing Council panel on secrets of successful partnerships – and his organization's struggle to protect 74,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers from exploitation. 

The Mozambique Country Team - the living proof of just how powerful a partnership can be, was presented the very first Award of Excellence: Working Together in the Field.

Fifth General Meeting of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD)

5-6 February 2012. Dakar. The Fifth General Meeting of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) was held  to review progress in a 10 year initiative to double Sub-Sahara Africa’s rice production.

The conference reviewed the progress and challenges of the rice sector development in Sub-Sahara Africa during the past five years and discussed the key activities of the next five years.

Background:
The CARD initiative was launched during the 2008 Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) jointly by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to help strengthen overall African agricultural development.

Other CARD members are the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA), the Africa Rice center, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

 The initiative aims to double Sub-Sahara Africa’s rice production to 28 million tons by 2018, through coordination of all the stakeholders including governments, donors, NGOs and private enterprises.

Chatham House Food Security 2012 Sustainable Intensification

10-11 December 2012. London, UK. This conference examined the potential of technologies – old, new and pipeline – to deliver sustainable intensification in agriculture.
Is a resilient global agricultural system achievable?

• Is technology crucial to delivering increased agriculture outputs in tandem with environmental objectives?
• Is the current regulation evidence-based or driven by the public’s perception of risk?

Business leaders, policy makers, opinion formers and civil society representatives teased out the implications of the technological approach to sustainable intensification of food production, including the need for regulatory systems to adopt evidence based policies on risks and benefits to ensure resilient production.

Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) President Jane Karuku called for a continued global push for increased smart investments in Africa's agriculture, both by governments and the private sector. After speaking at the Chatham House Food Security 2012 Sustainable Intensification: Miracle or Mirage conference, Nwanze and Karuku addressed a group of international media in London emphasizing that farming is a business and the private sector must fuel the development of Africa's agribusiness in upgrading smallholder agriculture to meet demand from foreign and emerging markets in developing countries.

Food Security: Priorities for Action - Catherine Woteki of USDA

IFAD Supports EAC’s Efforts to Be Food Self-Sufficient

7 November 2012. East African Community Secretariat.  The president of the Rome-based International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) Mr. Kanayo Nwanze has assured the East African Community of full support in its efforts to fight hunger and become food self-sufficient.

He said that EAC would be their top priority in 2013 adding that his senior officials would be dispatched to discuss areas of co-operation in revamping food production in the region.

“EAC is exemplary in its integration programmes and I fully endorse opportunities to work with the region”, stated Mr. Nwanze during discussions with EAC Secretary General Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera at IFAD headquarters in Rome, Italy, 6 November 2012.

Amb. Sezibera informed the IFAD President that EAC has developed an Action Plan to reverse the region’s persistent food insecurity.

“The region is frequently affected by food shortages and pockets of hunger although it has capacity to produce enough food for local consumption and surplus for export to the world market,” the EAC Secretary General said.

He added that the five-year Action Plan was adopted by the 9th Extra-Ordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State, the highest decision making body, mid this year.

The aim of the Action Plan is to significantly increase production of strategic food security commodities through access to inputs and promotion of cross border production in the region.

The EAC is also establishing early warning system for monitoring food shortage, said Amb. Sezibera.

Also present during the courtesy visit were Amb. Deo Rwabita from Uganda, the outgoing Dean and Chair of EAC Ambassadors in Italy, and Amb. Renovat Ndayirukiye, Burundi’s Ambassador to Italy.

IFAD Launches Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme

4 October 2012: The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has launched a new programme to channel climate and environmental finance to smallholder farmers in an effort to leverage a greater impact on climate change resilience through IFAD's new annual investments of approximately $1 billion.

The Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) will provide financing targeted at integrating and scaling-up adaptation into traditional agricultural development for smallholder activities.

The first grant of $4.9 million through the ASAP programme was approved to support the integration of adaptation into activities in the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo in the Republic of Mozambique, through the $45 million Pro-poor Value Chain Project in the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors (PROSUL). The project works on value chains related to irrigated horticulture, cassava, and red meat, and aims to increase income of farmers through intensification and diversification. The project's climate change elements are designed to respond to scarce and irregular rainfall, and to adapt to an expected long-term reduction in soil moisture content.

Activities will include installation of water management infrastructure, improvement of weather station networks, capacity building for farmer groups, and new agricultural techniques such as intensified cassava systems that integrate mixed cropping. This is expected to result in strengthened capacity to adapt to emerging risks and a reduction of soil degradation in drought-prone regions. [IFAD Press Release]

Deepening IFAD’s engagement with the private sector

DOWNLOAD Private Sector Strategy: Deepening IFAD’s engagement with the private sector - 348 KB

This strategy was prepared in response to the recommendations made in the Report of the Consultation on the Eighth Replenishment of IFAD’s Resources. It builds upon IFAD’s 2005 Private-Sector Development and Partnership Strategy and the corporate-level evaluation of that strategy completed by the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD in May 2011. It also incorporates feedback received from Executive Board members at the informal seminar held on 13 September 2011.

More specifically, the strategy proposes the following three
broad themes to deepen engagement with the private sector:

1. Strengthen IFAD’s existing instruments, such as country strategic opportunities programmes (COSOPs), project loans and grants, partnerships, and policy dialogue as related to rural pro-poor private-sector development;
2. Further build the capacity and knowledge of IFAD and its staff in engaging with the private sector and establishing partnerships;
3. Explore further and in a gradual manner the options for IFAD to better support the growth of rural small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries, in line with its mandate.

Related:

In this video, Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella, UNIDO Director General, on Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity harps on the need to commercialize agriculture in Africa.

Agribusiness for Africa’s prosperity

Opportunities and challenges for African agribusiness and agro-industries are the focus of a new book published by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). ”Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity” outlines the current status of agribusiness and agro-industrial activities in Africa, and situates them in historical and global context. It analyses the opportunities for diversified growth, and assesses the existing and potential sources of demand growth for agribusiness development on the continent.

In recent years, a renewed focus on agriculture has been evident in policy and development agendas for the African continent, yet little knowledge has been generated on the inter-linkages of production, agro-industry and markets, as well as the potential and capacities for developing them.

Edited by Kandeh K. Yumkella, Patrick M. Kormawa, Torben M. Roepstorff and Anthony M. Hawkins and with contributions from a wide range of international experts, the book fills what UNIDO perceived as a significant gap in knowledge concerning these issues.

Bill Gates and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame attended IFAD’s annual meeting

Microsoft Corp. chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates
gestures during the  (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

23 February 2012. ROME. IFAD, International Fund For Agricultural Development Annual Governing Council at Rome's IFAD headquarters.

Bill Gates announced nearly $200 million in grants from his foundation to agriculture including the $21 million Tropical Legumes II project and the $33 million Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project. The Tropical Legumes project is part of a ten-year plan to improve the livelihoods of farmers in 15 countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and is expected to bring $1.3 billion of added value to productivity of target crops including, chickpea, bean, cowpea, groundnut, pigeonpea and soybean. The introduction of new, improved seed is expected to address challenges such as drought, and pests and disease. This grant will assist the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The second phase of this Legumes project will build on the introduction of over 60 new legume varieties introduced during the first phase, by focusing on gender-specific interventions, monitoring and evaluation, and strengthening capacity of national agricultural research systems.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center's (CIMMYT) Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project will support the third phase to develop drought-tolerant maize that reduces the risk of crop failure and will directly impact up to seven million farmers.

Additional grants were made to: the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Agriculture for the Program for Africa's Seed System (PASS) - Phase 2 ($56 million); CARE for the Pathway to Secure Livelihoods Project ($15 million); Conservation International for an Integrated Monitoring System for Ecosystem Services in African Agricultural Landscapes ($10 million); the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines for the Protecting Livestock, Saving Human Live Project - Phase 2 ($41 million); and the Meridian Institute for the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa Project (PACA) ($20 million).

Gates has embraced high-tech — and to some critics controversial — solutions for boosting agriculture, including supporting genetic modification in plant breeding as a way to fight starvation and malnutrition. In separate remarks to reporters, he suggested critics should ask farmers in poor countries who have adopted such techniques in plant breeding, "do you mind that it was created in a laboratory?"

• Video elease date

  Mar 1, 2012

• Runtime

  01:12:31

Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, said his country is striving to rebuild its economy with coffee and tea production, which are significant sources of foreign exchange. Nearly two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line. But in the past five years progress has been made, Kagame said, noting that the country’s gross domestic product has grown at an average of 8 per cent.

Kagame urged the international community to “be bold and try what has not been done before. We must learn from what has worked and adapt these models to suit smallholder farmers. The reality in most developing countries is that smallholder agriculture remains the source of livelihood and food supply. Every farmer counts.”

The IFAD Farmers' Forum

20 - 21 February. Rome. About 95 delegates from farmers' and fishers' networks, and an equal number of observers, attended the Farmers' Forum. The forum discussed a.o. the importance to invest in strengthening the technical, managerial and organizational capacity of FOs, as well as their governance mechanisms and leadership skills. IFAD and other development organizations are playing a role in this area.

Various concrete solutions have been proposed as a way forward for FOs, in many cases by drawing on successful experiences that have potential for replication. It was suggested that IFAD and other development institutions provide a combination of loans and grants to financially support FOs. This could build their capacity while making FOs more responsible as owners of their own path towards sustainability.

Djibo Bagna of the West African producers' network ROPPA listed a series of specific policy questions that must be answered as a prerequisite for rural transformation. For example, how will smallholders gain access to credit and markets? And how can we empower rural women and youth, and build the capacities of producers' organizations? "The road ahead is still very long," said Bagna.

Background:

The Farmers' Forum is an emerging, bottom-up process of consultation and dialogue between small farmers and rural producers' organizations, IFAD and governments, focused on rural development and poverty reduction. Fully aligned with IFAD's strategic objectives, the Forum is rooted in concrete partnership and collaboration at the country and regional level. Engagement with rural organizations at the field level and dialogue at the international level are articulated as mutually reinforcing processes. Following consultations at the national and regional level, the Farmers' Forum meets every two years for a global consultation, in conjunction with the Governing Council of IFAD.

Sustainable smallholder agriculture: Feeding the world, protecting the planet

Centre-stage events

Wednesday 22 February

What promise will Rio herald for agriculture?” A conversation with Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda (FANRPAN)

Side events of the Farmers’ Forum

Thursday, 23 February 2012 (IFAD HQ)

14:00 - 16:00	“Organic farmers organizations: empowering farmers and promoting sustainable rural development” organised by IFOAM. – Oval Room A English | French | Spanish
14:00 - 16:00	“Linking research to advocacy in farmer organizations: building on country experiences”. organised by AgriNatura and the ESFIM project. – Oval Room B English | French | Spanish
14:00 - 16:00	“The role of livestock for farmers coping with environmental and social challenges of the future”. organised by Vétérinaires Sans Frontières  – Europa. - Room C 500 5th floor wing C English | French | Spanish
16:30 - 18:30	“Strengthening farmers' organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa– the Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa” (FOSCA). organised by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). – Oval Room A English | French | Spanish
16:30 - 18:30	“World Agricultures Watch”: FAO/CIRAD – organised by WAW secretariat at FAO. – Oval Room B English | French | Spanish
16:30 - 18:30	“International Year of Cooperatives”: jointly organised by IFAD, WFP and FAO. – Room C 500 5th floor wing C English | French | Spanish

Entretien avec Moussa Para Diallo, Président de la Confédération Nationale des Organisations des Paysans de Guinée (CNOPG), dans le cadre du Forum Paysan 2012, FIDA, Rome


4th global meeting of the Farmers' Forum . Opening session, part I