COP 22 IFAD INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

COP 22 IFAD INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Three quarters of the poorest people in the world live in the rural areas of developing countries. Most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Climate change, a growing global population, and volatile food and energy prices have the potential to push millions more vulnerable people into extreme poverty and hunger by 2030.

At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) we invest in rural people, empowering them to increase their food security, improve the nutrition of their families and increase their incomes. We help them build resilience, expand their businesses and take charge of their own development.

IFAD is an international financial institution and specialized United Nations agency based in Rome, the UN’s food and agriculture hub. Since 1978, we have provided US$18.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached about 464 million people.

In this episode Margarita Astralaga the director of environmental and climate division IFAD and she tells us about how because of global warming some coffee farmers will not be able to grow in certain areas.

IFAD reports that those small producers are being hurt the most because they really get hurt in the wallet as they are very poor. It is essential that the ground organisations get funded and also work with the media to spread the message and give the voice to those who are quietest. We hear from Khalida bhouzar the regional director IFAD and she tells us that sometime small activities can transform whole societies.

The IFAD have been looking after the poorest people on the earth and even have a 6 month course where participants don’t have to pay a penny and are given economic independence. The speaker Hassam Amel from the Marrakech centre runs a course that helps to train the poorest people and so they learn basic communication skills.

IFAD works where poverty and hunger are deepest: in the most remote regions of developing countries and fragile situations, where few development agencies venture. The director tells us that we must give a voice to women and to help transform the rural societies but with the sustainability. She says that when this initiative was started in morocco it showed how you can transform a whole society. For an in-depth description of what IFAD do please visit the website in the links below.

Links: https://www.ifad.org/

By Alex Mitchison