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IFAD ready to help in farm sector uplift

The UN body chief tells The Daily Star

Reaz Ahmad
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is seeking to mobilise more funding for rural and farm sector development in Bangladesh, and is
also set to open a full-fledged country office in Dhaka.
"Encouraged by the practice of democracy at grassroots-level organisations in Bangladesh, we sought directions from
the government (of Bangladesh) on areas where IFAD can further assist and tout for funding through co-financing," President of the Romebased specialised UN body
Kanayo F Nwanze told The Daily Star in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
Nwanze, now on a visit to Bangladesh, said he had a meeting with the prime
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minister, and she showed great concern about the fallouts of climate change in the livelihoods of smallholding farmers in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is the 3rd largest recipient of IFAD assistance in Asia, and IFAD has invested more than $578 million in loans and grants for rural infrastructure and farm development over the last 30 years. If estimated with co-financing by other donors, the amount rises to $1 billion.
Nwanze gave the interview at the UN Information Centre in Dhaka on Tuesday night following a visit to Sunamganj where IFAD funding resulted in leasing out 300 water bodies to rural poor. This lifted 1.3 lakh households to a higher level of livelihoods since 2003.
"If you ask me to share one good development in Bangladesh with IFAD’s 167 other member-countries, I would say it is the practice of democracy in running the
organisations at grassroots level, formed by the rural poor -- many of whom are women -- and managing and maintaining many rural development programmes by rotating leaderships in their respective groups every two years," Nwanze observed.
Though there has been a quasi-formal presence of IFAD in Dhaka through an office for the last five year, its president said IFAD is now in the process of signing a "Host Country Agreement" with the Bangladesh government to make a formal country office in Dhaka operational by the year-end.
The move, Nwanze expected, would further consolidate the special UN agency's presence in Bangladesh.
The IFAD president is in Dhaka for, among other things, signing a $55 million loan deal and that for $1 million grant for Haor Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement
Project (HILIP). The Spanish Food Security Co-financing Facility Trust Fund is also providing $29.7 million along with Bangladesh's own contribution of $32 million for implementing the HILIP. It seeks to change livelihoods of 1.15 lakh poor households of Netrakona, Habiganj, Brahmanbaria, Kishoreganj and Sunamganj bythe year2020.
One of the earliest IFAD assistance in Bangladesh dates back to 1985-89 when it sanctioned more than $23 million in loan to Grameen Bank, an institution that shot into global fame later.
Nwanze, a Nigerian national who began his term as IFAD's fifth president on April 1 in 2009, specially emphasised South-South cooperation. "Development is not only about gaining assistance from the North, it is more about sharing and transferring rich knowledge bank from one nation to another within the South-South fraternity."
He went on, "Thirty-five years ago, Brazil was food insecure. Today Brazil is a middle-income country, sits in the G20 grouping. We want to facilitate knowledge transfer."
Prior to serving IFAD as its president and vice-president, Nwanze, a doctorate on agricultural entomology from Kansas State University in US, was director general of the Africa Rice Centre for a decade. He was instrumental in introducing and promoting New Rice for Africa (Nerica), a high-yield, drought and pest-resistant rice variety developed specifically for African countries. Interestingly, Bangladesh is also trying out Nerica for its high potentials.
Nwanze said he was longing for visiting Bangladesh, "to see the transformation here -- a significant reduction in poverty since 1990, in particular, developments in rural infrastructure and reduction of population growth rate."
The IFAD head said Bangladesh has to invest more on rural development thereby giving much impetus to both farm and non-farm growth, and work hard on developing agricultural value chains by building storage infrastructures and linking rural producers with better market facilities.
IFAD would continue to build on the effective part-nership with the Bangladesh government, its ministries and agencies, with donor organisations and the civil society, said its president.
"IFAD will seek new partnerships and cooperation arrangements with the private sector -- especially through projects adopting a value-chain approach --and will partner with think tanks such as the International Food Policy Research Institute for policy collaboration." Nwanze added.