Global leaders are set to discuss how to finance a more resilient, inclusive post-COVID world at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Governing Council meeting this week.
During the opening of the virtual meeting on Wednesday Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University, will deliver the annual IFAD Talk, according to the information from IFAD.
“With surging food prices, the socio-economic fall-out of COVID-19 and an increasingly unpredictable climate, the world’s poorest people are facing unprecedented challenges in growing, selling and buying food – with far-reaching consequences for global food supply, peace and stability,” IFAD said.
“Against this backdrop, heads of state, ministers and rural development experts will come together at the 45th annual Governing Council meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to look towards a post-COVID world, and discuss how to harness innovations and new financing mechanisms to build more inclusive and resilient rural economies.”
Among the attendees of the virtual gathering are Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), Iván Duque Márquez, President of Colombia; Andry Nirina Rajoelina, President of Madagascar; Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Acting Prime Minister of Fiji; and Daniele Franco, Minister for Economy and Finance of Italy, according to the information from IFAD.
IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, IFAD has provided US$23.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached an estimated 518 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub.