By obtaining the AA + rating by Fitch, the International Fund for Agricultural Development aims to strengthen its financial resources in the coming years. Objective: to help twice as many farmers in poor countries within 10 years.
Faced with the risk of a food crisis that the Covid-19 pandemic is reinforcing, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) intends to move up a gear. By increasing its resources.
By receiving a rating last week, which is a first for a United Nations agency, the Fund was awarded an AA + rating with a stable outlook by the Fitch agency. “We may seek advice from other agencies in the future,” said Alvaro Lario, Fida vice-president in charge of finance. The fund does not currently intend to issue bonds on international markets.
“We hope to increase the contributions of our 177 member states which amounted to $ 1.1 billion for the period 2019-2022. But, thanks to our rating, we also hope to increase our current borrowings by 550 million dollars, which are sovereign loans to around 1.2 billion dollars collected both from private investors and States ” , details Alvaro Lario.
Doubling its impact
In the coming years, Fida intends to play a bigger role. Specializing in the financing of agricultural development, the fund aims to double its impact by 2030. The ambition is to help 264 million people who live in rural areas of developing countries and increase their income from at least 20% by 2030.
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, an additional 132 million people could experience hunger in 2020 alone, and extreme poverty is expected to rise for the first time in decades. While the fund covers 94 countries, nearly 50% of its activity is focused on countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
At a time when remittances sent to the country of origin by migrants have fallen between 15% and 20%, according to data from the International Monetary Fund, urgent action is needed if the international community is to reach one of the sustainable development objectives (Editor’s note: eradicate poverty in the world). “This high score comes at the right time. It will give us greater latitude to forge partnerships, particularly with the private sector as well as with public development banks, with which we will work together at the “Finance en commun” summit in November ” , declared in a press release by Fida president Gilbert F. Houngbo.
With 6 years of experience, I bring to the table captivating and informative writing in the world news category. My expertise covers a range of industries, including tourism, technology, forex and stocks. From brief social media posts to in-depth articles, I am dedicated to creating compelling content for various platforms.
