SIXTY-SECOND SESSION OF IFAD EXECUTIVE BOARD CONCLUDES IN ROME

Press Release
IFAD/516

SIXTY-SECOND SESSION OF IFAD EXECUTIVE BOARD CONCLUDES IN ROME

ROME, 5 December (IFAD) -- Over 2.5 million poor rural families will benefit from 15 new projects in Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Jordan, Indonesia, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Panama, Peru, Senegal, Yemen and Viet Nam approved by the sixty-second session of the Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which ended in Rome today.

IFAD will provide $203.45 million to finance the new projects, of which the total cost amounts to $431.62 million. The Board also considered a proposal to establish an IFAD Fund for Gaza and the West Bank for submission to the next Governing Council session in February 1998. In addition, the Board approved nine technical assistance grants for agricultural research, environmental and training programmes.

Among other projects in Asia, the Board approved the Crop and Livestock Rehabilitation Project for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is not yet a member of any international financing institution except IFAD. The project, IFAD's second in the country since its food crisis broke out last year, represents an effective and immediate response to the current acute food shortage and human suffering caused by it. Financed by a highly concessional loan of $28.9 million, it aims at increasing the national food grain production immediately so as to increase, in the shortest time possible, the food grain consumption of the largest possible number of people suffering from severe and generalized reduction in food intake. Viet Nam's Ha Giang Development Project for Ethnic Minorities, in which IFAD will invest $12.5 million, was also approved by the Fund's Executive Board.

The Fund will also strengthen its portfolio in two other Asian countries. Indonesia's Income-Generating Project for Marginal Farmers and the Landless-Phase III, supported by an IFAD loan of $25.3 million, will develop micro-finance services to enable self-help groups and individuals initiate and manage a variety of small enterprises. For Bangladesh, the Board approved a $11.7 million loan to help finance the Third Rural Infrastructure Development Project.

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Two new projects approved by the Board's meeting, in Armenia and Peru, as well as a previously approved project for Bangladesh, will be directly supervised by the Fund. Direct supervision represents an innovation in the Fund's operational strategy. Armenia's North-West Agricultural Services project will ensure rehabilitation of small-scale irrigation systems, achieve efficient production and distribution of improved seed varieties and improve animal health services. Micro-enterprise initiatives will be supported in Peru's Development of the Puno-Cusco Corridor Project, which will strengthen linkages between producers and small-scale entrepreneurs with local, regional and national markets. In Africa, the Northern Fishing Communities Development Project of Angola will stimulate and direct the development of markets for input supply and fish produce through the provision of credit to importers, suppliers and village-level traders. With an IFAD highly concessional loan of $7.31 million, the project will ensure the development of a private sector- based network for the importation and distribution of inputs to the fisheries communities and will assist them in establishing Fisheries Enterprise Finance Unions, which will make credit funds available to fishermen, fish processors and traders. Senegal's Village Management and Development Project, financed by an IFAD loan of $9.5 million, will also enhance agro-pastoral production and diversification through the creation of small-scale irrigation schemes and financing credit lines, called village banks. The Root and Tuber Improvement Project of Ghana, financed by an IFAD loan of $9 million, will establish a durable self-sustaining development process in the root and tuber sub-sector which will permit the increase of the food security and farm income of poor households. In countries hit by recent conflicts, IFAD projects like the $18 million loan to El Salvador, will contribute to the consolidation of the peace process as well as to the alleviation of rural poverty. In Panama, where rural poverty affects 62 per cent of households and where one of the most unequal income distribution structures in Latin America exists, the IFAD loan of $14.2 million will contribute to promote rural micro-enterprises and enhance self-reliance of small farmer's organizations. In Ecuador, poverty and ethnicity are closely related: indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian households are more likely to be poorer than families of Spanish-origin families. The IFAD's $15 million project in Ecuador targets ethnicity by providing Afro-Ecuadorian communities with improved access to land and water resources and funds for investment sub-projects. In the Middle East, Jordan's National Programme for Rangeland Rehabilitation and Development-Phase I will have a large positive environmental impact on the natural-resource poor areas. With an IFAD loan of $4 million, the project will increase environmental awareness and implement rangeland management plans. In Yemen, the Raymah Area Development Project, to which IFAD will provide $17.11 million, cropping and livestock development will be supported by extension, adaptive research and community development activities, including investments in social and income-generating activities proposed by women's groups.

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