IFAD Member States rally to fund US$3 billion global poverty effort
Despite the financial crisis capturing headlines around the world, the international community confirmed today its backing to a US$3 billion, three-year programme of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Coupled with co-financing from IFAD’s many partners, this will mean as much as $7.5 billion for agriculture, poverty reduction and food security in the most vulnerable rural populations worldwide. 
As part of this funding package, IFAD’s Member States meeting here for consultations on the Eighth Replenishment of the Fund’s resources, agreed on a target of $1.2 billion in new contributions, to help poor rural people, already hurting from recent food and fuel price volatility.
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President's corner

Joint FAO/IFAD/WFP Statement to the Financing for Development Conference, Doha, Qatar, November 2008

Statement of Lennart Båge, President of IFAD to World Bank's Development Committee

Key note address by Lennart Båge to the African Green Revolution Conference, Oslo, Norway, 29 August 2008

Question and answer by IPS news with President Båge on the occasion of the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness: Women do most, with least assistance

President Båge's article on climate change, Climate-L.org-Bulletin, 28 July 2008

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Soaring food prices and the rural poor
The prices of basic food commodities have increased rapidly over the past three years. The threat to food security in developing countries increases in stride. 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns that "the rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions." "Responding effectively to the impact of higher food prices must be a top priority for the global community, particularly when the impact is combined with the projected effects of climate change", says Lennart Båge, IFAD's President.
IFAD has gathered information from its partners and staff on the ground on the impact of rising food prices on poor rural people.
Read more | IFAD’s response to the food price increases

A Tanzanian Mother Teresa is born: Pauline Samata, the "bamboo saint"
The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) estimates that approximately 1.5 billion people depend in some way or another on bamboo and rattan. Bamboo not only is deemed to be the fastest growing plant on the planet, it also is a viable replacement for wood, an essential structural material in earthquake architecture and a renewable source for agroforesty production. These characteristics make bamboo unique in terms of its potential contribution to sustainable development. What is less well known is the fact that bamboo has helped protect young Tanzanian girls and women from HIV/AIDS by saving them from the trap of prostitution. This is thanks to a Tanzanian woman by the name of Pauline Samata.
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