Iceland and IFAD

An agreement on the establishment of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was made in Rome on April 13th 1976, as a result of a decision taken at the UN World Food Conference in 1974. The Fund began operating in 1977 as one of the United Nations specialized agencies.

It provides funding for development projects in agriculture and fisheries with the aim of increasing the food production among the poorest nations most suffering from hunger. The Fund provides manageble loans to these countries, as well as grants, in the field of agriculture and fisheries, in order to enable the rural poor to overcome poverty.

Iceland´s application for a membership in the Fund was approved at the IFAD Governing Council Meeting on February 20eth 2001. Member countries are now 164. The Icelandic Government is interested in the cooperation of the IFAD and Small Island Developing States, as well as those programmes dealing with fishing and the partner countries of the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA).

The five Nordic countires have a cooperation on IFAD issues. IFAD´s President for 2005 – 2009 is Lennart Bage from Sweden.

Iceland has supported the Fund financially since 1998. In 2004 Iceland provided 250 thousand USD for the debt relief of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) which were earmarked for the relief of IFAD loans.

Iceland supported the Fund with five thousand USD in the fifth replenishment. Next year, the eight replenishment will take place. This year the Fund will celebrate its 30 years of operation.