International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
IFAD is the only non-banking UN specialized agency operating on the international capital market. It was established by the World food conference in 1974. The basic Agreement on the establishment of the Fund was approved on 13th June 1976 and entered into force on 30th November 1977. As of September 2024, the Fund consists of 178 member states.
The objective of IFAD is to mobilize funds and provide them on concessional terms for fostering farms in developing countries as well as for the implementation of supporting political and economic strategies therein. The Fund’s activities are primarily focused on assisting Low-income-countries (LICs).
The most common instrument of the Fund’s financial assistance is a loan with a maturity period ranging from 25 to 40 years including a grace period of 10 years. IFAD also provides free grants which account for not more than 10% of all Fund’s loans. Throughout its history IFAD has implemented over 1,2 thousand projects worth more than 60 bln. USD in more than 90 countries of the world.
IFAD member states are grouped as follows: List A – 28 developed countries (mostly representing OECD), List B – 12 OPEC Member countries; List C – 138 developing countries (overwhelmingly Fund’s beneficiaries).
The senior governing body of IFAD is the Governing Council (GC) representing the authorized IFAD Governors from all member states. The GC approves the Fund’s major work priorities and operating modalities. Its annual sessions are normally held in February.
In-between GC sessions the Fund is steered by the Executive Board (EB) consisting of 18 Members and 18 Alternate members elected by the GC for a three-year period. The EB is entrusted with the authority to allocate financial resources for the Fund’s programs and projects, monitor the implementation efficiency thereof, approve the regular budget etc. The EB holds three sessions a year (in April/May, September and December).
The highest authority of the Fund is its President who is elected by the GC. The presidential tenure spans for 4 years, a re-election for another 4-year term is possible. In October 2022 Mr Alvaro Lario from Spain took the office of IFAD President (he had previously occupied leading posts with the Fund from 2018).
The Fund’s program of work is financed through 3-year replenishment cycles that are being build up by contributions of member states, Fund’s investment income, loans repayments, cofinancing provided by multilateral development assistance banks and national development assistance agencies. The AA+ international credit rating, granted to the Fund in 2020, allowed this specialized UN Agency to issue private placements.
The membership application of the Russian Federation to join the Fund was agreed by the IFAD’s EB (December 2013) and approved by GC (February 2014). The Federal decree on the Russian Federation’s joining the Agreement establishing the International Fund for Agricultural Development was signed by the President of the Russian Federation on 4th November 2014. In August 2015 the Russian Federation became registered as a List A (major IFAD donors) member state.
The main Russian authority responsible for cooperation with the Fund is the Ministry of finance. The IFAD Governor representing the Russian Federation in the IFAD GC is Mr Pavel V. Snisorenko, Director of the Department for international financial relations of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.
Beginning from the accession to the Fund and up until 2021 the Russian yearly contribution to the Fund’s replenishment amounted to 3 mln. USD. Due to unilateral economic sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation in violation of the UN Charter and the international law, the payment of the Russian contribution to the Fund’s 2022-2024 replenishment cycle has not been carried out.
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Mr Alvaro LARIO
President of the Internation Fund for Agricultural Development
Born in 1977 in Madrid, Spain.
Graduated from the Autonomous University and the University of Complutense of Madrid (Spain), Princeton University (USA) and London Business School (Great Britain). Attended leadership programs in the World Bank Group and the International Institute for Management Development (Switzerland).
Started his working career in 2006 in a leading investment bank of Spain “Renta 4”.
2008-2011 – Adjunct Professor (investment and finances) at Instituto de Empresa Business School (Madrid, Spain).
2011-2017 – Head of emerging markets and capital market development division in the International finance corporation (World Bank Group).
2018 – joined IFAD as Chief financial officer, promoted to Associate Vice-President for financial operations – Director of finance (in a rank of UN Assistant Secretary General). Amongst his major personal achievements – reforming of the IFAD finance model that secured AA+ international credit rating for the Fund.
He was elected the 7th IFAD President on 7th June 2022 as (with the tenure until 31st March 2027), officially assumed the office on 1st October 2022.
Mr Alvaro Lario priorities focus on providing assistance on the most concessional terms to the poorest regions of the world while preserving the principle of universality of access to the IFAD’s development assistance. He works on scaling up the Fund’s climate adaptation programs and capital market placements.
Speaks Spanish, English, French, German and Italian.
