International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
1.From November 2024 to October 2025, has the governing body of your organization taken any decisions, including in the context of the Pact for the Future implementation and/or the UN80 Initiative, that are related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals? If yes, please briefly mention these decisions and provide their respective symbols and links. (Max 200 words)
Between November 2024 and October 2025, the IFAD Executive Board has approved US$1,036,175,960 in concessional financing to sovereign governments to enhance sustainable agriculture, reduce poverty, and promote sustainable development in rural areas of developing countries.
IFAD's Executive Board also approved two strategies to strengthen IFAD's private sector engagement and operations:
- The Private Sector Operational Strategy 2025‒2030, which strengthens IFAD's private sector engagement by: (i) supporting private sector development in rural areas and in agrifood systems; and (ii) catalysing private finance for investment in inclusive sustainable and resilient rural and food system transformation. This directly contributes to the Pact for the Future’s call to better engage the private sector in development efforts and to close the SDG finance gap in developing countries.
- IFAD's Non-Sovereign Operations Investment Strategy, which details IFAD's strategy, financial model, and risk mitigation approaches to investing directly in private sector actors, to help support and de-risk private sector actors that focus on smallholder farmers at the first mile, helping these actors become more viable, investable, and capable of accessing commercial capital on their own.
Throughout 2025 IFAD engaged strongly in UN80 discussions and briefed IFAD Member State representatives. In September 2025, the IFAD Executive Board considered IFAD’s 2026 budget, which accelerated the achievement of zero budget growth by one year.
2.From November 2024 to October 2025, what actions have your entities taken to improve coordination among UN system entities across policy and normative activities as well as with ECOSOC subsidiary bodies with a view to increasing impact and accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda? Please provide any relevant links. (Max 200 words)
To contribute to improved UN system cooperation, IFAD has:
- Contributed actively to the UN Secretary-General’s UN80 process, proposing measures to strengthen coordination through the Specialized Agencies’ Cluster and providing feedback via the Development Cluster. Drawing on its role as an IFI dedicated to agrifood systems and rural transformation, IFAD also shared the Rome-based Agencies’ (FAO, IFAD, WFP) experience in maximizing savings through co-location and shared services.
- Collaborated with UN DESA, FAO, WFP, and others in advance of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) to underline returns on investment in agrifood systems and rural communities at the “first mile” of value chains. The RBAs aligned messaging and coordinated technical input to support Member States during negotiations.
- The RBAs strengthened inter-agency collaboration to advance the 2030 Agenda through:
- UN Food Systems Summit +4: Co-leading 11 sessions, launching the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, and reaffirming commitments to financing and innovation.
- UN Decade of Family Farming (2019–2028): Co-implementing grants with FAO to support family farming policy development with the World Rural Forum.
- Committee on World Food Security and GNAFC: Contributing to policy recommendations on reducing inequalities and urban food systems.
- Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty (GAAHP) and G20: Working together to provide joint technical support and enhance policy alignment to advance SDGs 1 and 2.
3. From November 2024 to October 2025, has your organization organized any intergovernmentally mandated conferences, forums or events that contributed to the achievement of the SDGs, or has been in the process of planning and organizing any such mandated events to be held next year?
Event Name | Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, Inaugural Meeting of the Board of Champions |
Event Dates | 11 February 2025 |
Event Location (City, Country) | Rome |
Relevant SDGs | Primary: 1, 2, 10, 17 |
Description (max 150 words): please include a short summary of the event’s mandate and contributions to the SDGs, including its main outcome(s) | The inaugural meeting of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty Board of Champions took place on the margins of IFAD’s 48th Governing Council. The meeting served as a crucial step in operationalizing the Global Alliance’s governance and further positioning IFAD. Champions from over 80 countries, including IFAD’s own leadership attended the event. |
Website (if applicable) |
Event Name | IFAD 48th session of the Governing Council |
Event Dates | 12 – 13 February 2025 |
Event Location (City, Country) | Rome, Italy |
Relevant SDGs | Relevant SDGs Primary: 1, 2, Also: 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 |
Description (max 150 words): please include a short summary of the event’s mandate and contributions to the SDGs, including its main outcome(s) | The Governing Council is IFAD’s highest decision-making body and consists of all of IFAD’s Member States. During the 2025 Governing Council, IFAD’s membership approved a Report on the 13th Replenishment of IFAD’s resources, which sets the target and direction of the Fund’s investments over the period 2025 – 2027 and approved IFAD's 2025 Programme of Work and Budget. It also convened diverse development partners to help build and strengthen new partnerships for delivering investments at the ‘first mile’ of agrifood systems in rural areas of developing countries. A dedicated session on Financing for Development brought together leadership from several MDBs and delivered a set of key messages on the importance of investing in agrifood systems, in advance of FfD4 in Seville, Spain. |
Website (if applicable) |
Event Name | Centre Stage Event: Unlocking the Potential of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty |
Event Dates | 12 February 2025 |
Event Location (City, Country) | Rome |
Relevant SDGs | Primary: 1, 2, 10, 17 |
Description (max 150 words): please include a short summary of the event’s mandate and contributions to the SDGs, including its main outcome(s) | Under Brazil’s presidency of the G20 in 2024, the flagship Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty was launched, placing food security, poverty eradication and inequality reduction at the forefront of the development agenda. As one of the founding members, IFAD organized a Centre Stage Event on the Alliance during its Governing Council in February 2025, dedicated to exploring its operationalization, discussing implementation and advancing commitments, featuring high-level representatives from governments and civil society. |
Website (if applicable) |
Event Name |
Special Event The G7, the G20 and IFAD in 2025: Reforming the international financial architecture to build a |
Event Dates | 12 February 2025 |
Event Location (City, Country) | Rome |
Relevant SDGs | Primary: 1, 2, 17 |
Description (max 150 words): please include a short summary of the event’s mandate and contributions to the SDGs, including its main outcome(s) | The G7 and G20 countries are leading global efforts to reform the international financial architecture. Both are advancing initiatives to address the mounting fiscal pressures facing low and middle-income countries, which have limited capacity to address development challenges. Considering IFAD’s expertise in rural and agricultural development and in building the resilience of vulnerable communities in the world’s poorest countries, this event was an opportunity to highlight the potential of increasing development finance to invest in the rural sector and increase food security. This event offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the achievements of past G7 and G20 Presidencies and to hear insights from the 2025 Presidencies at a time when multilateral efforts are increasingly needed to meet the unique demands of developing countries to build a food-secure future |
Website (if applicable) |
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Event Name | 53rd Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security |
Event Dates | 20 – 24 October 2025 |
Event Location (City, Country) | Rome, Italy |
Relevant SDGs | 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 17 |
Description (max 150 words): please include a short summary of the event’s mandate and contributions to the SDGs, including its main outcome(s) | The October 2025 CFS Plenary session convened under the theme ‘"Making a Difference in Food Security and Nutrition.’ The Committee endorsed policy Recommendations on Strengthening Urban and Peri-urban Food Systems to Achieve Food Security and Nutrition in the context of Urbanization and Rural Transformation as well as the Mid-Term Review of the CFS 2024-2027 Multi-Year Programme of Work (MYPoW). The Plenary also hosted a High-Level Forum dedicated to responsible investment and financing for food security and nutrition, while another session shared views on the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) Report on Building Resilient Food Systems. IFAD contributed strategic support, knowledge and expertise to the development of the CFS Plenary agenda and its main items. |
Website (if applicable) |
4. From November 2024 to October 2025, has your organization published or planned to publish any analytical work, guidance or reference materials, or toolkits to guide and support the implementation of SDGs at national, regional and global levels? Please select up to three to highlight, especially those that address interlinkages among the SDGs.
Resource Name | |
Relevant SDGs (list all relevant goals) | 1, 2, 3 |
Publishing entity/entities | IFAD, WFP, FAO, UNICEF, WHO |
Target audience | Policymakers and practitioners at all levels |
Description (max 150 words) | The 2025 SOFI report presents the latest data and analysis on hunger, food security and nutrition worldwide, including updated estimates on the cost and affordability of healthy diets. It demonstrated that an estimated 8.2 percent of the global population, or about 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023 and 8.7 percent in 2022. However, progress was not consistent across the globe, as hunger continued to rise in most subregions of Africa and western Asia. The 2025 edition highlighted how elevated inflation in many countries has undermined purchasing power and access to healthy diets, especially among low-income populations.
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Language(s) | English, Arabic, French, Spanish |
Website or link (if applicable) |
Resource Name | 3FS Report: External Development Financial Flows to Food Systems (2018 – 2023) |
Relevant SDGs (list all relevant goals) | 1,2,17 |
Publishing entity/entities | IFAD, World Bank |
Target audience | Policy makers, practitioners in agrifood systems financing |
Description (max 150 words) | A major barrier to tracking progress has been the lack of reliable, consistent data on financing flows. To address this, IFAD and the World Bank co-developed the Framework for Tracking Financial Flows to Food Systems (3FS). This tool equips decision-makers and stakeholders with actionable financial intelligence on public domestic spending and external development finance to food systems. It uses the 3FS Framework to present a comprehensive overview of external development finance for food systems, capturing trends before and after the 2021 Summit. It answers three critical questions: How much external development finance is flowing into food systems? What areas and interventions are being financed? Which financial instruments are being used? Published ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake (UNFSS+4), the report aims to equip stakeholders with critical financial intelligence to spot financing opportunities, anticipate shortfalls and mitigate risks.
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Language(s) | English |
Website or link (if applicable) |
Resource Name | Food Security, Nutrition, and Climate Resilience Evidence Review |
Relevant SDGs (list all relevant goals) | 1, 2, 3, 13, 14, 15, 17 |
Publishing entity/entities | IFAD, GIZ, Innovation Commission |
Target audience | Policy makers, practitioners |
Description (max 150 words) | This report presents an analysis of the impact and cost-effectiveness of 40 common interventions in food security, nutrition, and climate resilience. These include interventions related to production systems, post-harvest management and processing, food availability and affordability, financial services, governance, nutritional health, and behavior change communication. The report categorizes these interventions according to strength and consistency of evidence, listing where they have great evidence, good evidence, high potential evidence, mixed evidence, and low evidence, aiming to provide a resource for policymakers in the food and nutrition space. |
Language(s) | English |
Website or link (if applicable) |
5. What collective efforts is your organization undertaking to support countries in accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially in the areas of Goals 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 9 (Industry Innovation and Infrastructure), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), which will go under in-depth review at the HLPF in 2026? Please note any achievements, challenges and gaps and provide any relevant links. (Max 200 words)
SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy
IFAD invests in decentralized renewable energy systems, primarily focusing on solar-powered technologies for productive use and household needs while extending energy access to rural areas and providing alternative low carbon energy solutions like biogas. Interventions include:
Solar irrigation: for example in Bangladesh, by mid-2025 over 120 of its 240 planned solar-pump systems were delivered to boost dry-season cropping and reduce GHG emissions, while solar-pump kits were delivered to 20 women's cooperatives in Rwanda, enabling the quadrupling of yields and increasing farm incomes from approximately US$184 to US$
1,848 per season.
Rural electrification for community access: IFAD supports renewable mini-grids and solar-home systems, including financing for hybrid solar/wind village electrification in India and prioritizing renewable energy in Bhutan.
Clean cooking solutions: for instance, Mali's MERIT project built 928 household biogas digesters by mid-2025 (32% of its target), providing clean fuel and fertilizer for about 42,000 families.
In 2024-2025, over 1.1 million households adopted climate-resilient technologies. Scaling of efforts is hampered by logistical delays, high upfront capital costs for solar and mini-grids, limited local maintenance capacity, and slow uptake of clean cooking solutions due to cultural preferences and subsidy gaps.
SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
IFAD supports demand-driven rural infrastructure to boost production, reduce post-harvest losses, enhance food and nutrition security, and improve market access. Investments cover irrigation systems, marketplaces, and rural roads. By end-2024, ongoing IFAD projects built or rehabilitated 7,300 km of roads, constructed/rehabilitated water infrastructure over 220,000 ha, created 389,800 jobs, and enabled 1.1 million households to adopt climate-resilient technologies.
Key achievements:
By June 2025 Bangladesh’s PROVATI project had completed 302 km of rural roads (towards 407 km target), 1,113 m of drainage/culvert structures, and integrated climate/erosion risk in siting roads, markets, shelters.
In Zimbabwe and Kenya, over 50 government engineers and technicians have been trained in IFAD’s Green Roads for Water principles, and over 350 kilometers of new green roads planned.
In Kenya, IFAD approved US$126.8 million to invest in climate-proofed water infrastructure, climate and weather information systems, and renewable energy, helping over two million rural Kenyans in natural resource management.
6. Please provide strategies (policies, guidance, plan) and/or collective actions taken to implement the 2025 Ministerial Declaration of the Economic and Social Council and the high-level political forum on sustainable development convened under the auspices of the Council. Please note any challenges foreseen and provide any relevant links. (Max 200 words).
The 2025 HLPF Ministerial Declaration reaffirmed decent jobs, social protection, women’s empowerment, localization, and partnerships as key levers to implement the 2030 Agenda, areas that are at the core of IFAD’s mandate and daily operations. Through its investments, IFAD has already improved the lives of over 92 million rural people, of whom more than half are women and one-quarter are youth. Data released in 2024 showed that ongoing projects have created nearly 200,000 jobs and extended financial services to more than 10 million people. Specific examples include:
Ensuring that 35 per cent of new sovereign projects address the root causes of economic inequalities between women and men. Hosting the GTM– an innovative blended-finance mechanism that combines IFAD’s loans with targeted grants to scale women’s empowerment and resilience. By 2030, the GTM aims to empower over 20 million rural women and men across 20 countries.
Expanding decent youth employment through the Agribusiness Hub Programme, fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors to identify employment opportunities for rural youth, provide training and job-matching services, and support entrepreneurship. To date, the programme has created over 32,000 decent jobs and supported the establishment of 7,000 rural businesses.
In 2025, IFAD reached over US$1 billion in sustainable bond issuance, crowding in additional financing to reach the poorest.
Hosting the Agricultural Public Development Bank (Agri-PDB) Platform, a peer learning network to strengthen capacities of national-level Public Development Banks. Connecting small-scale producers to markets through public-private-producer partnerships (4Ps) model where IFAD acts as a convener, de-risker, and bridge-builder between governments, multilateral development banks, the private sector, and rural communities. IFAD-supported projects in 2025-2025 provided access finance, value chains and market infrastructure to poor fishing communities. Looking ahead, IFAD aims to reach at least 50 million additional small-scale farmers, representing approximately 150 million people when including household members.