International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
1. Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, has the governing body of your organization taken (or will it take) any decisions or new strategies to guide the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? If any, please provide a brief summary below, including the overarching vision of your organization.
Reflecting the scope of investment needed as well as the need to ensure impact of every dollar invested, IFAD, through its Strategic Framework 2016-2025 is stepping up its efforts in the context of the SDGs. Underpinned by an overarching vision of "enabling inclusive and sustainable rural transformation", IFAD's Strategic Framework is based around enabling the organization to play a larger role in helping countries fulfil their priorities relative to Agenda 2030 by:
- mobilizing substantially more funds and resources for investment in rural areas;
- strengthening the impact of IFAD's country programmes through innovation, knowledge-sharing, partnerships and policy engagement; and
- delivering development results in a cost effective way that responds to member countries evolving needs.
- In addition, IFAD's has revamped its Results Management Framework around its contribution to the 2030 Agenda. Under the new framework to be put before IFAD's Governing Council for approval, February 2018, in the context of the Eleventh Replenishment of IFAD's resources, tier one indicators on goals and tier two indicators on development results have all been explicitly linked to SDG targets.
2.3 Readjusting or updating results-based budgeting and management, including performance indicators:
- IFAD is currently operationalizing a new Development Effectiveness Framework, drawing on the experience of the Fund's Impact Evaluation initiative, thereby improving the focus on results and focusing on key elements across the SDGs targets. The framework is based around an understanding that the development results that IFAD achieves in rural areas will contribute significantly to meeting two of the SDGs: SDG1 -no poverty; and SDG2 -zero hunger, with indicators specifically designed to capture these impacts for example in areas such as economic mobility, improved diet quality and enhanced smallholder productive capacity. At the same time, the results achieved in areas such as gender equality (SDG5), climate action (SDG13) and partnerships (SDG17) will also be monitored and reported through indicators in the revised Results Management Framework.
- Further, IFAD is striving to enable itself to more effectively produce results through its ongoing Operational Excellence for Results programme (OpEx), which will produce costed options for transformation the organization, with governance and decentralization plans and an implementation and investment plan to enable IFAD to respond to complex, country-level dynamics in the context of SDGs implementation.
3.1 Mainstreaming the SDGs in development plans and policies or through national sustainable development plans/strategies:
Since the SDGs were endorsed, IFAD has published numerous policy briefs to provide technical advice to countries on topics of strategic importance for the implementation of the SDGs, including: advancing rural women's empowerment, migration, rural-urban linkages, and the role of rural transformation in sustainable urbanization. As well as providing technical assistance to countries through knowledge products generated from its operations, IFAD is building partnerships to exchange solutions in the domains of innovation and technology for SDG implementation through its stepping up its work on South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC). Indeed, IFAD will be launching a specialized SSTC facility in the second half of 2018 for this purpose. Specifically, this will enable sharing of relevant rural development solutions and knowledge, and promotion of investments among developing countries in the context of SDG implementation.
4.2 Contributing to policy/background briefs for the HLPF:
IFAD co-led the development of the background note for the thematic review of SDG 2 at HLPF 2017 (along with FAO and WFP). In addition, IFAD participated in the technical task team developing the contribution of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to HLPF 2017, as well as to the political process of negotiating the finalization of the contribution in its role on the Advisory Group of the CFS. IFAD also contributed technical inputs into the thematic review papers on SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 5 and SDG 9.
4.3 Helping organize SDG-specific events in the preparatory process:
IFAD co-organized an Expert Group Meeting on SDG 2 (along with UN DESA, FAO and WFP) in the lead-up to HLPF 2017.
4.4 Organizing side evens or speaking at the HLPF:
IFAD co-organized side events on
4.5 Supporting VNR process:
IFAD has also contributed to the EC-ESA Plus process and recently participated in the
5. How has your organization cooperated with other UN system organizations to achieve coherence and synergies in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? In this regard, has your organization launched or intend to launch any joint programmes or projects in collaboration with other UN entities? Are there any results or lessons you would like to highlight that might help improve the design and impact of such efforts? Has your organization participated in any of the following coordination systemwide mechanisms or any other relevant platform - CEB, UNDG, EC-ESA Plus, RCMs, UN-Energy, UN-Water, UN-Ocean, IAEG, IATT? Please specify which and indicate any suggestions you may have about improving collaborations within and across these mechanisms/platforms:
Collaboration between IFAD and its Rome Based-Agency (RBA) partners has been elevated to a strategic level in response to growing impetus for the RBAs to enhance collaboration in the context of the 2030 Agenda. In 2016, Management of all three agencies came together and oversaw the development of a joint strategy: "Collaboration among the United Nations Rome - based Agencies: Delivering on the 2030 Agenda ". Practical collaboration is ongoing on joint servicing initiatives, and on project design, supervision and implementation support. For example, along with other partners, UN Women, FAO and WFP, IFAD continues to contribute to the Joint Programme "Accelerating progress towards the economic empowerment of rural women." The partnership between IFAD, UN Women, FAO, and WFP is expected to generate synergies that capitalize on each agency's mandate, comparative advantage and institutional strength to generate more lasting and wider scale results. The Joint Programme aims to promote rural women's economic empowerment in seven participating countries (Ethiopia, Guatemala, Liberia, Nepal, Niger, Kyrgyzstan and Rwanda) through securing rural women's livelihoods and rights in the context of sustainable development and the post-MDGs agenda, contributing directly to SDG 5, as well as SDGs 1 and 2. In addition, IFAD has participated in the CEB, chiefly through the HLCP for whom IFAD shall host the autumn 2018 meeting and IFAD's President chairs UN-Water. IFAD has also contributed to the EC-ESA Plus process and recently participated in the "Meeting between VNR countries at HLPF 2018 and the UN system and other stakeholders " where the organization presented tools for implementation of the SDGs under review at HLPF 2018, especially linked to inclusive human settlements. Finally, IFAD is actively engaged in the consultations on the UN reform aimed at enhancing delivery at all levels on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
6. How has your organization engaged with stakeholder groups, both in supporting implementation at the country, regional and global levels, and within your own organization? If yes, please provide main highlights, including any lessons learned:
- IFAD engages closely with rural people and their organizations especially farmers' organizations. IFAD organizes biennial farmer forums and well as a forum for Indigenous Peoples, which is also biennial. In the context of our ongoing role in providing technical guidance to the work of the CFS Secretariat (as well as serving on the platform's Advisory Group) IFAD frequently collaborates with civil society and private sector representatives, sharing knowledge and collaborating around the development and negotiation of policy products aimed at enhancing food security and nutrition in the context of the 2030 Agenda. Obviously, in the CFS as well as other policy and operational contexts, IFAD works closely with its RBA partners (FAO and WFP), including in its engagement in SDG review processes.
- An overarching lesson that merits emphasis is that groups at risk of being left behind must be represented in institutional arrangements, partnerships and policy processes around implementation of the 2030 Agenda. As such, IFAD plays a brokerage role in linking these stakeholders to policy processes and to the design, implementation and monitoring of partnerships to promote inclusive rural transformation, in particular under the auspices of its Public-private-producer partnership (4Ps) initiative.
7. Has your organization organized any conferences, forums or events designed to facilitate exchange of experience, peer and mutual learning? If yes, please provide a brief summary below and include lessons learned and gaps identified based on the outcomes of these events. Please also include any events you plan to organize in the coming years.
- IFAD frequently organizes conferences, forums and events on topics related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. From January 25 - 27, 2017 IFAD organized and hosting an international conference on "Investing in inclusive rural transformation: Innovative approaches to financing". Some lessons learned from this conference included:
- Progress has been made with respect to inclusive investments in smallholders, but not at sufficient scale and impact that would be sufficient to achieve the ambitious SDG targets
- Promoting inclusive rural transformation means targeting smallholders, but also rural labourers, non-farm entrepreneurs and service providers.
- Transformations in rural and urban areas are mutually dependent and should therefore not be addressed in isolation. For example, increasing demand for labour in cities creates opportunities for poor rural people.
- Enhancing rural roads, electrification, ICTs, water and energy, as well as ensuring functional markets for land, labour and finance are all key elements for building an enabling environment for inclusive rural investments.
- Rural people must have the opportunity to participate in the design of policies; this means building the capacity of policy-makers to include these groups in consultation as well as building the capacity of rural people to contribute meaningfully to debates, including through different forms of social organization.
- Education, skills development and access to finance emerge as central elements of any strategy to enable poor rural people to improve their lives
- Supporting smallholders is a key dimension of any viable food security policy. Equally, creating opportunities for smallholders to enter other sectors and take advantage of emerging opportunities in dynamic rural non-farm and urban sectors should also be prioritized.
- Encouraging agglomeration, through functioning land markets and inclusive institutions will be needed to enable smallholders and financial service providers to overcome high transaction costs associated with the small-scale nature of many farming operations.
- In addition to knowledge sharing events too numerous to list, IFAD has organized global policy engagement forums at its HQ over the past 12 months on the following topics:
- Youth employment
- Climate adaptation for smallholders farmers
- The outlook on hunger
- Migration
8. Is there any other information you would like to share, including annual reports of your organization and any impact assessment or evaluation reports? If yes, please use the space below and attach the document(s). Please also use this space to provide any other information, comments or remarks you deem necessary:
- IFAD has written and disseminated numerous policy briefs to support countries and other development actors in implementing the 2030 Agenda, in addition to a booklet that synthesizes approaches and lessons from IFAD's contribution to the various goals. Overarching messages cutting across these publications include:
- Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires increased investments in agriculture and rural areas. The experience of IFAD shows that such investments can represent a solid business proposition for both public and private financing, so long as they focus on developing the investment capacity of poor rural women and men, notably smallholder farmers.
- Smallholder agriculture represents a strategic sector to promote prosperity, advance food security and nutrition, and create decent jobs at the same time as developing the livelihoods of a large share of the world's poor and hungry population.
- Enhancing the resilience of poor rural people - by providing enabling public goods and institutions, scaling up sustainable agricultural practices that respond to climate change, and providing requisite financial products and services in rural areas - is indispensable to facilitate inclusive growth and transformative processes in rural areas.
- In order to ensure transformation and increased prosperity that is inclusive, specific targeted approaches are needed to enhance economic, social and political opportunities for vulnerable groups - with youth as a key demographic group, given their numbers and potential.
9. In your view, what should a strategic plan for the UN system in support of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs look like? What key elements should it include and major challenges address in such a road map?
IFAD supports the ongoing UN reform process, which the organization sees as a constructive initiative that will enhance the capacity of the UN system to support countries to make progress against the SDG targets, more effectively prevent and respond to crises and deliver results on the ground. In particular, addressing current and emerging global challenges to realize the 2030 Agenda ambitions will require coordinated response from the UN system to humanitarian and development interventions. Given the global nature of potential risks and benefits, the need for international cooperation and coordination, the UN has a key leadership role to play in ensuring the right partnerships, institutions and enabling global, regional and national environments are in place to advance progress against the 2030 Agenda. Going forward, it is also important to stress that a reformed UN system works in complementariy with the International Financial Institutions, ensuring the UN Development System is appropriately aligned with the financial architecture, country-level activities are coordinated and knowledge is generated and shared.
10. Please indicate one or two endeavor or initiatives you suggest that the UN system organizations could undertake together to support the implementation of the SDGs between now and 2030:
From the perspective of IFAD and the rural communities it serves, there could be much scope in galvanizing momentum around work on sustainable urbanization, in particular in the context of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, to initiate systematic partnerships and strategies that would prioritize linking smallholder farmers to urban markets, with the aim of boosting incomes and food security of this latter group while enhancing access of poor urban consumers to affordable and nutritious food. This would directly contribute towards achieving SDGs 1, 2, 10, 11 and 12 as well as potentially have knock-on benefits across several others.