President of IFAD hand in hand with the G77 and China in Rome
On October 27, the Plenary Meeting of the G77 and China for the month of October, presided by the Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, S.E. Elias Eljuri Abraham, took place in the Green Room of the FAO headquarters in Rome. For this meeting, we were honored to have the presence of the President of IFAD and President of the UN Water, Mr. Gilbert Houngbo.
The presentation by the President of Fida was on "The role and contribution of IFAD to the achievement of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the fulfillment of the SDGs”. Houngbo commented that among the functions of IFAD is the transformation of the rural areas of the world through the empowerment of women and the education of children. Furthermore, the IFAD seeks to expand its presence in the field, implementing co-financing with governments to help the poorest areas of the borrowing countries and increasing collaboration with South-South Cooperation. President Houngbo also commented that if we continue with this trend, we will never achieve compliance with the SDGs, unfortunately, there are reports that show how hunger is increasing in the world and we need more resources to face this emergency.
Among other risk factors that have been increasing, there is climate change that has amplified the vulnerability of the food security of the weakest people in the world. Houngbo reminded that it is also very important to support the countries in the normative part, with laws that guarantee land holdings for peasants and with technology that helps their development. These types of actions have a great impact on the planet. The president concluded his speech recalling that IFAD has carried out projects worth $ 19,000,000,000 that have reached 400 million people and the longing of this organization, is to be able to continue helping the neediest people in the world through agriculture, which is a powerful instrument and can be used as an economic springboard, especially for countries without infrastructure.
The intervention ended with the screening of a video and then with a round of questions, the members of the group were very interested in the topics of IFAD and let Ambassador Eljuri know his satisfaction for this productive meeting.
Mr. Houngbo was born and raised in a rural area of Togo. Previously, he served as Deputy Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO), an institution in which he conducted field operations in more than 100 countries. He was Prime Minister of the Togolese Republic from 2008 to 2012. He has held several leading positions in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He was recently appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations as President of the UN - Water.