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The Director-General of FAO, Mr Jacques Diouf, will open a Special Event on Financing for Agriculture: Issues, Constraints and Perspectives, which will take place on 20 November 2007 during the 34th Session of the FAO Conference. The Special Event has been organized by the FAO Investment Centre to assist delegates to the Conference and FAO staff in increasing their awareness on opportunities and ways to reduce hunger and poverty through greater investment in agriculture and rural development.

The three keynote speakers will be the Vice-President of the Republic of Zambia - the Hon. Mr Rupiah B. Banda, the Deputy Director-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission - Mr Jerzy B. Plewa, and the Vice-President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa - Mr Akinwumi Adesina. The Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries of the Republic of Iceland - the Hon. Mr Einar K. Guofinnsson, will chair the Event.

The discussions will review the current investment climate within the context of international commitments to increasing development aid through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Poverty Reduction Strategy process and the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative. Different types of external financing resources will be explored as well as factors affecting domestic resource mobilization and allocation, and constraints to channelling funds for investment by farmers themselves. Absorptive capacity constraints and the role that aid can play will be addressed as well as the need for innovative financing mechanisms for agriculture.

The background information paper: “Financing of Agriculture: Issues, Constraints and Perspectives” is available online in Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish.

The Arabic link is: http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/meeting/012/k0677a.pdf

The Chinese link is: http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/meeting/012/k0677c.pdf

More information at : http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/meeting/012/k0677e.pdf