IFAD calls for inclusive investment, and stronger South-South ties in rural Brazil & Africa

The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) played a prominent role at the II Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Fight Against Hunger and Rural Development conference, held in Brasilia. The Fund’s Vice President, Gerardine Mukeshimana, emphasized that sharing practical, locally adapted, and sustainable solutions among countries with similar contexts, or South-South cooperation, is one of the most effective ways to transform rural areas and empower rural communities. It also presents an opportunity for multilateral development institutions to evolve and scale up solutions.

“Across Brazil and Africa, smallholder farmers are already innovating by improving their soils, adopting resilient crops, forming cooperatives, and building inclusive markets, but they cannot do it alone; their success hinges on collaborative support and resources,” said Mukeshimana at the event. The Fund also stressed the need to place family farming at the heart of rural development finance, aiming to thrive farms and promote prosperity in the Global South.

The Brazil-Africa Dialogue was created by the G20’s Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, and it provided an opportunity for more than 40 high-level delegations from African countries to share their knowledge and experiences with the aim to expedite the development of intervention models that improve the lives of rural communities.

Mukeshimana also said that “multilateral development banks must shift from being just funders to system builders, working alongside governments, public development banks, the private sector, and rural communities to build an ecosystem of scalable investment opportunities.”

Investing in rural Brazil and Africa

IFAD focuses more than 60 per cent of its investments in Africa and Latin America and had ample opportunity during the Brazil-Africa Dialogue to share its intervention models that complement existing national policies in several countries attending. IFAD also highlighted its strong portfolio in the Northeast of Brazil, which led to several South-South cooperation exchanges with African countries.

Brazil is an important partner for IFAD in Latin America and the Caribbean and represents 50 per cent of the Fund’s investments in the region, as well as its 10th largest portfolio overall. To date, US$ 1 billion have been invested in the country, and IFAD-supported initiatives are gradually expanding into the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes, targeting vulnerable family farmers and landless rural communities that face poverty and food insecurity in rural areas and agrarian reform settlements.