Thank you for inviting Norway to this important event here at IFAD’s Governing Council.
Let me first emphasize that IFAD is a very important partner for Norway to achieve our development policy objectives.
IFAD’s core mandate aligns very well with Norway’s strategy on food security. IFAD13 priorities are also fully in line with Norway’s food strategy – “Combining Forces Against Hunger”.
From IFAD11 to IFAD13 we have increased our core support by 170 per cent (from 360 to 972 Norwegian kroner). In addition, we contribute with a range of supplementary funds to IFAD.
Elimination of poverty and food insecurity has been main development policy objectives for Norway.
Therefore, we commend Brazil for having made the fight against hunger and poverty a top priority during their G20 presidency. And we strongly welcome that South Africa will continue the strong focus on food security during their G20 presidency.
The world needs G20’s leadership to fight poverty and to energize the transformation to sustainable food systems. Investing in agriculture is one of the best means we have for reducing inequalities, supporting economic growth, creating new jobs and reducing poverty in developing countries.
We strongly appreciated that Brazil invited Norway to be a G20 guest country last year, and that South Africa has invited us to continue as guest country under their presidency.
Norway joined the G20 initiated Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty last year. We particularly welcome the fact that the Alliance is a joint initiative of development and finance ministers. There are clear synergies between G20’s policy track and finance track.
Let me emphasize some very important features of the Global Alliance:
- The Alliance will be demand driven. Development countries will develop their own policies, strategies and plans to reduce poverty and promote food security.
- Donors will contribute with knowledge and financial resources on the basis of developing countries own needs. National resource mobilization must work alongside donor contributions.
- The Alliance will not establish own financial channels, but work for implementation through established international organizations, multilateral financial institutions and donors.
These characteristics of the Global Alliance are important to avoid duplication and to contribute to aid effectiveness.
IFAD, as a hybrid development and finance institution, has the potential to become a very constructive partner for the Global Alliance. IFAD should do its part to respond to the G20 Capital Adequacy Framework (CAF) and review its financial strategy ahead to scale up its impact.
To fight poverty and hunger, the Alliance needs to reach communities in rural areas in developing countries, where more than ¾ of the poorest people in the world live.
IFAD gets strong evaluations of its results. IFAD has decentralized its organization and develop their programs in close cooperation with national authorities. To fight poverty and hunger, we need IFAD to scale up its programs and projects for climate-robust small-scale food production, local food value chains and markets in rural areas.
Norway has given financial support to the Global Alliance “support mechanism” (approx. 1 mill. dollar) established in FAO. We stand ready to continue working with both the Global Alliance and IFAD to fight hunger and poverty.
Thank you!