Examining the Legal Mandate of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Financing Development: A Question of Legal Limitation or Performance?

Marieclaire Colaiacomo
Faith Kamau

Abstract

Examining the Legal Mandate of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Financing Development: A Question of Legal Limitation or Performance?*

Faith Kamau and Marieclaire Colaiacomo

Abstract

In the wake of the global food crisis, IFAD’s relevance as a financier of agricultural development in developing countries has been in the limelight. Indeed there are concerns over what appears to be a problem of misalignment between IFAD’s legal mandate, its resources and the high expectations placed on the IFAD’s role in agricultural development. Given the trends in the global food situation, the urgency in coming up with adequate responses to food security concerns cannot be overemphasized. Hence, the question whether IFAD is capable of achieving its objectives needs to be reviewed in light of the challenge of aligning its resources with global food security needs.

This paper makes a critical assessment of whether IFAD’s funding constraints are actual legal impediments resulting from the limitations imposed by its constituent instruments (such as the Agreement Establishing IFAD) or whether they are as a result of default choices on the part of IFAD. The mandate of IFAD, to mobilize additional resources to be made available on concessional terms for agricultural development in developing member states, seems to us to have two dimensions, namely, resource mobilization and resource allocation. It appears from our analysis in this paper that the challenge that IFAD is facing is a resource- mobilization one. Finally, the paper examines the impact and relevance of IFAD in alleviating rural poverty and analyses its agricultural intervention strategies, including engagement with the private sector.