Context:

UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) launched a multi-donor COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility (RPSF) to support farmers and rural communities to continue food supply.

About:

• FAD’s new multi-donor fund, the COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility aims to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access, and rural employment.
• As part of the broader UN socio-economic response framework, the Facility will ensure that farmers in the most vulnerable countries have timely access to inputs, information, markets, and liquidity.
• The planned interventions fall into four main categories:
  • Providing inputs and basic assets for the production of crops, livestock, and fisheries.
  • Facilitating access to markets to support small-scale farmers in selling their products in conditions where market functions are restricted.
• Targeting funds for rural financial services to ensure sufficient liquidity and to ease repayment requirements so as to maintain services, markets, and jobs ” Promoting the use of digital services to deliver key information on production, weather, finance, and markets.

About IFAD:

• International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and specialized United Nations agency based in Rome, the UN’s food and agriculture hub.
• Founded in 1977, the organization invests in rural people, empowering them to increase their food security, improve the nutrition of their families and increase their incomes.