IFAD Promotes and Engages in South-South and Triangular Cooperation

By March 2, 2022 March 2, 2022 News

IFAD new South-South and Triangular Cooperation Strategy

In December 2021, during its 134th session, the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Executive Board approved the new corporate South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) Strategy for 2022 – 2027. This new strategy aims to further mainstream and institutionalize SSTC in the Fund’s country programmes by pursuing two main objectives:

  • Systematically identify and disseminate knowledge and innovations at the country programme and project level;
  • Support enhanced policy engagement aimed at enhancing rural poor people’s productive capacity, market access and resilience.

The new strategy builds on lessons learned from IFAD’s previous engagement in South-South and triangular cooperation to envision a stronger role for the Fund as an innovator and knowledge broker to address challenges related to food security, rural poverty, climate shocks and fragility in support of the SDGs.

Third call of the China-IFAD SSTC Facility

In support to IFAD’s response to COVID-19 and to build on the increasing role of SSTC in fragile contexts, four new projects were approved under the 3rd call of the China-IFAD SSTC Facility with the specific objective to share knowledge and experiences on how to address challenges from the pandemic in rural areas. With individual funding of up to half a million US dollars, these projects will focus on food security, poverty reduction and, women and youth empowerment:

  • In Tanzania, the Facility-supported project will strengthen the value chain of three crops in high demand: beans, cassava and sunflower – to the benefit of more than 100 000 farmers, through a partnership with two Chinese private sector companies.
  • In East Africa, the funds will go to facilitate learning and experience exchange between Rwanda and Kenya in support of the recovery and resilience of local farmers. The grant aims at improving their access to digital agricultural information, financial services, markets and agri-mechanization.
  • In Cuba, the funded project will scale up local successes in food system transformation by mobilising technology and technical assistance from China and fostering exchanges with countries in Central America on decentralized school-feeding management models.
  • In Tajikistan, new goat breeding and yarn processing practices will be introduced to women and the youth, with learning from the Chinese Village Based Enterprise model and through solid partnerships with the Chinese private sector.