Ahead of a South-South cooperation meeting, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has called for a constructive policy dialogue to assist in overcoming development challenges such as climate change and volatile food prices.
20 July 2011: Ahead of a South-South cooperation meeting, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has called for a more open and constructive policy dialogue to assist in overcoming challenges such as climate change and volatile food prices.
Thomas Elhaut, IFAD Director for Asia and the Pacific, highlighted that cooperation should set guidelines that allow investments to feed directly into development assistance so that the impoverished benefit from investments. He also stressed that South-South cooperation is necessary to strengthen collaboration with partners as well as to create a policy space for government action and regional policy coordination to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
China, along with Brazil, have been leaders in South-South cooperation in recent years, with China’s progress and success in agricultural and rural development providing concrete experience and lessons for African and Asian countries. Elhaut, however, cautioned that discussion should go beyond technology and exchange of experiences to discussing how to further strengthen and promote South-South Cooperation. The South-South cooperation meeting will be hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and the International Poverty Reduction Centre in Beijing, China, from 21-27 July 2011. [IFAD Press Release]