IFAD And WFP Team Up To Promote Food Security In Sudan

Through this agreement, the two agencies will work to enhance quality and access to agricultural resources for smallholder farmers. This includes providing them with improved seeds, training on agricultural credit and on methods to reduce post-harvest losses. Both agencies will also work to improve availability of market services for produce. The agreement will also enable the two agencies to strengthen cooperation on climate analysis including policy and monitoring of climate impact on agricultural activities, the aim being to help communities adapt to changing climate patterns.



The agreement was signed by IFAD Country Programme Officer Ahmed Subahi and the then WFP Sudan Representative and Country Director Adnan Khan at the WFP Country Office in Khartoum.



"IFAD Country Office is pleased to sign this agreement with WFP today, which is an excellent example of extended collaboration between the Rome-based agencies here in Sudan,” said Ahmed Subahi, IFAD Country Programme Officer in Sudan. “We are looking forward to working closer with WFP in the framework of this agreement to achieve our common objective in supporting poor rural people."



While IFAD and WFP have been promoting food security in Sudan for decades, this is the first time that both organizations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize their partnership in the country.



“WFP is pleased to partner with our sister agency, IFAD, to boost our efforts with smallholder farmers in Sudan through our Farmers to Market programme,” said WFP Sudan Head of Programme Marco Cavalcante. “We fully expect that this collaboration will strengthen our ongoing efforts to promote resilience and self-reliance among the vulnerable communities that we support.”



In its efforts to promote food security and build resilience among vulnerable communities, WFP implemented its innovative Farmers to Market (F2M) Programme in 2010 to assist smallholder farmers. Through this effort, WFP partnered with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Sudan to enable smallholder farmers to access markets for training, insurance, and credit. As a result, WFP is assisting 45,000 smallholder farmers across Sudan to improve production and become self-sufficient. WFP is seeking to expand the Farmers to Market Programme to reach more than 80,000 smallholder farmers by next year.



Among the 80 countries that WFP supports, its operations in Sudan remain among its largest and most complex. WFP provides food assistance to vulnerable people in Darfur and other food insecure groups in the east and border areas to the south. This year, WFP plans to assist 4.6 million vulnerable people in Sudan through a mix of activities, including food distribution, school feeding, nutrition programmes and food assistance for assets and training.



Since inception of its activities in Sudan in 1979, IFAD has invested US$257 million to finance 20 programmes and projects. By the end of 2015, IFAD had been implementing eight projects that stretched over 11 states in 50 localities, encompassing areas with a high concentration of the rural poor. Currently, IFAD projects extend to 731 communities and more than 400,000 direct beneficiaries. 

 

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About IFAD

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. For more than 30 years IFAD has worked to eradicate rural poverty in developing countries around the world.



About WFP

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.



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For more information please contact:

IFAD Country Office, Plot 290, Garden City, P.O. Box 913, 11111, Tel. +249 187 124501, +249 187 124503, Email: a.subahi@ifad.org

Amor Almagro, WFP/Khartoum, Tel. +249 183248001 (ext. 2114), Mob. +249 912174853, Email: amor.almagro@wfp.org