The capital city of Qatar, Doha, will host, in the beginning of October, a meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad), of which Brazil will participate.
Created in 1978, the fund works as an international bank financing projects that aim at reducing poverty in the rural zones.
Brazil is one of the 164 members of the group that maintain the fund. In this number are 20 Arab nations and the countries of the Mercosur, economic bloc including, as well as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The meeting that will take place in Qatar on the 1st and 2nd of October, will be used to discuss the financial contributions to the organization. Every three years, Ifad member countries re-look and redefine this matter.
According to the general coordinator of Policies with International Financial Organizations of the Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Benvindo Belluco, there have already been two meetings, in Rome, headquarters of the Ifad, in April and July, to deal with the contributions.
The third will take place in Qatar, which, according to Belluco, offered to host the next meeting, and the last will take place in Rome, in December.
Belluco affirms that the initial proposal is for the new contributions to add up to US$ 800 million. The last contribution made yielded US$ 400 million. Brazil collaborated with US$ 8 million, and is the country in Latin America that contributes the most.
It is also the second greatest contributor amongst the developing nations, losing only to China. In the last statement released, the fund had a total of US$ 4.5 billion in capital.
The money is used to finance projects in the rural area such as the constructions of wells or improving activities that generate income.
Brazil, for example, managed to approve, in December last year, a US$ 47.39 million project to finance the creation of 3,000 agribusiness industries in 100 cities in the Northeast of the country. The project was approved, but the liberation of the money has not yet been signed.
Algeria, which is a member country, obtained, also in December, the approval of US$ 39.62 million in resources to develop the agricultural communities in the mountain regions.
The money will be used in a period of seven years for irrigation infrastructure, soil preservation, ecosystem management, improvement of rural roads, as well as the creation of agricultural micro-undertakings.
Some poorer countries receive donations, instead of financings. In the case of credit operations, the Libor is the interest rate charged, as well as a commission varying from case to case and which normally is between 2.6% and 3% per year. The due terms are also negotiated according to the project and destination country.
In the Qatar meeting the quantity of money each member country will direct to the fund and the payment periods will be discussed. Some countries pay in cash. The fund is made up both by developing countries as by rich nations, such as the United States, Canada, Japan and France.
The Ifad is one of the international organizations committed to the millennium objectives, stipulated by the United Nations Organization (UN) to reduce world poverty by half between 1990 and 2015.
According to information in the organization’s website, there are currently 900 million poor people in the rural zones, about three quarters of the total poor population in the world.
The Ifad elaborated its strategic plan, for the period of 2002 to 2006, with the objective of working for the millennium goals.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
