United Nations agency to present results of poverty reduction programme in the Philippines | WPN World People News

Media are invited to attend a national workshop where conclusions from an independent evaluation of the IFAD-supported country strategy and programme in the Philippines will be presented. IFAD’s Independent Office of Evaluation conducted this evaluation, which includes seven rural development projects implemented between 2003 and 2015 for a total lending amount of US$154 million.

Following the presentation of evaluation conclusions and recommendations, discussions will focus on the challenges and opportunities in reducing rural poverty in the country and lay the groundwork for the future partnership between IFAD and the Philippines.

Issues to be reviewed include: defining the poverty reduction target group and targeting approach, ways to strengthen and empower poor rural people’s organizations, improving land tenure security, and boosting effective project monitoring and evaluation that will inform policy discussion.

Since 1978, IFAD has provided $241.9 million in loans and $1.8 million in grants to finance 15 projects in the country for a total project cost of $771.5 million. IFAD's support has included projects in Cordillera and Mindanao and projects with sectoral focus such as microenterprise development, microfinance and natural resource management. The target group has the poorest segments of the rural population including upland farmers, indigenous peoples, agrarian reform beneficiaries and fisher folks.

Participants will include representatives of the Philippine's national and local government, representatives of bilateral and multilateral aid institutions, non-governmental and civil society organizations and selected resource persons.

Source: International Fund for Agricultural Development