PRESS STATEMENT
Ambassador Cindy H. McCain
U.S. Mission to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome
July 29, 2022
U.S. Government Funding for the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Response to the Global Food Security Crisis
The burden of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine has fallen hardest on the most vulnerable rural communities in countries least able to support them. To help protect livelihoods and build resilience, the Administration plans to provide the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) with $10 million for its Crisis Response Initiative, pending Congressional notification. This forms part of the planned $2.76 billion in additional U.S. humanitarian and economic assistance, announced June 28, to help protect the world’s most vulnerable populations and mitigate growing food insecurity and malnutrition.
The Crisis Response Initiative (CRI) builds resilience in such communities by improving access to essential inputs like seeds and fertilizer, financing, and markets, and by investing in critical small-scale infrastructure. The CRI is a multidimensional response mechanism that aims to both help communities overcome the current emergency and emerge from the crisis with more resilient food systems and local economies for the future.
The United States is IFAD’s largest historical donor, reflecting the value we attribute to IFAD’s role in the global development finance architecture as the only specialized global development institution exclusively focused on rural transformation. IFAD’s comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the Fund’s capacity to effectively address dynamic food security challenges in partnership with borrowing countries. We welcome contributions to the CRI made by the Netherlands and Ireland and encourage other partners to consider supporting this important initiative: https://www.ifad.org/en/crisis-response-initiative.
Ambassador McCain is currently on a five-day mission to Guatemala and Honduras to visit ongoing U.S.-funded UN food and agriculture projects and meet with government officials, United Nations agencies on the ground, and program beneficiaries. These projects showcase how the U.S. government, the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies, and the Governments of Guatemala and Honduras collaborate to reduce hunger and food insecurity and advance humanitarian relief, livelihood protection, and agriculture-led economic growth.
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