Africa: IFAD Honoured With 2013 Momentum for Change Award for Climate Finance for Smallholder Farmers

Press release

Rome — The International Fund for Agricultural Development's (IFAD's) Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) has won a 2013 Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activities award.
This award recognises IFAD's innovative work in using climate finance to support climate change adaptation activities that deliver social and economic benefits to smallholder farmers.
"We welcome the recognition this award brings IFAD and the donors supporting ASAP," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD. "But far more important is the opportunity it creates for us to help raise the profile of smallholder farmers around the issue of climate change."
Through its Momentum for Change initiative, the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat provides a public platform to highlight broad-ranging climate change actions that are already achieving impacts on the ground, in addressing both climate change and wider economic, social and environmental issues.
IFAD's ASAP was launched just over a year ago and will work in more than thirty developing countries to use climate finance to help make rural development programmes more climate-resilient.
These investments will be aimed at a variety of areas including small-scale water-harvesting, providing farmers with improved seeds that are drought-tolerant and helping them access markets. Also the funding will support tree planting on farms and help farmers access weather forecasts so they know when best to plant and harvest crops.
ASAP is a multi-donor programme, funded by the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and Sweden.
"Along with all the donors supporting this programme we congratulate the IFAD team for this award," said Lynne Featherstone, Britain's International Development Minister. "By investing in improved practices and technologies, ASAP is helping millions of smallholder farmers across the world to cope with the impacts of climate change."
"This vital work is not only building resilience, it is also safeguarding farmers' jobs and livelihoods, especially those of women, and helping them to lift themselves out of poverty," added Featherstone. "We look forward to other donors joining us and investing in this programme so it can benefit many more smallholder farmers."
ASAP will help 8 million smallholder farmers to expand their options in a rapidly changing climate and in doing so is transforming IFAD's operations. In the year since its launch, IFAD's ASAP has become the largest global financing source dedicated to supporting the adaptation of poor smallholder farmers to climate change.