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The Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is the institution’s highest decision-making body, bringing together all member States. The Dominican Republic participates in the annual meetings of the Governing Council, where IFAD’s strategic guidelines are approved. Mario Arvelo submitted the country’s position to the XLIV Governing Council in terms that called the attention of the international community to the fact that overcoming the structural causes of rural poverty constitutes a challenge of formidable dimension, while recognizing the role that IFAD plays as a channel for adopting collective measures to lead international cooperation towards the solution of economic, social, and humanitarian problems. Working to achieve the eradication of rural poverty requires, beyond political will, the design of adequate, effective and coherent programs, as well as financial resources for their implementation.

Arvelo stressed that our government, headed by President Luis Abinader, implements a program based on the premise that the related phenomena of poverty, inequality, exclusion, and marginality can only be corrected in a scenario of institutional strengthening and with an inclusive economic model, with political will aimed at creating prosperous and stable livelihoods in rural areas so as to allow meeting the vital needs of farm workers and their families, with special emphasis on adequate food and nutrition. In such a process of rural transformation, a modern agricultural sector stimulates production and productivity, both to satisfy the needs of our population and to increase the volume of exportable products. These goals are met through agri-food modernization, which the Dominican government promotes within the framework of the National Development Strategy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and is based on pillars that include the opening of channels and marketing mechanisms for family farming and small-scale agriculture; the promotion of commercialization through associations and cooperatives with strong gender and youth components, together with the strengthening of value chains and sanitary and phytosanitary controls. It also proposes to improve access to water, expanding the National Irrigation Plan; create a national plan for innovation and technological improvement of crops; and ensure access to land and credit, especially in the least developed provinces. All of this with the aim of guaranteeing the mainstays of food and nutritional security: physical availability, economic access, and adequate use of food, as well as the stability over time of these three components.

The press release (in Spanish) issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of the Dominican Republic’s election to the IFAD Executive Board for the 2022-23 biennium can be found by following this link.

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Mario Arvelo delivers a speech at the 40th session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in February 2017. In that intervention he declared that the Dominican government has focused attention on family farmers, emphasizing gender and youth dimensions, with the aim of helping rural women to reach the maximum of their productive potential and ensure that rural communities once again become the benchmark for socioeconomic development. With the Fund’s technical and financial support, the government and the beneficiaries complete a triangle of achievements, making a particular effort to deploy projects in the most needy provinces. The relationship is two-way: we incorporate the benefits that IFAD brings to the National Development Agenda and, as donors, we have made effective our contribution of one million dollars to the 10th replenishment of the Fund.

Other links to the work Mario Arvelo performs at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• At IFAD
• With the President of IFAD
• At the Executive Board

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