The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), headquartered in Rome, Italy. It was established in 1977 as a major outcome of the 1974 World Food Conference, which was convened in response to widespread famine and malnutrition caused by global food shortages in the early 1970s. The problem it solved was the lack of dedicated financing to address structural issues of food insecurity and poverty in the rural areas of developing countries.
IFAD's core mechanism is to provide low-interest loans and grants to developing countries to finance agricultural and rural development projects. It is the only multilateral development organization that focuses exclusively on rural economies and food security, with a mandate to improve rural food security and enable rural men and women to overcome poverty. IFAD's work focuses on improving access to financial services, markets, technology, land, and natural resources for smallholder farmers, women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples. Since its founding, IFAD has provided US$23.2 billion in loans and grants and coordinated an additional US$31 billion in co-financing.
IFAD connects to the broader UN system, being a specialized agency, and works closely with its Rome-based partners, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Its activities are guided by a Strategic Framework, with the overarching goal of investing in rural people to overcome poverty and food insecurity. Recently, IFAD has strengthened its focus on private sector engagement through the Private Sector Operational Strategy 2025–2030, which aims to catalyze private finance for investment in agrifood systems and contribute to closing the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) finance gap. The direction of its investments for 2025–2027 is set by the 13th Replenishment of IFAD's resources, approved by the Governing Council.