IFAD social reporting team: messengers of soundbites calling for action

The first day of 34th session of IFAD’s Governing Council was both intense and exciting!

IFAD was honoured to have a number of distinguished keynote speakers and the IFAD social reporting team had the privilege of using social media to bring the words of our esteemed guests to millions of people.

A silent revolution has happened at IFAD. 18 months ago, who would have imagined that one day social reporting would be mainstreamed in IFAD activities and processes? Well, now it is. The very fact that social reporters had seats assigned to them in the plenary hall is a testimony of this fact!

Thanks Andreina for reserving a strategic corner for us and given the success we are sure next year we'll have a bigger one!

Today, thanks to social media and social reporting we were able to share the moving words pronounced by Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Al Hussein United Nations Messenger of Peace; share the wise words of Mr Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Alliance and IFAD President’s call for action.

24 hours later, the soundbites of HRH Princess Haya, Kofi Annan and IFAD President have gone viral and the virtual world is talking about important issue such as the need for:

• passion and commitment at international level to solve the hunger problem
• more investments in agriculture
• more investments in political capital to spearhead a transformation of the rural sector to expand financial services in rural areas and ensure they have access to infrastructure
• more investments in human capital to develop and equip poor people, particularly the young people
• a change in the mind set to turn agriculture into profitable business in particular for young people

The panel discussion on “Feeding future generations – Young rural people today, prosperous farmers tomorrow” that took place in the afternoon was also an intense experience. The challenging questions posed by the moderator, Tumi Makgabo, engaged the audience in the room and on social media for over 2 hours.

We had an overwhelming response on Twitter and Facebook with tweets flying in from all over the world and questions being posed on our Facebook page.

The interventions of the audience in the room - the panellists, IFAD governors and young farmers and entrepreneurs - are still vibrating on the internet – better known as the “cloud”.

With his passionate interventions, Carlo Petrini, definitively did an excellent job in engaging and more importantly challenging the ministers and governors present in the room.

Two hours was not enough to answer questions such as:

• “What can be the role of young farmers to ensure we can feed 9.0 billion people in 2050”
• “What are the reasons, and what are the solutions for the relative neglect of young people – men and women – in national agricultural programmes, given their critical role in feeding the world tomorrow?
• Why do young people not want to get involved in agriculture?

At the end of the panel, there was a general consensus on the need to listen much more to young people and involve them in paving the way towards a better world.

Petrini was kind enough to grant the IFAD social reporting team an interview. Make sure you tune in and listen to his call for action!



Now we’re getting ready for the second day which will focus on discussing challenges and opportunities of young people in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Near East and North Africa.

I have just walked in the plenary hall and was pleasantly surprised to see the President sitting next to the social reporters. We could not miss the photo opportunity and also to have him on the team just for few minutes.

Make sure you stay tuned!

Browse the photo gallery on IFAD's Facebook page

IFAD Social Reporting Team

New Opportunities in Guatemala

In August 2010, IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze visited the small community of Laguna Iztacoba in Guatemala's Las Verapaces region. A dirt road of just 200 meters separated this community from the outside world... and from new opportunities. Now with funds from IFAD, the community has a new road... and a new outlook on life.

IFAD's relationship with the Guatemalan government goes back 30 years. Since 1986, the organization has provided US$131 million in loans for 9 projects at a total cost of US$272 million. During this weekend's Governing Council at IFAD's headquarters, Guatemalan Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, Juan Alfonso de León García, will come to Rome to share his thoughts, reflections and dreams for rural poverty reduction in Guatemala and the world over... New opportunities are truly just a few steps away.

IFAD country office staff come to town

Annual  occasions and recurrences are healthy rituals. They provide an opportunity to come together, take stock and celebrate. In less than 72 hours, IFAD family will have its annual reunion. Our 165 member states will gather in Rome for the 34th session of the Governing Council.

As we’re getting ready for this annual event, we are also preparing to welcome 33 country office colleagues from 15 different countries who will be attending the corporate induction workshop.

Some of our country office colleagues are already in the building and it is so nice to run into them in the lifts or meet with them in person instead of via skype or video conference.

As part of the annual family reunion ritual, not only they will be attending the Governing Council, but also participating in corporate activities such as learning events, brown-bag lunches and of course their divisional retreats.

Their visit to headquarters is a great opportunity for the HQ staff to get to know them and put a face to their email addresses. There is nothing in the world that can replace a face-to-face encounter and inevitably when this happens the quality of the next “virtual” interaction improves exponentially.

Next week, thanks to the corporate induction programme, they will have a chance to meet colleagues from the different departments and divisions. They’ll be able to discuss how they can enhance their contribution to IFAD’s work and also put on the table some of the challenges they are facing.

“ I hope that by the end of the week, we all have a better understanding of each other’s works and build all the necessary bridges”, says Agnes Kiragu, our country office colleague in Kenya.  “I am looking forward to sharing our challenges and walk away with solutions!”

Eric Rwabidadi, who is a veteran country office staff, having served first in Rwanda and now in Kenya said: “ I am looking forward to getting answers to all the operational questions, for example, how can I put together key files, how do I prepare myself for a quality enhancement and quality assurance session”.

“We’ve tried our best to put together a comprehensive induction programme and I hope at the end of the 27 different sessions,  our 33 colleagues coming from far afield will get answers to their many questions”, explains Richard Aiello, Human Resource officer responsible for putting together the induction programme.

Hopefully our country office colleagues will see the corporate induction programme as the beginning of a long-term relationship and use the opportunity of their visit to HQ to meet and know as many colleagues as possible, so that the next time they need anything they can immediately get to the right person! They are indeed an integral part of and an important constituency for IFAD. We may have our offices in wing A, B or C and they are the "Field wing".

And let’s hope that they continue this annual ritual of coming to HQ at least once a year if not more!

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Talking to Richard Aiello, the man behind the corporate induction programme, this is what he had to say:

On Monday 21 February, we'll launch the new IFAD corporate induction programme withs 33 staff from 15 country offices.

For the last couple of months Willem, Shyam, Martin, Lalita and I have been working together to build this programme and as we did so, we gradually understood how this is really a practical IFAD wide sign of care towards its staff.

Colleagues from across the house, including senior management despite overlapping commitments in preparation for the GC, have been meeting with us a number of times, are preparing presentations and have been going through extensive dry runs with us.

We are almost ready and our colleagues are already in town and in the building. As of Monday for the entire week, our team and our 30 facilitators will start illustrating to our new colleagues what makes IFAD so unique and so special,

So while we look forward to sharing impressions of participants and facilitators, join us in welcoming them to IFAD HQ!!!