FAO and ALIDE sign agreement to promote agricultural and rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Lima, Peru –The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Latin American Association of Development Finance Institutions (ALIDE) signed a letter of intent to work on agreements to improve access to credit for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises to accelerate agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

The signing ceremony, which took place at ALIDE headquarters in Lima, Peru, was attended by FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean Mario Lubetkin and ALIDE Secretary General Edgardo Alvarez. Mariana Escobar, the FAO representative in Peru, and Pablo Rabczuk, the Senior Liaison and Regional Political Affairs Officer of the FAO Regional Office, also participated. 

With the signing of this document, the institutions seek to strengthen strategies for effective financing of agricultural and rural development in the region. This will improve food security, reduce rural poverty, and promote gender equality through initiatives such as studies and research, training, dissemination, and exchange of information. 

These initiatives will focus on strengthening development banks' financing and technical assistance policies and strategies to support agricultural and agro-industrial production units, financial inclusion of small and medium-scale producers, and financial and non-financial services to improve access to credit for small and medium-scale agricultural enterprises. 

In addition, the agreement seeks to promote FAO's "Hand in Hand" program approach for accelerating agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development, as well as for increasing and stimulating public and private investments to accelerate the transformation towards more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems. 

"It is critical to understand that, to achieve sustainable development through the transformation of agri-food systems, we must work closely with the Development Finance Institutions. This agreement will allow us to work to promote effective financing for agricultural and rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in the most vulnerable areas," said Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative. 

For his part, the Secretary General of ALIDE, Edgardo Alvarez, pointed out that this letter of intent between FAO and ALIDE allows the relaunching of the institutional relationship between both organizations, putting at the base the priority issues of current relevance in the promotion and development of the agricultural and rural sector in our countries of the region, with the ultimate goal of achieving food security. 

Alvarez added that "ALIDE will contribute the role that agricultural development financial institutions can play in FAO's regional effort to accelerate agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development.