Development finance expert Alvaro Lario takes the helm of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development on Saturday with an urgent mission to battle poverty and hunger among the world’s rural poor as they face existential threats of climate change and food insecurity. Lario, a Spanish national who has served as IFAD’s chief financial officer since 2018, has led efforts to harness private sector investment to boost the resilience of millions of small-scale farmers and rural communities who are among those most affected by global shocks. “Our mission has never been more urgent as food insecurity, climate change and conflict threaten the lives and livelihoods of the world’s rural poor,” he said. “But our power to shape the future has never been greater, if we muster the commitment and resources to make lasting change.” Lario remains committed to IFAD’s goal to double its impact on poor rural communities by 2030. This will be done in part by driving forward climate change adaptation as a priority for the Fund, according to a message received here from Rome on Friday. Poor small-scale farmers produce one-third of the world’s food, but receive less than two percent of climate finance and are the least able to adapt to changing circumstances like drought, extreme weather and crop failure. “We keep moving from crisis to crisis, focusing on immediate relief. But if we want to avoid winding up in the same place again five years from now, we need to invest in the medium term -- and this means nothing less than the transformation of food systems, and adaptation to climate change,” he said. Read: Bangladesh, Japan, IFAD partner to bring smallholder farmers closer to international markets “This won’t be done by governments and the UN alone. This is a shared, global challenge for public and private sectors alike since we can all share the benefits of food security and global stability, just as we will all suffer together should we fail to act.” IFAD, a UN specialized agency which is also an international finance institution, is the only global development agency exclusively dedicated to transforming agriculture, rural economies and food systems by making them more inclusive, productive, resilient and sustainable. Since 1978, the Fund has invested more than US$23 billion in low-interest loans and grants, reaching more than a half-billion people through projects that increase food security and food production, improve nutrition and build resilience in the world’s poorest and most marginalized rural communities. In 2020, as both CFO and Associate Vice-President for financial operations, Lario set out to mobilize greater resources for the Fund by enlisting private sector investment. Under his stewardship, IFAD became the first UN fund to receive a public credit rating. That A++ rating, through Fitch agency, has enabled IFAD to secure private sector investment, with two initial private-placement bonds in 2022 totalling US$150 million, and more to come. Lario will serve a four-year term from 1st October, taking over from Gilbert F. Houngbo, a former Togolese prime minister who has become the head of the UN’s International Labor Organization. Lario has a PhD in financial economics from Complutense University in his native Spain, and a master’s degree in finance from Princeton University. Previous to the Fund, he worked for more than six years in the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank group, and also in various roles in the private sector asset management industry and academia.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has appointed its top finance executive, Alvaro Lario, to be its next president. Through the appointment, IFAD has chosen a champion of private sector investments to lead the UN agency into battle against a global food security crisis triggered by war in Ukraine, climate change and the economic shock of COVID-19. Lario will take office on 1 October and serve a four-year term.  Read: IFAD Member States to appoint next President July 7 He succeeds Gilbert Houngbo who has led the organisation since 2017. Lario, IFAD’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and an Associate Vice-President for financial operations since 2018, pledged to double IFAD’s impact on rural poor communities by 2030. “We have the institutions to tackle poverty, we have the know-how to reduce inequality, what we need is to mobilise resources and join forces,” he told delegates from 177 member states attending the election held at IFAD’s Rome-based headquarters on Thursday. “We know that ODA (Official Development Assistance) and ODA of agriculture will not be enough. Due to the war in Ukraine small-scale producers globally are suffering the current disruptions of food systems. This is one additional shock on top of the climate disasters and unequal recovery from COVID-19, and poor communities are disproportionally affected,” he added. Lario committed to scale-up investments in climate resilience and climate-smart agriculture.  “Climate-smart agriculture and climate adaptation will become increasingly important to break the cycle of poverty, inequality, conflict and forced migration. IFAD needs to act urgently and partner with climate liked-minded institutions to support small scale producers and poor rural communities adapt to climate shocks,” said Lario. Lario also stressed that “it will not be possible to reach the SDGs without harnessing the power of women and the energy of the youth.”  He promised to prioritize programmes that put women at the centre. As IFAD CFO, Lario has led IFAD’s charge to mobilize private sector engagement in its battle against hunger and poverty, and on behalf of the world’s poorest rural communities. “As IFAD President, I will ensure that IFAD connects the huge amount of global savings from impact investors and pension funds to tackle poverty in rural poor communities. We need to make sure that we use our AA+ credit rating to mobilize more funds. This is a unique competitive advantage in the UN system,” said Lario. Read: IFAD: Integration of nutrition in all dev interventions sought Under his stewardship, IFAD became the first United Nations Fund and the only UN body and specialized agency other than the World Bank Group to enter the capital markets and obtain a credit rating, enabling the Fund to expand resources mobilization efforts to the private sector. Lario has 20 years of experience in the private sector, academia and international financial institutions, including developing local capital markets and investments in emerging markets at the International Financial Corporation of the World Bank group. Lario will take up the IFAD helm amid mounting challenges in agriculture and notably for smallholders who are both key to global food security and extremely vulnerable to shocks.  Rising global food, energy and fertilizer prices linked to the war in Ukraine now threaten to trigger a global food crisis and push millions more rural people into hunger and poverty. IFAD’s role in building resilience among small-scale farmers who produce a third of the world’s food have made it a leader in the drive for global food security.  Recently the Fund launched its Crisis Response Initiative to ensure that small-scale farmers can meet their immediate needs for fertilisers, seeds and technology and ensure the next harvests in 22 priority countries affected by commodity price hikes. New figures published yesterday by five UN agencies including IFAD showed the world falling further behind in efforts to end hunger and poverty in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.  The State of Food Security and Nutrition report showed that hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.