1Introduction
With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Member States made aunanimous commitment to jointly tackling the interrelated challenges facing the world,including hunger and poverty. Three quarters of the world’s poorest and hungry
people live in the rural areas of developing countries and around 63 per cent of theworld’s poorest people work in agriculture 1. Investing in rural development is therefore
central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and building global resiliencein the face of climate change and other shocks.
IFAD is the only United Nations specialized agency and international financial institution with the specificmandate to eradicate poverty and hunger by investing in rural people2 through financial and technical assistanceto agriculture and rural development projects in developing member countries. Leaving no one behind – theambition that cuts across the 2030 Agenda – is central to IFAD’s mandate. IFAD is a multilateral organization
with 178 member countries. Membership is open to any state that is a member of the United Nations, any of its
specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency.
IFAD’s mission is to transform rural economies and food systems by making them more inclusive, productive,resilient and sustainable. IFAD’s vision of inclusive and sustainable rural transformation fits closely with theambition of the 2030 Agenda. IFAD’s Strategic Framework (see page 7) affirms this vision as the basis for theorganization’s work. IFAD’s overarching goal is to invest in rural people to enable them to overcome poverty andachieve food security through remunerative, sustainable and resilient livelihoods.
IFAD mainstreams four cross-cutting themes in its operations: environment and climate change, gender andwomen’s empowerment, youth and nutrition. These four issues, combined with fragility, underpin some of thegreatest challenges to achieving the SDGs; addressing them effectively, in collaboration with partners, builds theresilience of rural communities, reduces vulnerability and helps ensure that migration is always a choice rather
than a necessity.
Rural people living in poverty and experiencing food insecurity in developing countries are the target
population of IFAD-supported projects. Within this broad group, IFAD’s comparative advantage lies in its
targeting of the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable people and those who are most likely to have little

1 Olinto, P., Beegle, K. Sobrado, C., and H. Uematsu. 2013. The State of the Poor: Where Are The Poor, Where Is

Extreme Poverty Harder to End, and What Is the Current Profile of the World’s Poor? Economic Premise No. 125.
October. PREM Network, the World Bank.
2
Rural can be defined by administrative delineations, i.e. national definitions of rural and urban usually defined bypopulation density. IFAD applies a broader definition, to recognize the rural-urban continuum. Thus, rural people refersto people living in rural, semi-rural and peri-urban areas on the continuum.

access to assets and opportunities due to social exclusion and marginalization (e.g. women, young people,indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, people living in fragile situations, etc.).
IFAD-supported projects are of various types in several sectors within the agricultural space. In line with its
Strategic Framework, IFAD contributes most significantly to the eradication of poverty and hunger (SDGs 1 and2), as well as to the gender equality (SDG 5) and reduced inequalities (SDG 10), decent work and economic
growth (SDG 8), action on climate change (SDG 13) and the environment (SDG 15). Other SDGs are also
supported as shown in table 1. In total, IFAD supports directly or indirectly 16 out of 17 SDGs.
Table 1: IFAD project types and SDG supported

Projecttype

Description of project activities

SDG target supported

Environmentand NaturalResources

Restoring and maintaining natural resource capital as a basic
requirement for sustainable development.

1.4, 2.3, 5a, 10.3, 12.2, 15.1

Production
sectors

Improving agricultural production and limiting post-harvest losses.
Five categories are included: Agricultural land resources,Agricultural water resources, Crops, Fisheries and aquaculture,and Livestock and pastoralism.

1.4, 2.4, 6.4, 6.5, 8.2, 9.1, 10.1,12.2, 12.3, 12.8

Inclusive ruralfinanceBanking and financial services, and financial market support.

1.4, 2.3, 4.4, 5.a, 8.1, 8.3, 9.3,10.c, 15.aSocialServices

Securing basic services such as social and health services.
Categories include: Securing basic needs and services, andAccessing energy and housing.

1.4, 2.4, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 8.2, 8.6, 9.3,10.c, 12.2, 14.b, 15.a, 16.7

Access tomarkets

Accessing better markets, and improving networks, utilities andservices to facilitate economic activities, including rural businessdevelopment and transportation.

1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 2.3, 2.a, 2.c, 4.3, 4.4,
4.5, 5.5, 8.2, 8.3, 8.5, 8.6, 9.1, 9.3,
9.4, 9.a, 10.1, 10.2, 12.3, 12.8,
14.b, 16.7

Policy andinstitutions

Creating an enabling environment for project implementation andsustainable rural transformation, including activities such assupport to public administration in developing or implementing new
policies, laws, regulations or reforms.

2.3, 5.5, 8.3,12.1, 13.2, 16.1, 16.7,17.3, 17.6, 17.7, 17.9, 17.13,
17.14, 17,15, 17.16

Cross-cutting themes

Climatechange
adaptationand mitigation

Enhancing small scale producers’ and rural communities’ lowcarbon development and their resilience to environmental
degradation and climate change impacts. Activities are along thewhole value chain, such as improved seed varieties, agroforestry,
improved storage facilities to reduce post-harvest losses, andrenewable energy for agribusinesses. Innovative climate finance,such as micro-lending to reduce barriers to finance and technology
for vulnerable populations.

15.,2.1,2.3,2.4,4.5,5.4,6.4,6.5,7.1,
7.2,9.4,10.2,12.2,12.8,12.a,
13.1,13.2,13.3,14.2,14.7,15.1,15.2,
15.3

Gender andwomen’s
empowerment

Promoting gender equality in rural communities by helping rural
women grow more food, connect to markets, increase theirincomes, and become more literate and financially skilled.

1.4,5.4,5.5, 10.2,16.7,5.a,5.c

YouthFostering business development, new technology and innovation
models, vocational training and education as well as emerging
themes of decent work, and addressing issues of child labor inagriculture, adolescent girls, indigenous youth and youth withdisabilities.

1.2, 2.3, 8.5, 8.6, 10.2

Nutrition

Improving local food systems (mainly through increasing anddiversifying food production), and raising awareness about andknowledge of nutrition. Integrating nutrition considerations into
stages of the food value chain beyond production.

2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 3.4, 6.1

2

The contribution of IFAD-supported projects to the SDGs is measured at single project level through a set ofCore Indicators (CIs) that are mapped to the relevant SDG goal and target, and measured on an ongoing basis.
IFAD’s Sustainable Development Finance Framework (SDFF) applies to funds borrowed by IFAD in the formof private placement bonds aimed at scaling up IFAD’s efforts to contribute to the2030 Agenda and the SDGs.
The SDFF includes the following four core components of the International Capital Markets Association Green
Bond Principles (2018), Social Bond Principles (2020) and Sustainability Bond Guidelines (2018), available at
ICMA:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Use of proceeds
Process for project evaluation and selection
Management of proceeds
Reporting

Use of proceeds
An amount equal to the net proceeds from private placement bonds issued by IFAD will be included in IFAD’sresources. IFAD will use these resources to finance or refinance Eligible Development Projects (EDPs) andprogrammes in member countries. These resources will not be committed or earmarked for lending to, orfinancing of, any particular projects or programmes. The returns on the private placement bonds will not belinked to the performance of any particular project.
EDPs will be managed on a portfolio-based approach. The following table shows IFAD’s EDPs by type, as
described in table 1, and the corresponding green or social bond project category for reference.
All IFAD project types aim to transform rural economies and food systems by making them more inclusive,productive, resilient and sustainable to IFAD's target population.
Proceeds from bond private placements will not be used to finance IFAD’s administrative and operating
expenses, nor to finance expenses for grants, as these expenses are covered entirely by replenishment
contributions3 from IFAD’s Member States.
As mentioned above, IFAD-supported projects contribute to four cross-cutting themes: (1) Climate Change
Adaptation and Mitigation, (2) Gender and Women’s Empowerment, (3) Youth, and (4) Nutrition. These themes
are intrinsic to IFAD’s core mission and have strong linkages to its project portfolio. Accordingly, certain bondissuances may be thematic in nature, drawing on these priorities.

3

Replenishment contributions are grant financing contributions that IFAD receives from its Member States3

Table 2: IFAD project types and green and social bonds project category
EDP type

Environment
and Natural
Resources

Production
sectors

Inclusive
ruralfinanceSocialServices

Access tomarkets

Policy andinstitutions

GBP/SBP project
category reference
Environmentally
sustainable managementof living natural
resources and land use

Sustainable water andwastewater management



Terrestrial and aquatic
biodiversity conservation



Food security







Employment generation
through the potential
effect of SME financing
and microfinance

Access to essential
servicesSocioeconomicadvancement andempowerment

Affordable housing

Affordable basic
infrastructureProcess for project evaluation and selection
EDPs go through a rigorous review and approval process to ensure that they align with IFAD’s mission and meetdevelopment priorities of borrowing governments, as detailed in the jointly developed Country Strategic
Opportunities Programmes (COSOP) or Country Strategies.4 The process includes: (i) a two-step quality
enhancement and quality assurance process with substantive input from technical experts as well as peer
reviewers through the Operational Strategy and Policy Guidance Committee (OSC), the Project Design Review
Meeting and the Quality Assurance Group (QAG) meeting; (ii) screening to identify potential adverse
environmental or social impacts and designing policies and concrete actions to mitigate any such impacts; and,(iii) approval by IFAD’s Executive Board5. IFAD integrates the following four cross-cutting mainstreaming areas
into its lending activities, helping its borrowers to create sustainable development solutions: environment and45

www.ifad.org/en/cosop
www.ifad.org/en/project-design-and-management4

climate change; gender and women’s empowerment; youth and nutrition. IFAD applies the MultilateralDevelopment Banks (MDB) methodology for climate finance tracking in each project.
Projects are subject to the Policies and Criteria for IFAD Financing,6 the Guidelines for IFAD Financing Terms
and Conditions,7 the General Conditions for Agricultural Development Financing8 and IFAD’s Social,
Environmental and Climate Assessment Procedures,9 each as updated and amended from time to time.

Management of proceeds
The proceeds from bond private placements sourced under the SDFF will be allocated within IFAD’s investment
portfolio to a special sub-portfolio linked to IFAD’s lending operations to “EDPs” as described above.
Pending disbursement to IFAD’s programmes and projects, an amount equal to the net proceeds from the sale ofthe private placement bonds will be invested in accordance with IFAD’s prudent Investment Policy Statement10.
Disbursement requests for EDPs and programmes will take place in accordance with IFAD’s established policies
and procedures.

Reporting
IFAD will produce an annual impact report under the SDFF. The report will include the total amount offinancing approved under the framework with a lookback period of 36 months, disbursement patterns andoutstanding balance of proceeds from private bond placements as well as planned or achieved results.
IFAD’s agenda for results management is embodied in its Development Effectiveness Framework11 whichembeds a comprehensive set of actions for timely and adequate collection of information to identify the results
achieved by IFAD-supported projects.
All IFAD-supported projects report on a set of Core Indicators (CIs)12 linked to IFAD’s mandate, which are inturn mapped to specific SDG goals and targets to measure IFAD’s contributions to the 2030 Agenda. Specificindicators for each of the mainstreaming areas (environment and climate change, gender and women’s
empowerment, nutrition and youth) are also included in each project’s design and results framework (see table3).
IFAD provides supervision and implementation support to all the projects it finances and is committed totransparent reporting of its financing on an annual basis. The supervision process comprises regular reports by
the implementing government agency on project activities, including a mid-term review of project progress. Eachproject’s progress, outputs, outcomes and impact are monitored by the borrowing government and by IFAD
throughout the implementation phase in order to obtain data to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of theoperations.
Each project reports through a corporate-level results management system on an ongoing basis, withaggregation and reporting undertaken annually. The contribution to each SDG goal and target is tracked
automatically in IFAD’s online Operational Results Management System (ORMS).
Project completion reports self-assess performance and results at the end of a project. These are complemented
by project evaluations that the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) conducts on a sample basis. TheIOE also issues an Annual Report on Results and Impact of IFAD Operations 13, which examines IFAD's overall
programme performance each year. It is IFAD's principal external accountability tool and allows IFAD to monitor
the effectiveness of its work. Project information is available on the IFAD website.

6

www.ifad.org/documents/38714170/39132730/ifad-financing.pdf/9fa17549-96e0-4e45-9d50-f01e892e44b1
www.ifad.org/en/document-detail/asset/41074488
8
www.ifad.org/en/document-detail/asset/39500875
9
www.ifad.org/en/secap
10
https://webapps.ifad.org/members/eb/128/docs/EB-2019-128-R-38.pdf
11https://webapps.ifad.org/members/eb/119/docs/EB-2016-119-R-12.pdf
12
https://webapps.ifad.org/members/eb/120/docs/EB-2017-120-R-7-Rev-1.pdf
13
www.ifad.org/en/web/ioe/arri
7

5

Table 3: EDP type and example of Core Indicator measured by IFAD
EDP type

Environment and Natural
Resources

Example of Core Indicator measured
1.1.1 Number of persons whose ownership or user rights over natural
resources have been registered in national cadasters and/or geographic
information management systems
1.2.1 Percentage of persons/households reporting improved access toland, forests, water or water bodies for production purposes
1.1.2 Number of hectares of farmland under water-related infrastructure
constructed/rehabilitated

Production sectors

1.1.3 Number of rural producers accessing production inputs and/ortechnological packages
1.1.4 Number of persons trained in production practices and/ortechnologies
1.1.5 Number of persons in rural areas accessing financial services(savings, credit, insurance, remittances, etc.)

Inclusive rural finance1.1.6 Number of financial service providers supported in delivering outreachstrategies, financial products and services to rural areas
1.1.7 Number of persons in rural areas trained in financial literacy
and/or use of financial products and services
2.1.2 Number of persons trained in income-generating activities or business
management
2.1.3 Number of rural producers' organizations supported

Social Services

1.1.8 Number of persons/households provided with targeted support toimprove their nutrition
1.2.9 Households with improved nutrition Knowledge Attitudes andPractices (KAP)
2.1.1 Number of rural enterprises accessing business development services
2.1.2 Number of persons trained in income-generating activities or business
management
2.1.3 Number of rural producers' organizations supported

Access to markets

2.1.4 Number of supported rural producers that are members of a rural
producers’ organization
2.1.5 Number of kilometers of roads constructed, rehabilitated or upgraded
2.1.6 Number of market, processing or storage facilities constructed or
rehabilitated
2.2.1 Number of jobs created

Policy 1 Number of policy-relevant knowledge products completed
Policy and institutions

Policy 2 Number of functioning multi-stakeholder platforms supported

Cross-cutting themes (example)
3.1.1 Number of groups supported to sustainably manage natural resources
and climate-related risks
3.1.2 Number of persons provided with climate information services
Climate change adaptationand mitigation

3.1.3 Number of persons accessing technologies that sequester carbon or
reduce greenhouse gas emissions
3.1.4 Number of hectares of land brought under climate-resilient
management
3.2.1 Number of tons of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) avoided and/or
sequestered6

Overview of IFAD's Strategic Framework 2016-20257

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