Trade Policy Development - IFAD

IFAD is increasingly engaged in policy dialogue, working to influence policy in the interests of small-scale producers and the rural poor. In so doing, the Fund’s key aim is to increase awareness of the linkages between macro-level policies and programmes and the micro-level decisions made by millions of smallholders, rural entrepreneurs, pastoralists, fishers, indigenous peoples, and rural workers. By influencing policy, the Fund also seeks to maximize incentives and opportunities for poor rural people. It bases its efforts on its knowledge, acquired through experience, of the factors affecting rural poverty. In the policy area, with the active involvement of civil-society organizations, IFAD has given priority to helping smallholders adapt to climate change and improve natural resource management, supporting agricultural research and rural financial services, and market-assisted agrarian reform.

For more information: https://www.ifad.org/what/policy_dialogue/overview

Results-based Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP)

A COSOP is a framework for making strategic choices about IFAD operations in a country, identifying opportunities for IFAD financing, and facilitating management for results. The central objective of a COSOP is to ensure that IFAD country operations result in a positive and lasting impact on poverty. Each COSOP reviews the specific rural poverty situation as the basis for determining geographic sites where IFAD would operate, thematic areas to focus on, and innovations to promote in the country programme.

For more information and examples: http://www.ifad.org/operations/policy/cosop.htm