MCDF Grant Grows Developing Countries’ Institutional Capacity in Securing IFAD Rural Development Financing

A USD1.26 million grant to enhance developing countries’ institutional capacity to adopt environmental and social standards in securing rural development financing by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was approved by the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) Governing Committee during its meeting in Beijing on 23 June. The project will be implemented by IFAD.

This is the first IFAD project to receive MCDF grant support since it became an MCDF Implementing Partner in July 2024.

The MCDF grant will fund IFAD SUSTAIN Phase III training activities on its environmental, social, and climate (ESC) standards and procedures. It will cover environmental and social safeguards, social inclusion, and gender equality, as well as how to operationalize them in alignment with specific project needs and local contexts.

This capacity development assistance will better position government officials and stakeholders in a multi-regional cross-section of developing countries to implement bankable and sustainable connectivity infrastructure projects in rural areas, backed by IFAD financing.

The beneficiary IFAD member countries in Africa are Benin, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Uganda, Zimbabwe; in Asia, they are Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines; in Latin America and the Caribbean, they are Brazil, Ecuador, and Haiti; in the Middle East, they are Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan; and in the Pacific, they are Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.

The project builds on the general awareness of ESC standards provided to developing countries during IFAD SUSTAIN Phase I and Phase II.