The Partner Organisations
IFAD
The International Fund for Agricultural Development
Three quarters of the world's 1.1 billion extremely poor people live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture to survive. They are landless people, farmers whose plots are too small to provide for their needs, nomadic pastoralists, artisanal fishers and indigenous peoples. They lack access to the land, water, agricultural technologies, financial resources and markets they need to farm productively. Above all, they lack the organisational power and influence required to advocate for their own needs and take advantage of emerging opportunities.
IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in developing countries. It works with poor rural women and men and their organisations, and other partners to develop solutions that enable poor rural people to overcome poverty themselves. It works through developing country governments, following their lead to design programmes and projects that fit within national systems and respond to the needs, priorities and constraints identified by rural poor people themselves.
Why is the IFAD supporting this debate?
At the end of 2007, IFAD was financing 197 ongoing programmes and projects in 1 territory and 80 around the world. Small farmers are central to the reduction of global poverty and hunger. A televised debate like Food—Who Pays the Price? helps raise awareness of this important global reality. At the same time, it brings together diverse groups of people and their view points, and presents an organization like IFAD - the UN's only agency dedicated to rural poverty eradication - with a tremendous opportunity for learning and sharing information. www.ifad.org , www.ruralpovertyportal.org
BBC World
The British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC World is at the heart of the BBC's commitment to global broadcasting. As an integral member of the BBC's Global News Division sitting alongside BBC World Service radio, BBC World delivers impartial, in-depth analysis of breaking news, as well as looking at the stories behind the news - not just what is happening, but why.
BBC World is the BBC's commercially funded, international 24-hour news and information channel, broadcast in English in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe. The World Debate is a series of discussion programmes broadcast on BBC World from around the globe, mediated regularly by senior channel presenters Zeinab Badawi, Nik Gowing and Stephen Sackur. www.bbcworld.com