International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

IFAD describes itself as the world's fund for transforming agriculture, rural economies and food systems. It was established in the 1970s in response to the global food crisis, is headquartered in Rome, has 180 member states and works across five regions and 92 countries. Unlike most development banks, it funds research directly: its regular grants are non-repayable, and its published list of eligible recipients explicitly includes research and academic institutions alongside member states, intergovernmental organisations, civil society, producer organisations, foundations and private companies. Grants fall into two categories — country-specific and global or regional.

The research IFAD funds is applied and policy-facing: evidence for scale-up, policy assessment, value-chain analysis, rather than curiosity-driven science. Malawi joined IFAD in 1977 and sits in List C1. IFAD reports supporting 12 programmes in Malawi worth US$224.9 million since 1981, benefiting close to 1.5 million rural households, with four large programmes currently running: Sustainable Agricultural Production Phase II, the Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship Programme, the Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise Programme, and the Programme for Rural Irrigation Development.