Mr. Bernard Hien, Country Director and Head of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) paid a visit to the D-8 Secretariat on 15th of January 2020, and he met with Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari, D-8 Secretary-General. The visit came as a response to the D-8 secretariat endeavors to establish institutional partnership with the relevant UN agencies. The meeting aims at exploring the areas of mutual interest for future cooperation and it was attended by Dr. Taylan Kıymaz, Country Programme Officer from IFAD and Dr. Rasha Hamdy the Director of external relations at the D-8 secretariat.

The leaders of the two organizations discussed the opportunities for future cooperation in the sector of agriculture that is very relevant to all the D-8 member states and constitutes an important factor for achieving economic development. They agreed on starting with implementing joint activities such as workshops on topics such as smart agriculture, adaptation to climate change and agriculture transformation that aims at making the sector of agriculture attractive to investors and businessmen. They both agreed on the importance of engaging the private sector and focusing on the empowerment of youth and women throughout their future joint activities, in order to contribute to the realization of the UN sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The IFAD delegation expressed their interest in supporting the D-8 project support fund initiative.