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IFAD / GATES
STORY: IFAD / GATES
TRT: 2.04
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 FEBRUARY 2012, ROME, ITALY
1. Wide shot, exterior IFAD headquarters in Rome
2. Med shot, Flags
3. Wide shot, Bill Gates arriving at IFAD and is greeted by officials
4. Various shots, Gates and President Kanayo F Nwanze signing partnership agreement
5. Pan right, from photographers to Gates and Nwanze shaking hands
6. Wide shot, plenary hall
7. Med shot, Gates entering plenary and greeting Andrea Riccardi Italian Minister International Cooperation and Integration
8. Med shot, photographers
9. Wide shot, Applause as Gates takes the podium
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Bill Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
“Our foundation and IFAD have independently funded many of the same projects because we share many of the same goals. “
11. Cutaway audience
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Bill Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
“When Melinda and I started our foundation we were initially focused on health. But the more we learnt about why kids are susceptible to disease and why they don’t fully develop mentally and physically, it became clear to us that we needed to also work in agriculture.”
13. Cutaway audience
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Bill Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
“It is very exciting that now we have strong leadership at all three food agencies. We also have the world’s attention, with agenda-setters like the African Union and the G8 and G20 providing a lot of focus to what is going on in agriculture. And so it-s an opportunity and an obligation to drive forward and set ambitious goals.”
15. Pan right, audience applauding
A statement of intent to build a stronger partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) means improved support for the world’s smallholder farmers.
The statement of intent was signed today (23 February) during IFAD’s Governing Council at its Rome headquarters by Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.
Gates, a guest speaker at the annual meeting of IFAD’s 168 member states, shared his perspective on the importance of agriculture and how sustainable productivity improvements can reduce poverty in developing countries.
He said that “our foundation and IFAD have independently funded many of the same projects because we share many of the same goals."
Gates also recalled that “when Melinda and I started our foundation we were initially focused on health. But the more we learnt about why kids are susceptible to disease and why they don’t fully develop mentally and physically, it became clear to us that we needed to also work in agriculture."
Given the strong strategic alignment between the two organizations, and their role as funders of agricultural research and development in the poorest regions of the world, the agreement would build upon their partnership and boost joint ongoing work in support of smallholder farmers in developing countries.
Farmers face two stark realities over the next four decades. They must produce 60 per cent more food to feed a growing, more urbanized population, and they must do so while facing increased risks related to environmental degradation, resource scarcity and climate change. With the next round of climate change talks scheduled for June at Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil, delegates to the IFAD meeting emphasized the critical importance of smallholder agriculture to climate solutions.
Gates told delegates that “it is very exciting that now we have strong leadership at all three food agencies. We also have the world’s attention, with agenda-setters like the African Union and the G8 and G20 providing a lot of focus to what is going on in agriculture. And so it-s an opportunity and an obligation to drive forward and set ambitious goals”.
At the end of 2011, IFAD was financing 240 on-going programs and projects with investments of US$4.6 billion in 94 countries and one territory.
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