Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump proposed what critics called “draconian cuts” to his country’s foreign affairs spending. That included zeroing out support to the Rome-based IFAD, a specialized United Nations agency that supports small-scale farmers, pastoralists, and entrepreneurs in some of the poorest parts of the world.
But despite the potential loss of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s largest donor, the organization’s president, Alvaro Lario, is optimistic — and not just because it has faced down such a threat before.
During the first Trump administration, IFAD was slated to receive nothing from the U.S. government; after the president’s budget request made its way through Congress, the organization regained its long-standing bipartisan support.
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
