Addressing development challenges

The Investment Centre continues to adapt its services to changing development needs and priorities. Special emphasis is placed in project preparation on building local commitment and ownership, preparing national institutions for their role in project implementation, assessing environmental impact, and addressing poverty. Sharing information on the Centre's experience with new approaches and technical advances is a continuing priority.

Local commitment

The Centre, in cooperation with partner financing agencies ,emphasizes beneficiary participation in project design and implementation. The aim is to strengthen local commitment and ownership. Increasingly, reports are prepared in the field rather than at Headquarters. There is extensive consultation with the ultimate beneficiaries. National and local governments and institutions which will be responsible for project implementation are fully involved in the project preparation process.

Capacity building

Building up the capacities of national institutions and staff in the techniques of investment project formulation is a major by-product of the Centre's work. This is sometimes accomplished through formal training on the design of agricultural development projects, but more often through on-the-job practical training in project preparation.

Protecting the environment

With growing concern for the environment and the rapid expansion in environmental financing by multilateral financing institutions and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Investment Centre is increasingly helping governments with the environmental aspects of their investment programmes. The Centre is able to draw on its considerable experience with natural resources management projects. It has expertise in areas such as preparation of National Environmental Action Plans, formulation of water quality monitoring programmes, protection of biodiversity, and strengthening of national environmental agencies.

Poverty alleviation

Poverty alleviation has become a high priority in agricultural and rural development. A major reason for the persistence of hunger and malnutrition, despite the substantial successes in agricultural development efforts in recent decades, is that lack of purchasing power prevents the poor from obtaining the food they need. The Investment Centre, together with cooperating financing institutions and governments, is developing approaches for reaching the poorest inhabitants in rural areas more effectively. These approaches engage the rural poor themselves in identifying the constraints an challenges which they face.

Information sharing

The Investment Centre continues to share information with development practitioners. The Centre's UPDATE (Current Issue / Back Issues) newsletter is published three times a year and widely distributed - to cooperating financing institutions, member countries, and individual subscribers. The Centre issues Technical Papers on key aspects of agricultural investment. In 1995, a new series of Occasional Papers was launched as a means of giving broader circulation to examples of innovative work and interesting results achieved by the Centre's staff.