IBSA Fund Board Approves Water and Sanitation Project for eSwatini
The Board of Directors of the India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (the IBSA Fund) convened today to review the progress of the trust fund portfolio and consider new proposals. During the successful meeting, the Board approved an initiative aimed at expanding access to water in eSwatini. It also favorably considered, for further review, proposals to enhance urban sanitation in Angola and to restore degraded lands in Senegal.
“Although 2020 has been an unprecedented year and the pandemic has caused important delays and challenges for ongoing development projects, the IBSA Fund showed the resilience of Southern solidarity and peer-to-peer support at the most difficult times,” affirmed H.E. Mr. João Genésio de Almeida Filho, Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations and Chair of the IBSA Fund Board in 2020. A review of the portfolio showed that despite stay-home orders and interrupted global supply chains, most IBSA Fund projects advanced their activities significantly towards impactful results.
H.E. Mr. Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, stressed “It’s been a very difficult year for all. We hope 2021 will bring more hope and joy to the world, and the spirit of solidarity of the IBSA Fund will make that little bit of difference to people’s lives around the world.”
The meeting included the handover of the IBSA Fund chairship to South Africa, which will be leading the Fund through 2021. H.E. Mr. Xolisa Mfundiso Mabhongo, Deputy Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, expressed “South Africa’s excitement about the contributions the IBSA Fund will deliver, as countries across the South seek to recover from the pandemic and its socio-economic aftermath. 2021 promises to be a year of revitalization, and the IBSA Fund can support such trends among our partners.”
The Directors also reviewed the current processes of the IBSA Fund and discussed how best to capture results and good practices and how to enhance the Fund’s sustainable development impact. “The IBSA Fund is an excellent example of South-South cooperation, capitalizing on Southern good practices, capacities and funds, to accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. It has not only brought concrete positive changes to people’s lives but also left legacies at sectoral and policy levels in the partnership countries,” stated Grace Xiaojun Wang, Deputy Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). “For UNOSSC, facilitating this fund is an enabler for strengthening UN System support to South-South cooperation.”
The IBSA Fund, established in 2004, embodies in its fabric diversity, prosperity and a spirit of cooperation in the face of complex development challenges: it represents three developing countries on different continents coming together in solidarity to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Since its inception, the IBSA countries have contributed over $43 million to combat poverty and hunger in 21 partnering countries through 32 development projects. With these newly approved projects, the Fund will be supporting 35 projects in 24 countries.
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The India, Brazil and South Africa Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (IBSA Fund) is a pioneering initiative to implement South-South cooperation for the benefit of other Southern countries in partnership with the United Nations system. Its purpose is to identify replicable and scalable projects that can be disseminated to interested developing countries as examples of best practices in the fight against poverty and hunger. The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) serves as the Fund Manager for this initiative.