THE INTERNATIONAL Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has approved a US$200,000 grant to support the activities of the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund for the improvement of technical and economic cooperation among G77 countries including Ghana.

The grant will provide additional resources to the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF) to support its projects in the areas of agriculture and natural resources management. These projects will provide innovative pro-poor research and capacity building, and will facilitate trade and the exchange of information across the borders of developing countries.

IFAD President Lennart Båge and Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo, Permanent Representative of South Africa at the United Nations and the Chairman of the Group of 77, attended a signing ceremony for the grant agreement in New York on 9th November. Eduardo Praselj, Chairman of the PGTF, countersigned the grant agreement.

"This grant is further testimony of the common objective shared by IFAD and the G77 to fight extreme poverty by reinforcing not just South-South cooperation but also the solidarity between developing countries," said Båge.

The Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund was established by the United Nations to support technical and economic cooperation of critical importance to developing countries members of the G77.

Among its many G77-related projects, IFAD supports a network of 15 international research centres that promote sustainable agriculture for food security within a South-South collaboration framework.