Why 2025 mattered: Top IFAD stories

IFAD Rural Voice

30 December 2025

As the year draws to a close and we look back on 2025, the message is clear: IFAD’s investments are not just funding rural development, they are changing lives, building resilience, creating jobs and driving sustainable economic growth. 

This year, IFAD has cemented its role as a financial leader, driving the charge in rural development and turning investments into tangible results for both rural communities and for Member States and other investors. 

From initiatives like the Agri-PDB Platform and sustainability bonds, to the importance of investing in rural women and climate adaptation, revisit some of 2025’s top stories and learn about the impact IFAD is having on small-scale farmers and rural communities all over the globe. 

How the Agri-PDB Platform is transforming food systems

Since 2021, IFAD has led a growing coalition of Public Development Banks (PDB) through the Agricultural PDB Platform, supporting members in financing the transformation of food systems through innovation and partnerships.

Public development banks (PDBs) are essential to transforming our planet’s food systems. These institutions cover almost two-thirds of formal agriculture financing, filling financial gaps left by commercial banks.

Since 2021, IFAD has hosted a growing coalition of PDBs known as the Agricultural PDB (Agri-PDB) Platform. The Platform is a joint initiative with Finance in Common and is backed by a range of partners, including the European Commission and the French Development Agency.

Its 151 members come from all over the developing world. They include institutions with a specific agricultural mandate, such as Colombia’s FINAGRO and India's NABARD, and more general development banks such as the Development Bank of Ethiopia.

The Platform works to increase financing for sustainable, inclusive agriculture and food systems. But how exactly does it do this? Let’s explore the three main pillars of the Platform’s activities.

Building capacity, driving innovation

A core function of the Agri-PDB is building its members’ capacity to finance food systems transformation. The Platform’s comprehensive structural training has three levels and covers topics from risk management to digitization.

Members can also access tailored training that accounts for their local context and assessments that help them chart a way forward. The Platform provides on-demand technical support and advisory services for the development and implementation of new initiatives.

In Malawi, for example, the Platform collaborated with the Malawi Agriculture and Industrial Investment Corporation (MAIIC) to map the country’s PDB needs. Identifying key challenges and potential solutions paves the way to enhancing the country’s financial ecosystem and streamlining its adoption of sustainable practices.

The Platform also catalyses innovation, developing new tools that can benefit all its members. The ABC-Map, a geospatial data tool launched last year, has already been used to map the environmental impact of IFAD projects in Burkina Faso and Tajikistan.

See: https://www.ifad.org/en/w/explainers/how-the-agri-pdb-platform-is-transforming-food-systems