Responses
IFAD has been working in close collaboration with the World Bank, the Department for International Development of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and other bilateral organizations on poverty reduction strategies, especially in the highly-indebted poor countries in Africa. The organization's main achievement in 2004 was to bring to the attention of the concerned Governments and multilateral and bilateral agencies the fact that poverty is essentially a rural phenomenon, especially in highly-indebted poor countries. The mainstreaming of indigenous issues and concerns will be tackled in the next two to three years.