The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) joined Djibouti's prime minister, Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed, the World Bank Group and development partners on 16 September to launch the Djibouti AgriConnect Compact, an initiative to transform the country's agri-food systems, create jobs and improve rural livelihoods. AgriConnect is a World Bank Group initiative meant to help 300 million smallholder farmers worldwide move from subsistence to surplus through stronger farmer organisations, market linkages, finance, digital tools and private investment.

The Djibouti compact will focus on the livestock, horticulture and date-palm value chains, chosen by the government and the World Bank for their weight in the national economy and regional trade. Its indicative targets are to reach 10,000 producers, raise livestock production by 25% and horticultural production by 44%, and create 5,000 jobs; it identifies about US$243 million in investment needs through 2030, to be co-financed by IFAD, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, FAO and other partners already active in those chains.

'AgriConnect presents an important opportunity for IFAD to continue supporting the sustainable transformation of rural livelihoods in Djibouti, in line with our new country strategic opportunities programme for 2026–2031,' said Emime Ndihokubwayo, IFAD's country director. Ministers said the compact could build on and scale up investments such as IFAD's Integrated Water Resources Management Project and the Youth Entrepreneurship for Climate Change Adaptation Project co-financed with the AfDB.

Djibouti imports nearly 90% of its food, and its food security is under growing pressure from climate change, geopolitical tension and security-related instability; the compact is meant to strengthen local production and resilience by identifying investment opportunities, removing barriers to private participation and aligning partners behind one programme, with investment in agricultural services, rural finance, infrastructure and credit.

AgriConnect is backed by a World Bank Group commitment to double its annual agriculture and agribusiness financing to US$9 billion and mobilise US$5 billion more from partners including IFAD, the AfDB, the Inter-American Development Bank, Bayer and Google. At the initiative's launch in October 2025 IFAD pledged to reach at least 70 million small-scale farmers by 2030 across more than 200 projects; since 1980 it has supported nine rural projects in Djibouti worth US$125 million.

Source: IFAD