Kenya Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo Loses Bid for UN Agency Presidency

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo has lost her bid for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) presidency.

This comes after the governing council of the United Nations-founded agency voted Spain’s Alvaro Lario as its 7th President following a special session held in Rome, Italy on Thursday.

Until his appointment, Lario served as IFAD’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and an Associate Vice-President for financial operations since 2018.

"Under his leadership [as the CFO], IFAD became the first United Nations Fund and the only UN body and specialized agency other than the World Bank Group to enter the capital markets and obtain a credit rating, enabling the Fund to expand resources mobilization efforts to the private sector," IFAD said in a press release.

Lario, a champion of private sector investments, is expected to lead the UN agency into battle against a global food security crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, climate change, and the economic shock of COVID-19.

“We have the institutions to tackle poverty, we have the know-how to reduce inequality, what we need is to mobilize resources and join forces,” Lario told delegates from 177 member states attending the election held at IFAD’s headquarters in Rome.

He will officially assume office on October 1st, 2022 for a four-year term.

CS Omamo was seeking to become the first female president of IFAD since its establishment 44 years ago. Other candidates included Kuwait's Khaled A. Mahdi and Shobhana Kumar Pattanayak of India.