Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty
Case studies
- Bangladesh: Better governance of inland waters benefits rural poor people
- Bangladesh: Improving benefits for poor, landless farmers
- Bangladesh: Leasing of ponds for poor fisher groups
- Brazil: Strategic partnerships breathe life and hope into an impoverished community in Brazil
- Eritrea: An ancient form of water management helps farmers in Eritrea cope with water scarcity
- Gambia: Rice Land for Labour Agreements Benefiting Women
- Gambia: Land for Labour
- Gaza and the West Bank: Modernizing water systems in the Palestine Territories’ ancient oasis
- Ghana: Land conservation and smallholder rehabilitation
- Haiti: The power of partnering: Holistic watershed rehabilitation in Haiti
- India: Poor people prosper in an ecological “hot spot”
- Jordan: Conserving water, boosting incomes in Jordan’s Yarmouk valley
- Kenya: Recharging Mount Kenya, the country’s largest water tower
- Madagascar: Irrigation project transforms Madagascar’s Mandraré region
- Mozambique: Turning the tide on poverty for Mozambique’s artisanal fishers
- Niger: Managing rainfall with tassa
- Peru: Building on local knowledge to improve land use
- Peru: Restoring land use through local water governance and technology in High Andes communities
- Peru: Cultural identity – a force for change
- Philippines: Coastal communities coming together to manage resources
- Somalia: New Techniques Help Locate Groundwater
- Sri Lanka: From subsistence farming to profit: the benefits of agro-wells in Sri Lanka
- Sudan: Harvesting Water to Increase Productivity
- Sudan: Local governance to secure access to land and water in the lower Gash watershed
- Sudan: Making large-scale irrigation work for poor communities
- Tanzania: Water supply and health project in the marginal areas
- Tanzania: Participation in irrigation rewards farmers
Evaluations
- The special programme for soil and water conservation and agroforestry
English - French - Bangladesh- Small-scale water resources development sector project
- Brazil : Community development project for the Rio Gavião region
- Development project for indigenous & Afro-Ecuadorian peoples (PRODEPINE)
- Ethiopia: Enhancing food security through small-scale irrigation
- Exploitation of groundwater resources
- The Gambia: Small-Scale Water Control Project (SSWCP)
- Ghana: Upper East region land conservation & smallhoder rehabilitation project (LACOSREP)
- Haiti: The small-scale irrigation schemes rehabilitation project
- Madagascar: Project de Mise en Valeur du Haut Bassin du Mandrare
- Madagascar: Upper Mandraré Basin Development Project – phase 2 2009
English: Executive summary | Agreement at completion point
French:
Executive summary | Agreement at completion point | Full document - Mali: Projet de développement agricole en zone lacustre
- Mauritania: Maghama Improved flood recession farming project
- Pakistan: Country portfolio
- Tanzania: Kagera agricultural & environmental management project
- Tanzania: Participatory Irrigation Development Programme (PIDP) (Executive summary | Full document)
- Tunisia: Irrigation development project in the governorate of Sidi Bouzi
Fact sheets
- IFAD and rural water investments
- Interventions for improving livelihoods
- Enabling the rural poor to overcome poverty in Jordan
- Fighting water scarcity in the Arab countries
- Linking and water governance
- Water and food security
Lessons learned
- Approaches to spate irrigation: the Yemen case
- Appropriateness of the training and visit extension method for irrigated agriculture
- Appropriateness of the training and visit extension method for rainfed agriculture
- Approaches to potable water in Yemen
- Exploitation of groundwater resources
- Viability of small-scale irrigation investments in the Middle East
Tools
- Concursos: Competitions, dialogue and learning for improved water management
- Influence network mapping: Mapping power asymmetry in water user groups
- Knowledge profiling
- Mauritania: Les petits barrages de décrue en Mauritanie French | Arabic
- Mauritania: Manuel de suivi et d’entretien des petits barrages en Mauritanie French | Arabic
- Water, Economy Investment, Learning and Assessment Indicator (WEILAI) and Rural China: Development and application of a multidimensional tool for project planning, monitoring and evaluation
Publications, reports and papers
- Climate change and sustainable water resources management: IFAD’s experiences in the Near East and North Africa and in Eastern and Central Europe
- Coping with complexity: Innovative approaches to an emerging issue in agricultural water management
- Drought, coping mechanisms and poverty: Insights from rainfed rice faming in Asia (January 2009)
- Enhancing pro-poor interventions in water and rural livelihoods
- Gender and water: securing water for improved rural livelihoods - the multiple-uses system approach
- IFAD supporting pastoralism: livestock and infrastructure
- Inputs and infrastructure - improving water resources
- Les petits barrages de décrue en Mauritanie
- Mishqui-Yacu, Sweet water English | French | Spanish
- The new rurality: Its implications for a new, pro-poor agricultural water strategy
- The importance of drinking water supplies for rural women
- Water and the rural poor: Interventions for improving livelihoods in SSA (IFAD/FAO)
- Water, health and nutrition
- Water and food security
- Water management-pastoralist organizations: the experience of IFAD
Topic sheets
- Agriculture, livelihoods and farming systems
- Water and livestock for rural livelihoods
- Inland fisheries and aquaculture
- Rural water, sanitation and hygiene
- Water retention and harvesting
- Managing green water: Soil moisture management
- Spate irrigation
- Water user groups in the new rurality
- Payments for watershed services
- Reinforcing gender equity
Videos
- Living with the Land, Brazil, 2012
- Grey Water, Green Ground, Brazil, 2012
- The Coming Storm, Bangladesh, 2012
- Drought Watch, Ethiopia, 2011
- 20 years on Moldova, 2011
- World Water Day, 2010
- Return to the Oasis, Mauritania, 2010
- The President’s Dilemma, Pacific islands of Kiribati, 2009
- Howa's chance, Eritrea, 2008
- Troubled waters, Jordan, 2006
- Fishermen's future, Yemen, 2006
- RaiNews24 interview with Tawfiq El-Zabri, country programme manager for Jordan
- Listen to interview with Norman Messer, Country Programme Manager for Burkina Faso
- SCAMPIS related videos
Articles
Asia and the Pacific
- China: Doubling yields using water-saving technology in Gansu (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, February 2012)
- Indonesia: The River Care programme brings hydropower to poor farmers (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, December 2011)
- Pakistan: Supporting the ‘Big Unknown’: Spate irrigation (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, December 2011)
- Bangladesh: Research to mitigate the uptake of arsenic by rice (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2011)
- Bangladesh: More rice at a lower cost: improved technologies (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2011)
- India: Enhancing rice productivity in unfavourable tribal ecosystems in Orissa. (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2011)
- Indonesia: Lake Singkarak: a successful voluntary carbon market and environmental services scheme (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, January 2011)
- Bangladesh: Enabling poor people to cope with climate change in low-lying areas (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2010)
- Reducing climate vulnerability in Cambodian agriculture (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2010)
- India: Adapting to changing climate variability in tribal fields (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2010)
- Pakistan: Technology-based solutions help smallholders adapt to climate change (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2010)
- Documenting community perceptions of and responses to climate change in the Himalayas: preliminary results (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, May-June 2010)
- India: Promoting ‘food (+Plus)’ security in the Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, January-February 2010)
- China: IFAD-supported programme contributes to food security in Gansu Province (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, January-February 2010)
- Islands (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, July-August 2008)
- Water (Source: Making a difference in Asia and the Pacific, September-October 2007)
East and Southern Africa
- Swaziland: Communities manage their project (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, January 2012)
- General feature on land and water (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, November 2010)
- Integrating land, water and natural resources governance (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, November 2010)
- Malawi: Irrigation project highlights land tenure issues (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, November 2010)
- Lesotho: Starting the fight against land degradation: A war Lesotho cannot afford to lose? (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, November 2010)
- Eritrea: An ancient form of water management helps farmers cope with water scarcity (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, November 2010)
- Water users associations: a particular case (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, September-October 2009)
- Kenya: how water, sanitation and hygiene issues affect public health and gender equity (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, June 2009)
- Special feature on water: The multiple dimensions of water and development (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, June 2008)
- New website for Improved Management of Agricultural Water Programme (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, September 2007)
Latin America and Caribbean
- Haiti: PICV-II project closes, new jobs and irrigation project ramps up (Source: Rural Perspectives - Sharing Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean, September 2011)
- Promoting sustainable agriculture (Source: Rural Perspectives - Sharing Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean, September 2011)
- Brazil: Water is life - In Brazil’s semi-arid North-East innovation is key to poverty reduction (Source: Rural Perspectives - Sharing Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean, December 2010)
- Peru: Building a competitive advantage (Source: Rural Perspectives - Sharing Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean, July 2010)
Near East, North Africa and Europe
- IFAD supports efforts to develop an Arab water security strategy (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, December 2011)
- Regional Themes - An IFAD side event recommends innovative solutions and policies for adaptation of water management to climate change (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, September 2010)
- Lebanon: Country programme features -IFAD launches a new offensive against rural poverty and water scarcity (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa,September 2010)
- First Arab Water Forum sets the stage for concerted actions against water scarcity in the region (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, December 2008/February 2009)
- IFAD-funded projects bring life to the desert in north-western Egypt (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, December 2009)
- Tackling water scarcity through an integrated approach to the management of water resources (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, December 2009)
- IFAD’s regional response to the food price crisis lays emphasis on short- and medium-term assistance to small farmers (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, December 2008/February 2009)
- IFAD and the United Arab Emirates to enhance cooperation in the field of water scarcity and technology transfer (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, January/March 2008)
- IFAD to focus its interventions in Lebanon on water and markets (Source: Rural echoes in the Near East and North Africa, May/July 2007)
West and Central Africa
- Message from the director: Water for life (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, April 2012)
- Towards better water management (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, April 2012)
- Ghana: More work, more money and more food in northern Ghana (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, April 2012)
- Sharing a cup of tea (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, April 2012)
- Steps towards better water provision (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, April 2012)
- Market gardening in Avlékété: A response to food insecurity (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, February 2011)
- From petty crime to vegetable plots: Niger Delta's troubled youths learn dry-season farming (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, February 2011)
- Mali: Regenerating floating pastures in the Niger delta (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, July 2010)
- Niger: Turning red land green (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, July 2010)
- Short success stories from projects on NRM (Source FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, July 2010)
- Chad: A system of mixed commissions for conflict management (Source: Progress in Eastern and Southern Africa, A joint issue on rural institutions with FIDAction, the IFAD newsletter for Western and Central Africa, September-October 2009 )
- Chad: Increasing access to water and to health-care facilities for sustainable development (Source: FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, June 2008)
- Senegal: better water management changes women’s lives (Source: FIDAction in Western and Central Africa, August 2007)
General
- Safe and sustainable livelihoods in agricultural communities: Optimizing the recycling of human waste
- Smart water solutions a win-win for poor farmers