UN agency IFAD

Building a poverty-free world

Three quarters of the world’s 1.1 billion extremely poor people live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture to survive. They are landless people, farmers whose plots are too small to provide for their needs, nomadic pastoralists, artisanal fishers and indigenous peoples. They lack access to the land, water, agricultural technologies, financial resources and markets they need to farm productively. Above all, they lack the organizational power and influence required to advocate for their own needs and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in developing countries. It works with poor rural women and men and their organizations, and other partners to develop solutions that enable poor rural people to overcome poverty themselves. It works through developing country governments, following their lead to design programmes and projects that fit within national systems and respond to the needs, priorities and constraints identified by poor rural people themselves.

At the end of 2006, IFAD was financing 185 ongoing programmes and projects in 83 countries and territories around the world.

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Television for the Environment (TVE)

“I have known of no effective environmental action that was not preceded by public pressure, which is generated in turn by the free flow of accurate information,” said Mostafa Tolba. As Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at the time, he was setting out the principle behind the founding of Television for the Environment.

TVE is a UK based non-profit organization that produces and distributes programmes on environment and development, working with a network of 44 partner organizations in 41 countries. TVE was established in 1984 with the support of UNEP, WWF and the British broadcaster Central Television.

Each year TVE produces, commissions or co-produces more than 80 programmes – on climate change, environmental destruction and natural disasters, on innovative ideas for sustainable development, and on human rights and health – compelling stories of people worldwide, from Fiji to Uzbekistan to Kosovo to the Central African Republic. In addition to two long-running series, “Earth Report” and “Life”broadcast on BBC World, TVE is producing many new films for the Al Jazeera English global channel, as well as working with UK channels. TVE also coordinates the Broadcasters for Change Network of 41 broadcasters worldwide, which produces regular series focusing on women’s rights.

“Twenty three years on, our remit is the same: to ensure that information about environment and development issues continues to flow freely. Our aim is to trigger informed debate in every part of society,” says Cheryl Campbell, TVE’s Executive Director.

For more information visit the TVE site