Media backgrounder MB/14/08

Must the rural poor pay such a high price?

Rome 28 November, 2008 - In developing countries, those who have contributed little to the problem of green house gases, are now paying the highest price. Climate change for them is a harsh daily reality that they are poorly equipped to deal with.
 
In Kenya, this month alone, hundreds of hectares of recently planted crops and ready-for-harvest maize were washed away in flash floods in the northern Mandera region, while at Kilifi on the coast, a prolonged drought meant children missed school to help their parents in the search for water and pasture for their livestock.

Of the nearly one billion people living on less than USD1 a day, three out of four live in rural areas in developing countries and depend on agriculture for their livelihood.  By 2020 climate change is expected to put an estimated 49 million extra people at risk of hunger, with a disproportionate impact on millions of poor people.

Will the global economic recession mean that resources needed to cope with climate change will not be freed up? Or will countries embrace the development of green technologies to create jobs and stimulate economies out of the global crisis?

This week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznam, Poland, will test the resolve of countries to negotiate a new climate change regime, in a tough economic climate.

IFAD, in giving voice to the bottom billion, will argue that while smallholder farmers in poor countries suffer most from climate change, they can also be part of the solution, provided they are supported in adapting and promoting sustainable practices that reduce emissions.

¨By working closely with poor rural people and their organizations, we  give them an active role in designing and implementing programmes and projects related to climate change. Experience shows that the most sustainable projects are those where rural communities are involved from the start¨said Atiqur Rahman, Lead Strategist and Policy Coordinator, Policy Division, IFAD.

One example is the Mount Kenya East Pilot Project for Natural Resources Management, which makes farming systems more resilient to short-term climatic shocks through reforestation and better water resources management and agricultural practices.

Mount Kenya supplies water to millions of people through vast underground lakes and the rivers that flow from it. Yet with glacier retreat the snow melts earlier and for less time, there is less water.

Communities were helped to form Water River User Associations (WRUA’s) along the main rivers flowing from the mountain. Members of the WRUAs are trained in irrigation management, water harvesting and organisation and collect the users fees.

Creating infrastructure for water supply, rehabilitating degraded lands, and protecting river banks through planting and agroforesty have proved effective in helping the local population adapt to climate change.

Spring and shallow well creation has reduced the distance travelled to collect water, from 4 km to 200metres, freeing up women for other activities, and doubled the house hold water consumption, improving general health. Irrigation schemes are expected to increase food production and incomes from horticultural crops.

¨Water management with a climate change aim has proven to be an excellent entry point for development¨ added Rahman.

IFAD also supports programmes that provide incentives to poor people for sound environmental practices to mitigate climate change and help farmers out of poverty. This can involve rewards to upland farmers for planting crops or trees that help reduce erosion, which then helps reduce the amount of silting of dams that are vital for hydroelectricity production. Often the rewards are not monetary but can be the provision of health clinics or schools for community use.

The RUPES programme, from 2002 to 2007, helped build momentum in paying people for environmental services in Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, China, Laos and Vietnam.

In Sumberjaya, Indonesia, the reward system started with coffee agro-foresty and has now been extended to include river care. The results have been better and higher coffee yields. Land tenure was one of the main reward mechanisms.

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Note to editors

IFAD has been helping smallholder farmers cope with changing climatic conditions for decades but adaptation and mitigation elements are now factored into all its projects and programmes from inception.

The RUPES programme ‘Programme for developing mechanisms to reward the upland poor of Asia for environmental services they provide´ helped identify and value environmental services. The results of the first phase were so encouraging that a second phrase was approved in April 2008.

IFAD hosts the Global Mechanism, a catalyst to mobilize resources to implement the UNCCD. Between 1999 and 2005, 63 per cent of the financing approved under IFAD’s programmes and projects addressed UNCCD objectives. The Global Mechanism is hosted by IFAD because of the organization’s focus on rural development, agriculture and sustainable land management.

IFAD is an executing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an independent financial organization established in 1991 to provide grants to developing countries for projects that have global environmental benefits and contribute to sustainable livelihoods.

The GEF is funding a complementary project in Mount Kenya which intends to contribute to mitigation through conservation of carbon stocks in forests and enhancement of carbon sequestration.

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IFAD was created 30 years ago to tackle rural poverty, a key consequence of the droughts and famines of the early 1970s. Since 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped over 400 million very poor rural women and men increase their incomes and provide for their families. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency. It is a global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. Today, IFAD supports more than 200 programmes and projects in 85 developing countries and one territory.