The 22 countries in the East and Southern Africa region are an economically and socially heterogeneous mix. The International Monetary Fund has projected that Ethiopia, Mozambique, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia will be among the 10 fastest growing economies in the world between now and 2015. On the other hand, the region includes some of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest and most fragile states, including Eritrea and South Sudan.
East and Southern Africa also has the nations with the highest population density on the continent (Burundi and Rwanda) and the lowest (Botswana and Namibia).
Regional progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals has been irregular across the various countries and MDG targets. Progress towards MDG1 on reducing poverty and hunger, for example, is not on track. And while the proportion of poor people is decreasing in East and Southern Africa as a whole, the total number is increasing in Southern Africa.
The population of the region is about 399 million, of whom 70 per cent live in rural areas. In countries for which data are available, about 43 per cent live on less than US$1.25 a day.
IFAD ongoing projects and programmes in East and Southern Africa
Recent publications
- Spreading the system of rice intensification across East and Southern Africa
- Seeds of innovation
- Portfolio Performance Report: Annual review July 2011 - July 2012
Key resources
- IFAD country offices in East and Southern Africa
- E-newsletter: Progress in East and Southern Africa
- Addressing climate change in East and Southern Africa
- East and Southern Africa : Agricultural Marketing Companies as Sources of Smallholder Credit in East and Southern Africa : Experiences, Insights and Potential Donor Role
Since its development in the 1980s, the system for rice intensification or SRI has been helping small holder farmers to greatly increase their yields and lift themselves out of poverty.