IFAD operations in East and Southern Africa

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Angola
Botswana
Burundi	Photos
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Characteristics of rural poverty in the region

The region of East and Southern Africa has perhaps the greatest concentration of poverty in the world, and for the foreseeable future it will continue struggling to overcome widespread food insecurity and deprivation. The brief period of growth experienced at the end of the 1990s was not maintained. Presently rates of economic growth vary considerably across the region. But in many countries poverty and malnourishment are on the rise.

Of the higher income countries in the region, only Mauritius is likely to achieve all of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and the Seychelles have well developed economies, and are generally making good progress towards achieving a number of the MDG goals. The best-performing of the lower income countries, such as Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania, show a steady rise in growth rates, despite high poverty levels and limited economic development.

While the economic performance of countries is mixed, the majority are slipping backwards in terms of MDG targets such as reducing infant mortality rates and food insecurity. The proportion of people living on less than US$1 a day is declining only marginally, while the absolute number continues to increase. Most countries will be able to halve the percentage of people without access to safe water by 2015, but the baseline in many countries is so low that achieving this goal will still leave millions without access to safe water. Burundi, Ethiopia and Mozambique are the countries falling farthest behind on several MDGs.

Throughout the region, poverty is a predominantly rural phenomenon. About 70 per cent of the region's population, some 230 million people, live in rural areas, and more than half of those people live on less than US$1 a day. These figures have not changed significantly over the last decade, except to fall slightly as large numbers of people have moved to urban centres. Rural areas continue to be marked by stagnation, poor productivity, low incomes and rising vulnerability. Rural poverty is particularly concentrated in five countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda. More than 25 per cent of the region’s rural poor people live in Ethiopia alone.

There are many reasons why poverty persists in the region, and why progress in reducing rural poverty has been so slow. The sheer scale of the impact of AIDS has caused widespread human and economic devastation and undermined any hopes of a rapid and significant reduction in poverty. East and Southern Africa is at the epicentre of the HIV epidemic. In at least 12 countries in the region, from 11 to 36 per cent of the adult population are affected by HIV/AIDS. Most of those people live in rural areas and are extremely poor.

Conflict has blocked economic and development progress and has aggravated poverty in many parts of the region. Poverty rates are considerably higher in countries that are affected by war or are recovering from conflict, such as Angola. Smallholders in particular have been affected by a succession of major crises arising from civil strife. In Uganda insecurity caused by rebel insurgency in the north and northeast of the country is a major cause of poverty.

Climate change is a new and alarming challenge, which is likely to lead to greater poverty. The decline in rainfall and the extreme weather patterns such as heavy rains, cyclones and drought that are becoming more frequent throughout the continent and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, are detrimental to farmers, their crops, and the rural economy in general. At the same time rising food prices are affecting poor rural people disproportionately.

The vast majority of poor rural people in East and Southern Africa are smallholder farmers working in conditions of either static or declining productivity. Poverty reduction and broad-based growth in the region is clearly dependent on rural development. At present the agricultural growth that is badly needed to lift rural economies out of poverty is not taking place in any systematic way. Donor and government spending in support of agriculture has fallen steadily over the decades.

Yet the region has enormous potential for growth, and its plentiful natural resources offer a solid basis for recovery and economic expansion, if a series of obstacles can be removed. Poor smallholders face enormous difficulties in maintaining the productive value of their land, and few enjoy the benefits of water management systems that would allow them to intensify their production systems. While the percentage of poor rural people living in marginal areas such as desert, arid or semi-arid areas is relatively low, there are major opportunities elsewhere for irrigation. Most small-scale farmers in the region live and farm on land that could be far more productive if linked to irrigation schemes. The Great Lakes areas of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, for example, are high-potential areas where at present small farmers barely eke out a living. Yet many parts of these countries have two rainy seasons and temperatures that allow cropping most of the year.

In order to realize the potential of the land and reduce poverty and attain better food security, poor rural people need adequate access to natural resources, and they need assistance in developing their capacity to manage and utilize those resources productively. The unequal division of land is often a major source of injustices and conflicts; access to land is a key to the resolution of widespread poverty. Dwindling land plots are a problem throughout the region. Women are the principal users of land, and they must have stronger rights over the resources they depend upon.

To gain greater knowledge of and control over their environment and build more productive, sustainable systems, poor farmers need basic training and access to new technologies. They also need capital and access to financial services that would allow them to invest in production systems. Many financial institutions still have very limited outreach. A key cause of rural poverty is isolation.  Poor people lack physical access to markets, inputs and services, and they lack the skills and knowledge that would allow them to meet produce standards and make markets work for them.

Any transformation in the conditions of poor rural people must be propelled by social and policy change that responds to their aspirations and possibilities. The legacy of the colonial system is still strong, with patterns of land tenure that have forced poor people off higher-value land, inequitable price policies and inadequate agricultural support. In some countries a flawed system of economic policy and institutions has been dismantled, but not enough has been built in its place to help rural people relate to the economic reality of the market-led world upon which their well-being increasingly depends. Public investment in agricultural growth is minimal. Huge numbers of poor rural people are still without any modern economic services.

The conservation of natural resources is fundamental to ensuring that the land remains productive for future generations. East and Southern Africa may suffer more severely from loss of soil fertility than any other region in the world. Arresting and reversing decline through the introduction of inexpensive technologies and practices is a real possibility and can be combined with income growth.

IFAD's strategy in the region

IFAD's development interventions in the region are in line with clear thematic priorities:

Agricultural productivity and competitiveness

• Technology
• Land and water
• Input and output markets

Rural development and diversification

• Off-farm employment and enterprise development
• Rural financial services
• Farmers organisations
• Gender, women and youth

Policy and partnerships

• Paris Declaration 2005 and Accra Agenda for Action 2008
• Africa Union and the New Economic Partnership for Africa
• One Un Initiative and Rome-based agencies
• International financial institutions
• Private sector and private foundations.

Poverty reduction in rural areas can only be achieved by increasing the assets in the hands of poor people and stimulating their earning potential.

IFAD’s projects and programmes include integrated knowledge management processes in order to document project impact systematically and make it possible to share experiences and lessons learned as widely as possible. Shared learning is especially important in the development of market access, and in strengthening the position of small-scale farmers in agricultural supply chains. An excellent example is the Agricultural Marketing Systems Development Programme (AMSDP) in Tanzania and the First Mile Project, begun in 2005 and implemented in collaboration with the AMSDP. The First Mile Project facilitates learning among local groups to improve market access, and it has successfully linked farmers' groups with other actors along selected supply chains. The innovations and achievements made are being replicated in other parts of the country and farther afield, in neighbouring Kenya and Uganda.

The Farmers Field Schools Programme, currently ongoing in Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, develops a low-cost, sustainable model for farmers’ education and empowerment. The programme helps smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods by encouraging them to form associations and work together to find solutions to farming problems. It teaches the importance of gaining self-confidence through participation, dialogue and joint decision-making.

Efficient private sector support to farmers and rural businesses is still in the process of coming into being, but it promises accelerated changes for rural communities. IFAD is helping smallholder farmers relate more effectively with the private sector, and it supports the private sector in providing more competitive and efficient services to farmers, by financing the provision of essential infrastructure and working with governments to generate the policy, institutional and legal conditions required for better market linkages. IFAD programmes and projects are now assisting large-scale interventions in this area in Mozambique, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.

The current tendency in IFAD's efforts to stimulate income-generating opportunities in the region is to move away from area-based projects that introduce a blanket set of activities towards specific activities focused on targeted commodities, and to secure markets for those commodities. As a result, project activities now provide more focused training and develop new and specific skills.

Building up resilience to crisis is an essential element of IFAD’s strategy for growth among poor people, especially in the face of so many threats to livelihoods, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, conflict and post-conflict situations and climate change. IFAD has been involved in post-crisis recovery in Angola, Burundi, Mozambique and Uganda. The organization’s support for rural financial systems helps stimulate investments and develop the ability of communities and individuals to cope with household and external shocks. Without access to financial services, raising production and efficiency among the poor rural people of the region would be impossible.

All of these initiatives depend on a commitment to change on the part of governments. IFAD works with relevant ministries to provide institutional and policy support to sustain development interventions. This includes the regulation of policies relating in particular to:

• small-scale financial institutions
• water-use
• resource management and equitable access to and the protection of natural resources
• inter-district trade

Target groups

Careful attention has been devoted to targeting in the region. IFAD's programmes and projects provide support to a broad section of society: women and men, the poor and the very poor, producers and consumers, and disadvantaged groups such as families affected by the HIV epidemic.

Women are a particular focus of IFAD's activities. Rural women take on a heavy burden of work in addition to their domestic chores, particularly since men are often forced to migrate in search of work. Yet women are often poorer and more vulnerable than men. With few assets and rights to productive resources, they are the least empowered members of the rural community. The potential of women – as demonstrated across the full range of rural economic activities – makes their full empowerment a key factor in overcoming poverty.

IFAD's interventions are particularly designed to support poor rural men and women who are economically active, and who would benefit from improved farming techniques and from learning how to diversify their livelihoods through off-farm income-generating activities.

Broadening the outreach of rural financial services

The African Rural Credit Association (AFRACA) was established in 1977. AFRACA is a non-profit association of sub-Saharan African financial institutions. Its goal is to promote policy frameworks and support member institutions in providing sustainable quality financial services to the rural population of the region. IFAD has supported AFRACA since 1992 and has been a primary donor to the association since 1998.

AFRACA's membership currently comprises 88 institutions, including 15 central banks, 19 commercial banks, 9 agricultural development banks, 36 microfinance institutions (MFIs), and 9 MFI networks. It has established itself as an effective vehicle for promoting policy dialogue at national and regional levels, and has achieved growing political support for rural financial services. An IFAD regional grant programme of US$1.1 million will run from 2008-2012 and help strengthen AFRACA's efforts to provide financial services to poor rural people.

Farmer's organizations

Following the example of the strong tradition of farmers' organizations in West Africa, IFAD has helped increase the number of farmers’ organizations in the East and Southern Africa region. Now many of IFAD's projects in the region focus on building the capacity of those organizations to represent farmers and give them an independent voice. Since 2006 IFAD has supported and strengthened national farmers' organizations in Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania through direct grants paid through the Farmers’ Forum. Those organizations have in turn actively contributed to the preparation of IFAD's Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes (COSOPs) for Madagascar, Rwanda and Tanzania. Their contributions provide key guidance in defining future development strategies and issues, including the continued strengthening of the organizations themselves.

Climate change and the environment

The changes wrought by global warming are already affecting the region to differing degrees. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts increases in extreme weather forms; dry areas will become drier and heavy rainfall and flooding will increase in other parts. In the future, low-lying coastal zones will increasingly be affected by rising sea levels. Climate changes will severely compromise agricultural production in many African countries, giving rise to greater food insecurity and malnutrition. Overall, many millions of people will be exposed to increased water stress.

Changes are already becoming apparent in the region. In parts of eastern Africa rainfall has become heavier and more frequent, resulting in flooding, soil loss and the destruction of crops. In southern Africa on the other hand, drought has become more common. Cyclone activity in the southern Indian Ocean has gained in intensity and frequency.

We are already seeing the effects of climate change on agriculture. Crop failures and livestock deaths are causing greater economic losses and are undermining food security with ever-greater frequency, especially in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries crop yields could drop by 50 per cent by 2020. Food prices are rising as a result.

The cost of adapting to these new changes will be huge. IFAD has begun to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies tailored to the specificities of climate change impact in different countries. In Swaziland, where climate change has been associated with the 2003 drought, the organization has developed mitigation and adaptation strategies within the context of its smallholder irrigation project, to support and strengthen strategies adopted by the government.