1. IFAD’s strategy for rural poverty reduction in West and Central Africa (WCA)1 builds on a
rural poverty assessment completed
in 2001. It is also inspired by IFAD’s
strategic framework 2002-06 and the New Partnership for African
Development. Its intended audience includes: organizations representing
poor people in the region; regional and national decision-makers; IFAD
partners in public, private, NGO and donor agencies; the staff members
and governing bodies of IFAD; and all those who believe that widespread
poverty in Africa is unacceptable and are working in partnership to eliminate
it.
2. In recent years, the WCA region has been subject to enormous changes - political, social, economic, demographic and environmental. These changes have important implications for the way in which IFAD and its partners work with the rural poor to overcome poverty.
3. Political and social change.
Over the past decade, many countries have embarked upon democratization
processes. A new openness to national dialogue has appeared, accompanied
by rapid development of civil society. Examples abound at both the 'macro'
level (the national conferences of the early 1990s, more widespread and
increasingly fair electoral processes, peaceful electoral-based transfers
of power to opposition parties, and the emergence of decentralization
processes in many countries), and the 'micro' level (the rapid growth
of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), farmers' associations,
producer federations and a general opening up of dialogue at sector-policy
and project levels on the importance of stakeholder consultation).
4. While some countries appear to be on a sound path towards democracy
and stability, others have been less successful. Tragically, conflict
is a major factor aggravating poverty and vulnerability in the region.
About one in five inhabitants lives in a country affected by warfare,
and protracted warfare has had widespread negative social, psychological
and economic consequences. In many rural areas, the capacity of rural
people to ensure their livelihoods has been dramatically curtailed. Yet
there are grounds for cautious optimism. Peace processes are underway
in a number of these countries, with the hope that development activities
can resume.
5. Economic change. Adjustment programmes
have led to major changes in macroeconomic and sectoral policies. The
direct state role in productive activities - including agricultural production,
processing and trade - is far less prominent today than it was a decade
ago. Privatization of agricultural processing and marketing agencies is
widespread. At the same time, governments have been slow to take on the
public functions that only they can fulfil. Economic growth in the region
has been uneven and generally disappointing.
6. WCA economies and trade regimes are now more open than in the past.
This carries risks as well as opportunities in the context of a global
economy. While there may be new possibilities to enter niche markets (examples
include off-season horticulture, natural and forest products), the risk
remains of unfair competition from highly subsidized agricultural sectors
of developed countries. Greater openness also means greater exposure to
international commodity-price fluctuations, an especially serious problem
given that most WCA economies are not very diversified. Potential opportunities
of globalization are numerous and include improved communications (although
they have not yet reached most rural areas) and agricultural technology,
including biotechnology. Considerable investment in infrastructure and
education is needed before information technology can reach its full potential.
While biotechnology holds great promise, the limited capacity for developing
and enforcing safeguards, and underdeveloped agricultural-input distribution
systems are formidable constraints on this potential.
7. In contrast to the generally poor macroeconomic performance in the
region, overall growth in food production has been reasonably good, keeping
pace with population growth. Per capita food production fell during the
1980s but picked up markedly in the 1990s. Yet performance varies among
countries. Those countries that have experienced protracted warfare have
seen per capita food production fall precipitously. In other countries,
market and exchange-rate liberalization have contributed to strong growth.
8. Demographic change. Urban population
growth rates averaged 6% annually from 1960 to 1990. Megacities like Lagos,
Ibadan, Kinshasa, Douala, Abidjan and Dakar were created. Yet the pull
of many secondary cities such as Kaolack, Bouaké, Kumasi, Garoua
and Mbuji-Mayi was also important. Swelling of the megacities and rising
numbers of large secondary cities will continue. By 2030, the majority
of the region's people will live in urban areas. The number of cities
in the region with more than 100 000 inhabitants will grow from 90 in
1990 to more than 300 in 2030. Nigeria will have more than half these
cities. Lagos alone will have 12-15 million inhabitants.
9. These trends create major opportunities for market development. In
the future, farmers will need to increase productivity to keep pace with
spiraling urban demand. Incentives to intensify will be more pronounced
due to the stronger pull of urban markets, which will also be closer to
production areas. Urban-rural linkages will become stronger, especially
along the coast and across large parts of the Sahel. Integration among
urban markets should also strengthen noticeably, both within countries
and intraregionally.
10. HIV/AIDS has emerged as a major threat in the 1990s. While incidence
is generally higher in East and Southern Africa , many WCA countries
are at a stage at which growth threatens to become exponential (incidence
of 4-5%) if not combated actively. In countries with high prevalence rates,
in addition to the terrible human cost, the skilled labor force is being
decimated and economic growth seriously disrupted. AIDS puts an unbearable
strain on poor rural households. As labor is the primary income-earning
asset of the rural poor, degeneration of adult health status can be devastating
to those who remain, including orphans.
11. Environmental change. Land degradation
resulting from extensive agriculture, deforestation and overgrazing has
reached alarming levels. Forest area is declining as a result of the unchecked
growth of timber exports, agricultural expansion and fuelwood demand for
a growing population. Most of this disappearance is concentrated in the
rain forests of the Congo Basin and in southern parts of the West African
coastal countries that were once heavily forested. This degradation has
implications for the biodiversity of flora and fauna, where the losses
are irreplaceable. About 50% of farmland suffers to some extent from soil
erosion, and as much as 80% of pasture and rangelands exhibit some form
of degradation, with use exceeding carrying capacity. One consequence
in the Sahel is that land conflicts are becoming more frequent between
livestock herders and sedentary farmers.
12. Poverty in WCA is primarily a rural phenomenon. In 16
WCA countries for which urban/rural poverty-incidence data are available,
41% of the total population is classified as poor, of which the rural
share is 74%. Based on these estimates, approximately 90 million people
in the region can be categorized as rural poor (compared to about 35 million
poor in urban areas).
13. Several factors are important in explaining rural poverty in WCA.
First and foremost, the rural poor have little or no voice in many major
decisions affecting their livelihoods. They are rarely consulted on policy
issues and investment decisions. There is also a long legacy of neglect
of rural areas, with urban interest groups more concentrated and thus
more vocal in lobbying for their interests. They have traditionally been
successful in capturing disproportionate shares of social and infrastructure
investment and arguing for artificially cheap food prices, which has swollen
import bills (much of it paid for by agricultural exports) and made it
hard for rural producers to compete.
14. Conflict and HIV/AIDS - already mentioned - have also emerged as major
threats to rural livelihoods in recent years, increasing vulnerability
and risking the entire asset base of affected households.
15. Poverty is often localized in specific regions. In coastal countries
with a northern savannah and forests in the south (Cameroon, Côte
d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria), rural poverty has traditionally been significantly
higher in the north. These zones are characterized by cereal, cotton and
livestock production, while the forest areas produce several tree crops
for export. Yet poverty may be growing in forest zones: world prices for
forest-based export crops such as coffee and cocoa are quite volatile
and have fallen substantially in recent years.
16. Gender is also an important factor. Social indicators are generally
very low for women, and women and girls also have lower education levels
than their male counterparts. This is related not only to low income but
to social and cultural considerations and policy. Women's workloads are
very heavy. Rural women work at least twice as many hours per week as
men, spend about three times as much time in transport, and transport
about four times as much volume. Women's lack of access to land, finance
and inputs is a major limiting factor for enhanced livelihoods, despite
considerable empirical evidence that women manage resources effectively
and work well together in groups. When women have decision-making power
in allocating household resources, a significant share of expenditure
is devoted to the education, health and nutrition of more vulnerable household
members.
17. In summary, poverty in the region is primarily rural and will remain
so for some time. Of a total of about 125 million poor in the region,
almost three quarters live in rural areas. Agriculture is the single most
important sector contributing to economic growth, incomes and employment.
In addition to agriculture's direct contribution to growth, the indirect
effect of increased demand for off-farm good and services in market towns
can broadly raise employment relative to other productive sectors. Boosting
agricultural productivity will be a key challenge to sustainable economic
growth and poverty reduction. Yet many donors and governments continue
to minimize the importance of agriculture and rural development in their
investment decisions. If the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty
by 2015 is to be achieved, it means bringing 75 million people out of
poverty in the region. Clearly, a renewed commitment to agriculture and
rural development is needed, given the predominance of poverty in rural
areas and the centrality of agriculture to rural livelihoods.
18. Since its creation in 1977, IFAD has financed over 130
investment projects in all 24 countries of the region, for a total commitment
level of USD 1.3 billion. Numerous grants to regional bodies and national
NGOs have been implemented in the areas of agricultural research, training,
studies and community development. With its partners, IFAD has accumulated
considerable experience regarding the constraints on and opportunities
for rural poverty reduction. Constraints include: insufficient human and
social capital development; inappropriate macroeconomic and sectoral policy
frameworks; low farmer productivity and major challenges to natural resource
management in the face of steadily rising urban populations and food demand;
inefficient agricultural marketing systems, especially for food products;
lack of access to financial capital; inability to fully exploit non-farm
investment opportunities; and inadequate rural infrastructure development.
Opportunities are numerous and some have already been mentioned: the growth
of democracy and civil-society movements; improved incentives due to economic
and sectoral policy reforms; and the move towards decentralization.
19. Human and social capital. The
importance of investing in human capital is well established. Extensive
evidence exists of the positive effects of education investment on poverty
and growth. In particular, educating women has proven very effective in
combating poverty. Education not only directly benefits the women, but
impacts the nutritional and health status of their children. Investing
in functional literacy and informal training are also cost-effective means
of building human capital in rural areas and of giving people the opportunity
to improve their livelihoods. Such training is essential to building self-confidence,
increasing the transparency of intravillage decision-making and levelling
the playing field in interactions with marketing agents and service providers.
20. Strong social organization makes it possible for the poor to gain
access to resources and knowledge within their communities and to develop
links with external partners. At the project level, in the past, grass-roots
organizations were perceived primarily as conduits of predetermined project-furnished
goods and services. Today IFAD and its partners increasingly recognize
the importance of building institutional capacity and strengthening governance
mechanisms. Yet many project-related groups remain creatures of the projects
themselves - their only raison d'être being the hope of getting
donor money. Many of these entities lack cohesion and community legitimacy,
and when the project ends, so will they.
21. To counter this tendency and reinforce the local social fabric, it
is important to be aware of existing social structures and, where possible,
build upon them as the foundation for collective endeavors. The focus
of public support services has tended to be on formal institutions such
as cooperative unions, cooperatives and pre-cooperatives. Ultimately,
the more formal structures can be perfectly consistent with traditional
means of organization if people are free to form their own groupings and
a degree of flexibility is built in.
22. Policy. Throughout the l970s-80s,
macroeconomic and agricultural policies were generally inhospitable to
rural development in the region. With the adjustment programmes of the
late 1980s and 1990s, many governments in the region have made great strides
in instituting economic and sectoral policy reforms and liberalizing markets.
Liberalization has largely succeeded in removing governments from direct
roles in production and marketing. In some cases, the private sector has
successfully taken on roles in food- and export-crop marketing channels.
Yet with the exception of the cotton subsector, input marketing systems
have collapsed, with serious negative implications for agricultural productivity.
Progress has also been very slow in improving capacity to handle roles
that only government can fill, including design and enforcement of legal
and regulatory frameworks; research and extension; social services; and
infrastructure investment and maintenance. Existing institutions (ministries,
extension and research agencies, parastatal marketing boards, etc.) have
often been unresponsive to the needs of the rural poor. Improving responsiveness
and accountability will involve: changing incentive structures; decentralizing
decision-making and budgeting processes; raising awareness that different
socio-economic classes of rural clients need different types of technical
and organizational solutions to their problems; and building meaningful
monitoring and feedback mechanisms so the rural poor can have a voice
in decisions that affect their well-being.
23. Decentralization initiatives are now widespread. Yet transfer of central
government responsibilities to local governments and civil-society organizations
can only be effective if these entities have adequate technical and administrative
skills. Local implementation capacity is very weak, and decentralization
programmes need to give serious attention to local capacity-building.
In particular, local organizations need to have administrative skills
relating to legal matters, contracting of personnel, procurement of goods
and services and financial control. They also need technical skills to
ensure that civil works are properly designed and constructed. An important
related issue is the extent to which private service providers exist in
rural areas, and if they do not exist in adequate numbers, how they can
be developed. Creation of local planning capacity is also an important
area requiring reflection on the part of IFAD and its development partners.
24. Farmer productivity and natural resource
management. Steady expansion of urban areas in the coming decades
will force farmers to step up their agricultural productivity. Substantially
increased investments will be required in productivity-enhancing technology
and improved natural resource management to effectively reduce rural and
urban poverty and to maintain agricultural production and food prices
at acceptable levels. The widespread post-adjustment collapse of input
markets (seed, fertilizer and machinery) is one factor that makes this
an especially daunting challenge. Soil fertility is declining as organic
matter is removed but not replaced, and fertilizer use is negligible compared
to other developing regions.
25. Technologies that become widely adopted by farmers need to respond
to several key criteria. First, techniques that build on existing local
practices stand a greater chance of success. Existing practices already
possess the built-in advantage of having addressed the most difficult
issues related to seasonality of labor availability, social organization
and cultural acceptability. Second, those technologies that render visible
and immediate benefits are most apt to be replicated by farmers. This
is especially important where there is little room for error, either due
to the fragility of the environment or because resource-poor farmers are
risk-averse.
26. The issue of land productivity is increasing in importance in more
densely populated areas, in marginal areas and in areas with localized
land scarcities (e.g. in large villages in land-abundant areas where farmers
walk long distances to reach their fields). Low labour productivity is
also a major constraint, particularly that of women. They have multiple
tasks in food production, childcare, transport, post-harvest operations
and food preparation. Reducing their drudgery and labour burden is of
the utmost importance for poverty eradication. New technologies need to
be evaluated for their effects on women's labour burden, incomes and well-being.
Yet this is not done as often as needed.
27. Further investment in irrigation is important to diversify incomes
and reduce risk. Yet despite massive investment by many governments in
the region, these investments have generally underperformed. One explanation
is the emphasis placed by governments on large and expensive schemes to
produce uncompetitive crops. Considerable potential exists, but only if
mechanisms are developed for meaningful farmer participation in decision-making.
Farmers must have a greater say in perimeter planning, crop and technology
choice, water management and resolution of land-tenure disputes. Where
irrigation has worked, successful technologies proved to be those that
improved existing methods and remained under the control of local communities.
The design of those technologies was based on in-depth analysis of local
practices and built on farmers' existing knowledge and skills.
28. The problem of identifying and implementing appropriate natural resource
and environmental management systems is complex. Design of appropriate
interventions is often site-specific and depends on many factors (technical,
economic, political, tenurial/legal and socio-cultural) - the interplay
of which is far from readily apparent. Over the last two decades (roughly
since the Sahel drought), there has been great success in generating and
extending an array of natural resource management technologies for water
and soil conservation, soil-fertility maintenance, integrated crop and
livestock systems, prevention of wind erosion, agroforestry, and development
and extension of fuel-efficient cookstoves for use in urban and rural
areas. However, many project interventions fail, primarily because a narrow
technical approach is taken at the design stage; it is simply assumed
that problems are so evident that farmers will be compelled to adopt project
technologies, or the nature of the 'problem' itself is mis-specified.
Nor has full capitalization of existing traditional knowledge occurred.
29. In much of the region, land tenure has a major effect on productivity
and natural resource management. Yet the issues are often diverse than
elsewhere in the developing world, where historical land-colonization
practices were markedly different. Relative to other parts of the world,
land-distribution patterns are less skewed and landlessness less of a
problem (although this may be changing). WCA farmers commonly have usufruct
rights, with access governed by traditional village chiefs. When considering
poor people's rights to land, it is generally more appropriate to focus
on the level and security of access, rather than on land ownership. For
women, there is strong evidence that their access to land is less, and
less secure, than men's for a number of reasons including inheritance
practices, bias on the part of governments in apportioning improved land
(such as irrigated perimeters), and marginalization of women from community
decision-making. Gender bias in access is readily observed through quality,
quantity, size and distance of individual plots from the village.
30. Agricultural marketing. Food-crop agricultural marketing in much of
WCA is characterized by high marketing costs and limited innovation. Inflated
marketing margins (especially for perishable food crops) are caused by
several factors: elevated transport costs, low economies of scale, lack
of information, high risk, legal and illegal taxes, too many intermediaries,
and excessive physical losses. Marketing costs are highest for farmers
located in remote or less accessible villages, where buyers can exert
monopsony buying power.
31. Donor and government investments in marketing are often inappropriate.
Sometimes it is assumed that a market exists when it really does not.
Many projects equate marketing with credit lines, warehouse construction,
roads, and sometimes provision of group-managed processing equipment.
While roads are essential, the provision of credit, warehouses and processing
equipment often does not address real problems that may be amenable to
simpler and cheaper solutions. Farmers may simply want to be reasonably
assured that they will have a sales outlet. In such cases, establishing
links with traders so that produce is bulked at a prearranged delivery
point may be all that is needed.
32. When it comes to linking poor farmers with markets, a number of special
challenges present themselves. Most poor farmers are illiterate and this
makes transparency of management decision-making and record-keeping particularly
challenging. Functional literacy programmes have often been essential
complementary investments in empowering poor farmers to interact with
cooperative officials and private marketing agents. Poor farmers are often
far from markets, produce small quantities of marketable surplus, and
may need assistance in grouping their produce for bulk sale. Finally,
such farmers tend to be primarily food-crop rather than export-crop producers.
Food-crop market structure tends to be less developed than that for export
crops.
33. Rural finance. In many instances,
a major constraint on improving the lot of the rural poor is lack of access
to capital for financing income-generating agricultural and off-farm opportunities,
paying school fees, and dealing with medical emergencies and important
social obligations. While informal credit and savings schemes are widespread
in the region (and the potential to build upon them is too commonly overlooked),
they exhibit some drawbacks. These include high interest rates and limited
possibilities (usually only short-term, rapid-turnover investments). Commercial
banks cannot reasonably be expected to adapt their financial products
to the needs of small, poor and remote clients and have thus taken no
interest in rural microfinance, nor in agriculture in general (with the
exception of financing selected export and agro-industrial operations).
There is a long and disappointing experience in WCA with large, formal
agricultural credit institutions that has left a troublesome legacy of
political interference and non-repayment. This will make it difficult
to rejuvenate similar institutions in the future.
34. WCA is a challenging region in which to develop viable microfinance
institutions (MFIs). Generally low levels of economic activity; low population
densities in many rural zones; widespread illiteracy, and scarcity of
qualified personnel drive up the costs of delivering financial services
to clients. Yet there are also opportunities. There is a strong entrepreneurial
spirit, with its origin in precolonial trade. Women are prominent participants
in small commerce, actively involved in food marketing and long-distance
trade. There is a long tradition of informal credit and savings arrangements
that can be built upon. In addition, if urban-rural linkages and population
densities will be increasing substantially in the long-term, this will
in turn increase demand for financial services and the potential for economies
of scale. Finally, adjustment efforts have restored the health of the
financial sector in many countries.
35. There is an emerging consensus in the region - accepted by major donors
and a number of governments - on what constitutes best practices in MFI
development. These include: development of specialized institutions; savings
promotion; and de-emphasizing the targeting of credit to specific end
uses while emphasizing instead the development of appropriate financial
products for savers and borrowers. It is also recognized that MFI development
takes considerable time and subsidization, but that it is institutional
support and technical assistance that should be subsidized rather than
interest rates. Interest-rate subsidies are neither financially sustainable
nor effective in reaching poor clients.
36. The development of cost-effective 'proximity' approaches is perhaps
the greatest challenge in increasing the rural outreach of financial services.
A number of promising approaches exist. One is the concept of financial
service associations promoted by IFAD. Other examples are village banking
in Burkina Faso and Mali and systems of village financial contracts in
Guinea. These approaches try to reach those rural poor usually by-passed
by other MFI approaches because either they live in remote areas or the
conditions for accessing credit services are too stringent. They seek
to promote sustainable financial intermediation based on the general best-practice
principles outlined above and also recognize the importance of establishing
member-driven governance structures.
37. Rural non-farm activities. Smallholder
households in rural areas manage complex portfolios of activities; diversification
is the normal state of affairs. On average, rural non-farm (RNF) income
and employment in West Africa account for 36% of total rural income and
employment, while individual country estimates often go much higher. Rural
households participate in RNF activities for various reasons, including
potentially high returns, cash-flow management and spreading risk. The
poor often participate in RNF activities because their agricultural output
is insufficient to achieve survival. In marginal lands like the Sahel
where agricultural risk is high, RNF activities (including migration)
are central to spreading risk.
38. Rural household members in WCA engage in a wide variety of RNF activities
linked to agriculture, such as food-processing and -marketing, blacksmith
construction and repair of agricultural tools and machinery. A dynamic
smallholder agricultural economy forms the backbone of a vibrant RNF sector.
Due to multiplier effects, smallholder agriculture is more likely to stimulate
off-farm employment than either large-scale agricultural or industrial
development. Small farmers are more likely to use increased incomes to
purchase locally produced goods and services, which in turn creates additional
local employment.
39. The rural poor have special problems in exploiting non-farm employment
opportunities. A combination of limited human and social capital, insufficient
access to markets, and lack of credit for working and investment capital
leads to high barriers against entry into remunerative RNF employment.
40. Strategies for reaching the rural poor through development of RNF
activities include many highlighted elsewhere in this paper, and in particular
those pertaining to human capital, rural finance, marketing and infrastructure
development. Most support to microenterprise development has targeted
better-off urban entrepreneurs that seek to graduate their firms to higher
levels of output and managerial sophistication. Such approaches may do
little to reduce rural poverty. Targeting the rural poor for microenterprise
development requires institutions specialized in lending to the rural
poor.
41. Rural infrastructure. Even if
the policy climate provides correct incentives, insufficient rural infrastructure
can greatly impede development. In the case of food marketing, high transport
costs related to bad roads are passed on to both consumers as higher food
prices and farmers as lower producer prices. While the importance of adequate
road networks is generally recognized, development of financially sustainable
road maintenance systems remains a big challenge. One positive development
is that most governments have now shifted to competitive bidding for rehabilitation
and maintenance, rather than maintaining expensive and ineffective permanent
public road crews. Introduction of local systems for road maintenance
is needed, as well as innovative ways to fund such maintenance.
42. There are major disparities between urban and rural social indicators
and availability of related water, health and sanitation infrastructure.
In much of arid Africa, wells near villages could save women as much as
2-3 hours per day in time spent hauling water. This equals or surpasses
most improved 'labor-saving' agricultural technologies. Because so few
WCA countries have yet reached acceptable levels of rural access to safe
water, and health impacts are significant and immediate, potable water
investment should be viewed as a major priority for rural development.
IFAD Strategy for Rural Poverty Reduction
In order to improve the incomes and living conditions of the rural poor in West and Central Africa , IFAD will respond to a critical mass of priority needs. This will involve capacity-building to empower rural poor women and men and strengthen local-level institutions. It will also involve the mobilization of energies, resources, and local and external knowledge and capacity through partnerships with institutions sharing IFAD's objectives and having complementary approaches and expertise. Accordingly, this will be achieved through the design and implementation of projects and programmes that are: impact-and-learning oriented; flexible and participatory; equitable and gender-sensitive; sustainable (cost-effective both environmentally and institutionally); and capable of providing input to policy analysis and dialogue.
43. IFAD's strategy for rural poverty reduction in WCA is summarized in
the diagram on the last page of this pamphlet. The strategy is consistent
with the Fund's commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goal
of halving poverty by 2015 as well as with the IFAD Mission Statement
of enabling the rural poor to overcome their poverty. Major elements of
the WCA context in which the strategy needs to situate itself have been
presented in the preceding sections. These include: a weak human-capital
base; inappropriate or insufficiently pro-poor policies and institutions;
low agricultural productivity combined with degradation of the natural
resource base; insufficient and poorly maintained rural infrastructure;
and the need to operate more effectively in the global marketplace.
44. Cross-cutting approaches. Three
essential cross-cutting approaches will be applied in the design and implementation
of IFAD-supported programmes:
- Investing in women. This approach yields high benefits for poverty alleviation. Women work well in groups and manage external resources such as organic fertilizer and credit effectively. When women have decision-making power for allocating household resources, a significant share of expenditure is devoted to the education, health and nutrition of the most vulnerable household members. Thus, intra-household distribution of and control over resources and incomes are highly relevant for poverty alleviation. IFAD will target women, without, however, excluding men and taking into account local cultures and traditions and possible adjustments in behaviour.
- Enhanced participation. IFAD will strengthen participatory aspects of project design, implementation, evaluation and management, and more fully involve rural communities. Mechanisms for participatory monitoring and evaluation will be put in place, while selected management functions will be shared with beneficiaries in those situations in which strong capacity already exists. IFAD will increasingly assist grass-roots organizations in enhancing their policy advocacy capacity in local and national policy fora.
- Building on indigenous knowledge. IFAD will continue to promote effective use of local knowledge and technology. Externally-sourced technologies remain important, but often achieve their greatest potential when they improve upon existing practices. They also have to be carefully adapted to local forms of social organization and capacity levels.
45. Strategic objectivs.
The rural poor need to have greater access to a variety of interdependant
assets - human and social, natural, infrastructural and financial. They
need to have influence over the major decisions that affect their well-being.
They also need to be less vulnerable to shocks (e.g. disease, conflict,
natural disasters) that threaten to completely destroy their asset base.
With the above cross-cutting approaches in mind, four related and mutually-reinforcing
strategic objectives will be pursued in the design and implementation
of IFAD-supported programmes in the region.
46. Strengthen the capacity of the rural poor
and their organizations, and improve the pro-poor focus of rural development
policies and institutions. Ultimately, development can only
be sustainable if done through local organizations composed of and controlled
by the rural poor. In its community development and decentralization-support
projects, IFAD has put considerable effort into the development of concrete
operational methods to build participation by local people into the design,
planning and oversight of community development initiatives. These efforts
need to continue, but IFAD needs to become more effective in capturing,
learning from and disseminating the knowledge gained through implementation
experience. Among other things, this will require developing and promoting
participatory monitoring and evaluation tools and approaches, and sharing
experience more systematically with regional and national partners on
effective, grass-roots-strengthening investment and policy approaches.
47. Within a decentralized framework, IFAD will work with its partners
to increase the effectiveness and accountability of rural service delivery.
It will target its efforts at building the technical, organizational and
administrative capacity of local governments, communities and civil-society
organizations to take on roles in this domain previously held by central
authorities. Partnership with other donors will continue to be critical
to the success of these efforts. Given IFAD's strong focus on grass-roots
capacity-building, strong potential for synergy exists with agencies having
comparative advantage at the macro and sectoral policy levels, such as
the World Bank.
48. Raise agricultural and natural resource productivity
and improve access to technology. Increased, sustainable access
to land and water resources is critical to raising incomes and improving
well-being. IFAD will continue to work on the generation and dissemination
of improved agricultural and natural resource technologies, concentrating
on areas where population pressure has increased incentives for intensification,
and on promotion of community-based natural resource management activities.
IFAD loans and grants for the development and dissemination of agricultural
production technologies will focus on those that: (i) present alternatives
to intensification achieved solely through the use of external inputs;
(ii) build upon indigenous knowledge and practices; (iii) consider existing
systems and their gradual evolution, as well as constraints in terms of
labour, gender division of labour and decision-making, access to finance,
access to support services, markets and policies; (iv) are sustainable
and environmentally friendly with locally reproducible resources; and
(v) can be disseminated through cost-effective, client-driven institutions.
49. There is strong demand for potable water in rural areas. IFAD will
continue its involvement in this sector, which contributes to improved
health status, productivity and reducing women's workloads. Investment
must be linked to community development efforts (under the first strategic
objective) to ensure that sustainable management systems are established
to maintain water points. Regarding small- and micro-irrigation, IFAD
will continue to support capacity-strengthening of water users' associations.
This will involve training and the promotion of fuller participation in
perimeter planning, crop and technology choice, organization of water
and pump use, and settling of land-tenure disputes.
50. Increase rural incomes through improved access
to financial capital and markets. The demographic trends already
mentioned clearly provide opportunities to strengthen urban-rural market
linkages. With the right types of investments, broadbased market-led growth
can reduce poverty, raise rural incomes, improve both rural and urban
food security, and provide strong incentives for increasing land and labor
productivity. Indeed, efforts to raise agricultural productivity and rural
incomes can only be effective if they are linked to an appreciation of
market potential. Integrated approaches along the continuum of production,
processing and marketing are needed. Diversifying income sources is also
necessary, either through production and marketing of nontraditional crops
or exploiting off-farm opportunities. It reduces risk to farmers and can
help even out seasonal income and consumption fluctuations.
51. Given regional demographic trends, support to marketing - especially
food and input marketing - must take on increased importance in future
IFAD interventions. IFAD will continue emphasizing the 'software' side
of market development - management and technical training for the strengthening
of farmers' groups and associations. IFAD experience demonstrates that
building on existing local structures for income-generating activities
is preferable to creating new structures, which may not be suited to the
social milieu. Credit and transport infrastructure support will be viewed
as complements to capacity-building efforts. Repair and rehabilitation
of access-road infrastructure will receive priority, provided appropriate
maintenance modalities can be designed.
52. IFAD will place greater emphasis on working with national and regional
partners to strengthen input supply systems in order to improve farmer
access to input markets and productivity-enhancing technologies. In its
loans and grants, for example, IFAD has invested in participatory varietal
selection and development of community-based seed multiplication. These
efforts will continue but need to be more widely replicated and scaled
up.
53. In line with internationally recognized best practices in microfinance
development, IFAD will continue to invest in developing MFIs. In recognition
that this is a long-term investment, assistance will focus on support
to institutional development and technical assistance, with a strong emphasis
on savings mobilization and credit. It will also focus on building the
capacity of poor MFI clients through management training and related support
to functional literacy programmes. The Fund will de-emphasize the targeting
of credit to specific end uses, promoting instead the development of appropriate
financial products for savers and borrowers as a more effective means
of targeting.
54. The development of proximity rural financial services has received
significant IFAD resources, with some positive results. The introduction
of the concept of financial service associations and other proximity approaches
requires additional support to reach financial and institutional maturity.
Support will include: (i) establishment of a larger number of local branches;
(ii) gradual development of national networks providing training, back-up
and control functions; (iii) promotion of formal banking system linkages;
(iv) establishment of a proper legal and regulatory framework for microfinance
networks; and (v) development of new financial products (such as medium-term
credit instruments and insurance).
55. Reduce vulnerability to major threats to
rural livelihoods. In recent years, conflict and HIV/AIDS have
emerged as major threats to livelihood systems of rural people in the
region. Other debilitating diseases (malaria and tuberculosis) have long
been endemic in the region. IFAD needs to develop strong partnerships
with other donors, NGOs and community-based organizations in order to
systematically respond to these threats.
56. With regard to post-conflict activities, the Fund remains basically
a lending institution for long-term development. It is not well-placed
in terms of mandate or expertise to provide relief assistance. Yet if
it is to respond to the needs of desperately poor rural people in these
countries, it is important that it more systematically address the critical
transition period between relief and long-term development, while taking
care to work in concert with like-minded partners. There is often a dangerous
hiatus between the end of relief and the beginning of long-term development
projects - often as much as 2-3 years. This transition period is important
economically because the most basic elements of rural people's capacity
to make a living need to be restored, as many have lost all assets. It
is also important politically, because there is a need to demonstrate
to citizens that peace yields dividends.
57. IFAD needs to have field activities during this interim period. In
countries emerging from conflict, it will work to: (i) reintegrate farm
populations into the agricultural sector (with emphasis on especially
vulnerable women and youth) and back into their communities; (ii) facilitate
the resumption of agricultural production through distribution of essential
agricultural inputs, particularly seed and tools; and (iii) deepen collaboration
with partners engaged in this work.
58. The Fund is increasingly integrating HIV/AIDS-mitigation activities
into its projects, but the effort has just begun. IFAD-supported projects
can be used as platforms for undertaking HIV/AIDS activities due to their
extensive outreach to rural communities. The Fund will build on the strong
orientation of its projects towards income generation, an area where health-focused
donors and NGOs have little expertise but increasingly recognize the need
for greater synergy with agencies like IFAD.
59. Yet it is important to remember that HIV/AIDS is one
of several debilitating diseases that increase vulnerability of the poor.
In most countries of the region, malaria and tuberculosis are also major
contributors to mortality.
60. Implementation modalities. IFAD
will use a number of means to enhance the impact of its country operations
and their catalytic effects. Greater impact will be achieved primarily
through more effective implementation of country programmes. Knowledge
generated through project experience will be disseminated at the national
and regional level in order to influence investment and policy decisions.
Thus the promotion of greater in-country and regional partnerships will
be critical. This will also involve more frequent, structured involvement
of IFAD staff in improving oversight and follow-up during implementation.
61. Projects and programmes. The building
of individual, community and service-provider capabilities will remain
a primary focus of all investment operations. This involves maximizing
the participation of poor women and men and other relevant stakeholders
in project planning, implementation and monitoring. It also involves recognizing
the value of existing local capabilities and resources, and building upon
them.
62. Appropriate implementation mechanisms need to be put in place, so
that projects are viewed less as ways to achieve preconceived outputs
and more as frameworks for communication and mutual learning among stakeholders
- in the search for better ways to address problems faced by poor people.
IFAD is in a good position to do this, as it has considerable experience
in flexible project design. Flexibility involves moving from blueprint,
output-driven approaches to process- and institution-driven ones. It requires
greater participation of a wide array of civil-society stakeholders (rather
than just the public sector) in design and implementation. It also requires
more frequent use of targeting and diagnostic surveys to monitor project
progress and provide information to project managers for corrective action
during implementation.
63. IFAD will pursue a number of initiatives with a view to improving
impact assessment in its ongoing projects and programmes, including development
and promotion of impact-focused methods and approaches; monitoring-and-evaluation
support to ongoing projects; and networking. Impact-monitoring activities
will primarily target the staff of management units and operating partners
of IFAD projects, including cooperating institutions. Representatives
of beneficiary groups of IFAD projects will also participate, and strong
efforts will be made to encourage interaction of IFAD project staff within
and among countries. To capitalize on previous and ongoing investments,
impact assessment will receive special attention in all the Fund's ongoing
regional grant programmes.
64. IFAD has considerable flexibility, relative to other international
donors, in the choice of funding instruments available to support its
activities. For example, in agricultural research and development, it
is possible to combine loans and grants in a way that links loan projects
in individual countries with regional grants to international research
centres in order to increase outreach. In the area of post-conflict assistance,
IFAD will use grant funding (supplementary funds, small grants to NGOs,
regional grants) while waiting for new loan programmes to come online.
The Fund will continue to maximize synergy between the different types
of financing to enhance the effectiveness of individual country portfolios
and the overall regional programme of assistance.
65. Policy dialogue. Within the context
of developing and implementing its lending programme, the Fund will engage
in ongoing policy dialogue and identify new policy initiatives for which
its input is relevant. IFAD will also assist grass-roots organizations
in enhancing their policy advocacy capacity in local and national fora.
This will be done through training, as well as facilitating dialogue between
government and civil society at the local and national level. Two important
vehicles for achieving this are the Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger
and Poverty and the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification - both housed at IFAD.
66. Dialogue with government, civil society and like-minded donors will
involve the following types of policies: establishment of legal frameworks
for recognizing grass-roots groups and organizations; development of appropriate
legal and regulatory frameworks for different types of microfinance approaches;
measures to increase the pro-poor nature of rural decentralization efforts;
and more responsive institutional frameworks for rural service delivery.
67. IFAD will also participate actively in several poverty-reduction strategy
paper (PRSP) initiatives and work to ensure that programmes for heavily-indebted
poor countries place sufficient attention and resources on rural poverty-reducing
investments. The Fund will also work with its partners to develop appropriate
pro-poor institutional frameworks for effective delivery of rural services.
A key vehicle for accomplishing this will be the Multi-Donor Regional
Hub in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, which will begin operations in 2002.
68. Knowledge management. The timely
generation and dissemination of knowledge of the dynamics of rural poverty,
and effective approaches to reduce it, are crucial to enhancing direct,
catalytic impact. The focuses of IFAD's knowledge-management activities
in WCA, through its projects and programmes, will be to: (i) enable the
rural poor to use knowledge to better their lives; (ii) enable IFAD partners
who work directly with the rural poor to have the knowledge they need;
and (iii) capture knowledge from project experience and disseminate it
to broader audiences at national and regional levels in order to influence
policy and investment decisions.
69. These efforts must be client-driven, recognizing that categories of
partners have different information needs and require dissemination in
different forms. The rural poor themselves - most of whom are illiterate
and lack access to even rudimentary forms of modern communications technology
- need information that is relevant to their immediate concerns, culturally
appropriate, accessible at low cost and often in verbal or visual form.
Other clients include: service providers that interface directly with
the rural poor (project managers, NGO staff and private contractors);
IFAD country portfolio managers and donor partners at technical and managerial
levels, who need to learn ways to improve project, programme and policy
design and implementation and good practices in thematic technical areas;
and potential donors to IFAD, who need to make informed decisions about
investing in IFAD as a vehicle for global poverty reduction. An important
means of disseminating information is the FIDAFRIQUE regional Internet
network, a grant-supported activity whose second phase will be designed
in 2002.
70. Learning from the poor and other partners, and adapting their successful
experiences in IFAD's programmes, must also be prominent in the Fund's
knowledge-management efforts. There is much to be learned from the indigenous
technical and organizational knowledge of the poor themselves. There is
also much to be learned from other donors, NGOs and researchers on working
with the poor. Examples include participatory planning tools, monitoring
and evaluation approaches, targeting methods, and good practices related
to achievement of the strategic objectives.
71. The challenge of halving poverty in the region by the
year 2015 is a daunting one. Given the overwhelmingly rural nature of
poverty in WCA and the centrality of agriculture to rural livelihoods,
a renewed effort will be required on the part of governments, donors and
civil society to invest in rural people and the institutions that can
be responsive to their needs. IFAD can and will play an important role
in this effort, both directly through project investments, but also as
a catalyst, bringing lessons from its field experience to the attention
of its partners. The strategy outlined in this paper is a step towards
further concentrating IFAD's efforts and sharpening our focus to meet
the objectives of responding to a critical mass of priority needs of
poor women and men and enabling the rural poor to overcome their poverty.
Indicators of Strategic Objective Achievement
| Strengthen the capacity of the rural poor and their organizations, and improve the pro-poor focus of rural development policies and institutions |
|
| Raise agricultural and natural resource productivity and improve access to technology |
|
| Increase rural incomes through improved access to financial capital and markets |
|
| Reduce vulnerability to major threats to rural livelihoods |
|
1/ The region’s 24 countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, The Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, D.R. Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
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