Egypt: Smallholder contract farming for high-value and organic agricultural exports (2009)
English

The role of high-value crops in rural poverty reduction in the Near East and North Africa Enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty
IFAD has been strongly engaged in agriculture and rural development support since 1977. As of the end of 2007, IFAD is funding 33 programme loans and 34 regional and country research grants in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region1, with a total commitment of about US$520 million.
Arabic (2008) | English (2009)

Addressing climate change in:

• West and Central Africa (2011)
• East and Southern Africa (2011)
  
• Asia and the Pacific (2011)
  
• Latin America and the Caribbean (2011)
• Near East, North Africa and Europe (2011)

Mainstreaming Gender in IFAD-supported projects in NEN Region: Training package (2011)
Arabic: Part I | Part II
English: Part I | Part II

With the aim of promoting gender equitable rural employment strategies, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Labour Office (ILO), partnered to carry out an assessment of the latest thinking on the gender dimension of rural and agricultural employment. The three organizations are committed to improving gender equality and women’s empowerment in agriculture and rural areas, and to strengthening women’s leadership and participation in decision-making processes.
English

Women as agents of change (2010)
Arabic (2005) | English | French | Spanish

Memory checks for programme and project design - household food security and gender (2005)
Intended as a support to design teams and project planners in diagnosing and focusing on critical issues relevant to gender and household food security
English | French | Spanish

An IFAD approach to gender mainstreaming: The experience of Latin America and the Caribbean (2005)
The purpose of this publication is document what the Latin America and the Caribbean Division (LAC) has achieved in terms of gender mainstreaming in its projects and regional programmes
English | French | Spanish

IFAD's gender strenghtening programme in Eastern and Southern Africa (2001)
This publication is intended to inform IFAD-supported project management units (PMUs), other donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Eastern and Southern Africa about IFAD’s Gender Strengthening Programme in the region
English | French

Seminario-Taller para el fortalecimiento de los apsectos de género en los proyectos FIDA asociados al PROCASUR informe (2005)
This report presents a brief description of the Programme for Strengthening of Gender Issues in IFAD Projects (PROSIGIP); the experience of this programme with projects associated to Procasur
Spanish

Fisheries thematic papers

• Fisheries thematic paper: tool for project design

Livestock thematic papers

• IFAD’s Livestock Position Paper (2010)
• Emergency livestock interventions in crisis and post-crisis situations (2010)
• Gender and livestock (2010)
• Integrated crop-livestock farming systems (2010)
• Livestock and climate change (2010)
• Livestock and land (2010)
• Livestock and pastoralists (2010)
• Livestock and rural finance (2010)
• Value chains, linking producers to the markets (2010)

Promoting market access for the rural poor in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (2003)
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

In the past two decades, many countries in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region have reformed the agricultural sector by lowering agricultural tariffs, liberalizing domestic prices and reducing consumer food subsidies. However, trade restrictions and domestic price support mechanisms are still prevalent for a few “strategic” commodities (such as wheat), and there is wide divergence among the countries in terms of the extent and depth of liberalization.  
Previous and on-going domestic agricultural reform, bilateral and regional trade agreements, as well as any future trade liberalization that may result from further multilateral trade negotiations under the WTO, will have significant impact on the agricultural sector of the NENA region. Some studies have tried to analyze the expected impact of these changes on the region’s agricultural sector - with divergent results depending on the assumptions and methodologies used, and no analysis has been done relating these changes to small farmers and poor rural households.   Given its focus on improving the livelihoods of the rural poor in the region, the NENA Division of  IFAD, in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute, has undertaken this study to examine the expected impact of agricultural domestic and international trade liberalization on this target group.
The results of the study are very useful to identify the measures that could be used to either mitigate the potential negative impacts of trade liberalization on small rural producers or to help them in seizing new domestic and international market opportunities. The study concludes that trade policy by itself is an imprecise and costly instrument to address poverty. There is a need, however, for complementary policies to enhance the positive effects of trade liberalization (or reduce its negative impact), and these include flexible factor markets (especially for labour), trade facilitation measures, support to “public goods”, direct income support to farmers, and safety net programs.
English

Visit the Rural Poverty Portal sections on:

• Markets and trade for poverty reduction and rural development
• Trade liberalization and rural poverty

Read more about:

• IFAD and market access
• IFAD and trade liberalization

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Rural investment and enabling policy (2005)
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals by enabling the rural poor to overcome their poverty (2003)
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Community-based natural resource management: How knowledge is managed, disseminated and used (2006)
Natural resources are the foundation from which rural poor people can overcome poverty. However, planners and implementers of natural resource development projects do not always profit from the lessons learned – either information is lost or it is not easily accessible or changing circumstances may limit its value. Whatever the reason, learning from the past still makes sense. Knowledge does not wear out – although it is sometimes difficult to find, synthesize and use. It is against this challenging background that IFAD has targeted learning as one of its key products
English

The Rural poor - Survival or a better life? (2003)
The choice between destruction of resources and sustainable development
English | HTML version
French | HTML version
Spanish | HTML version

Livestock services and the poor: A global initiative. Collecting, coordinating and sharing experiences (2004)
English | French | Spanish

The Land Poor: Essential Partners for the Sustainable Management of Land Resources (2005)
English | French | Spanish

Tackling land degradation and desertification GEF- IFAD Partnership (2003)
English | French | Spanish
Read more...

Mishqui-Yacu, Sweet water (2005)
This book is about the struggle for and peace brought by water to the Cañari indigenous population in Ecuador. It is a simple and open account of the difficulties that the Upper Basin of the Cañar River Rural Development Project went through. It started out as a highly technical project, ignoring the history and concerns of communities that should have been the leading actors in project formulation. It is also the story of the great efforts made to remedy the shortcomings of the initial formulation by helping people organize themselves, gain a voice and obtain methods, tools and instruments useful in providing a living for themselves and their families
English | French | Spanish

• Linking land and water governance factsheet (2006)
  Arabic | English | Spanish | Italian
• Livestock services factsheet (2004)
  English | French | Italian

Visit the Rural Poverty Portal sections on:

• Desertification
• Livestock and rural poverty
• Water to combat rural poverty

Read more about:

• IFAD and desertification
• Livestock and rangeland
• Linking land and water governance

Participatory approaches for an impact-oriented project cycle (2003)
This publication reports on the findings of the working groups and main messages of plenary presentations of a workshop held at IFAD in November 2000. The objective of the workshop was to analyse project management methods and approaches that support the planning, monitoring and achievement of impact. Prepared by PD, OE and the working group on Impact Achievement throughout the Project Cycle
English | French | Spanish

Financing Facility for Remittances (2010)
The Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) has been working since 2006 with the goal of increasing the development impact of remittances and enabling poor rural households to advance on the road to financial
independence.
Arabic | English | French | Spanish | Portuguese

Remittances and Postal Networks (2011)
The Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) aims to expand the reach of financial services to the world's underserved rural areas. The maintenance of a network of dedicated brick-and-mortar branches throughout vast sparsely populated areas is prohibitively expensive for most forms of financial institutions, with one important exception: post offices.
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Remittances and Financial Literacy (2011)
In line with its mandate to expand the reach of financial services into rural areas, the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) is leading the way in testing models that bring migrants’ funds to recipient families quickly, safely, conveniently and at the lowest possible cost. However, the key to ensuring that remittances help families achieve financial independence lies in financial literacy.
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Remittances and Microfinance Networks (2011)
Of the US$350 billion that migrant workers send home to developing countries every year, between 30 and 40 per cent goes to rural areas. At the starting point of the migration chain, people leave rural areas to seek opportunities elsewhere, due to a lack of opportunities closer to home. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are uniquely capable of serving the needs of remittance recipients, while reinvesting surplus funds to improve opportunities for the local community.
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Remittances and Mobile Banking (2011)
With mobile phone coverage generally surpassing 90 per cent of the population even in developing countries, the potential to leapfrog to mobile banking holds the promise of addressing many of the challenges currently faced by rural remittance recipients. Long, costly and potentially dangerous treks from isolated villages to urban financial institutions could soon be replaced by instantaneous transfers of funds from one country to another using mobile phones.
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Remittances (2009)
Remittances, the money migrant workers send home to their families, provide crucial financial support for millions of people in developing countries. For years, migrants worked in the shadows of globalization while their remittances went uncounted by governments and aid agencies. Over the past 10 years, however, the true size of their contribution – well over US$300 billion a year – has come to light.
English | French

This report comes at a time when countries in Africa and elsewhere are grappling with difficult choices on how to manage migration. It marks an effort to fill data and knowledge gaps on migration which in Africa comes in complex forms. About 30 million Africans live outside their home countries, and migration is a vital lifeline for the continent. These migrants sent home over $40 billion in remittances last year. And their annual estimated saving, usually held in foreign countries, exceeds $50 billion. The report also outlines innovative financing mechanisms such as issuance of diaspora bonds and securitization of future remittance flows that can help finance big-ticket projects like railways, roads, power plants, and higher-education institutions that will, step by step, help to transform Africa.
English | Read more

International migration, remittances and rural development (2008)
Globalization and migration are rapidly transforming traditional spheres of human activity. The work of rural families is no longer confined to farming activities, and livelihoods are increasingly being diversified through rural-to-urban and international migration. Age-old boundaries are breaking down. Formerly isolated towns and villages in Latin America and the Caribbean have come closer to New York and Los Angeles than to the capitals of their own nations. The same is true of the relationship of certain areas of Africa and Asia to metropolises such as Berlin, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Singapore and Sydney. Development organizations that support rural poor families in overcoming poverty are realizing that essential members of these families are making their living abroad, far away from their dependants. The ‘global village’ has become a reality. However, the poverty that forced rural inhabitants to migrate still exists in their places of origin and continues to influence their lives and prospects in their ‘adopted countries’, as well as those of the people they left behind.
English

Sending Money Home: Worldwide remittance flows to developing and transition countries (2011)
Remittances, the portion of migrant workers’ earnings sent home to their families, have been a critical means of financial support for generations. For the most part, these flows have historically been “hidden in plain view”, often uncounted and even ignored. As the scale of migration increases, the corresponding growth in remittances is gaining widespread attention. Today, the impact of remittances is recognized in all developing regions of the world, constituting an important flow of foreign currency to most countries and directly reaching millions of households – approximately 10 per cent of the world’s population.
Arabic (2009) | English | French (2009) | Spanish (2009)

Remittances: strategic and operational considerations (2006)
Exceeding USD 230 billion in 2005, remittances are a critical flow of funds for low-income people in both the North and South. Accessing and affording these services, however, can be a challenge, especially in remote, rural areas. This annex to the IFAD Decision Tools for Rural Finance introduces migrant remittances in the wider context of development finance, discussing the key principles of effective service delivery and highlighting potential areas for IFAD support. Designed to give IFAD staff a solid grounding in this topic, this paper includes a review of donor activity on remittances and provides numerous references to research on remittances in specific regions.
English

Proyecto Uruguay Rural – Informe de cierre (2011)
Evaluación de resultados y percepciones de los involucrados
El Proyecto Uruguay Rural de la Dirección General de Desarrollo Rural del Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca se implementó entre los años 2001 y 2011 con apoyo del FIDA. El presente informe en tres volúmenes preparado por el Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca expone los principales elementos de la evaluación del proyecto, a partir de la presentación de algunos resultados de ejecución y de las percepciones de los involucrados en su desarrollo.
español (Volumen 1,2,3)

The report on the “Expert and Inter-agency Technical Meeting on Broadening Coherence and Collaboration for Rural Development - Rural Development through Decent Work”, is a collaborative effort of the different UN agencies. The report is the outcome of an event co-organized by ILO and UN DESA in cooperation with FAO and IFAD. The event set the stage for coordination and joint work among international and national actors for “unleashing rural development through employment and decent work”; and to make this a core element of national and international growth and development strategies.
English

Sustainability of rural development projects:
Best practices and lessons learned by IFAD in Asia

• India
• Laos
• Philippines
• Viet Nam

Rural Finance for the Poor: from unsustainable projects to sustainable institutions (2005)
This 12-page brochure presents concisely the IFAD rural finance policy approved by the Executive Board in May 2000
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

• Microfinance: macro benefit factsheet (2009)
  Arabic | English | French | Italian | Spanish
• Remittances factsheet (2011)
  Arabic | English (2010) | French | Italian | Spanish

Visit the Rural Poverty Portal section on Rural finance and rural poverty

Read more about IFAD and rural finance

Institutional and Organizational Analysis for Pro-Poor Change: Meeting IFAD’s Millennium Challenge: a source book (2008)

English

• Introduction
• What does institutional analysis address?
• Understanding poor people
  and their livelihoods
• Focusing on results
• Mapping action arenas
• Understanding the institutional context
• Understanding power and processes
• Developing strategies for institutional change
• Using institutional analysis

Transforming rural institutions in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals (2005)
Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Institutions the key to development: Building alliances to empower the rural poor (2005)
English

Informe Latinoamericano sobre Pobreza y Desigualdad 2011
‘El Informe Latinoamericano sobre Pobreza y Desigualdad 2011’ busca incentivar la discusión de los aspectos claves que afectan a los territorios y regiones que presentan mayor dificultad para crecer con reducción de pobreza y desigualdad desde una perspectiva social y territorial.
La análisis del informe –elaborado por Rimisp–Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural, con el apoyo del Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo–Canadá (IDRC por sus siglas en inglés) y el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA)–  aborda las dimensiones de educación; salud; dinamismo económico y empleo; ingreso y pobreza; seguridad ciudadana y género, obteniendo cifras e indicadores de Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, México, Nicaragua y Perú. 
español

Poverty and Inequality 2011: Latin AmericaReport (IDRC, IFAD, Rimisp - 2012)
The English-language executive summary of the ‘Poverty and Inequality 2011: Latin America Report’ highlights the causes of extreme inequality, territorial achievement gaps and lack of opportunities in Latin America’s rural sector, analysing socio-economic indicators in health, education, economic dynamism and employment, income and poverty, citizen security, and gender equality from 10 Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. The report was produced by the RIMISP - Latin American Center for Rural Development, and made possible through funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Development Research Centre - Canada (IDRC).
English

Rural Poverty Report 2011: New realities, new challenges:  new opportunities for tomorrow's generation
The Rural Poverty Report 2011 provides a coherent and comprehensive look at rural poverty, its global consequences and the prospects for eradicating it.

• Overview (1.3MB) 
  Arabic | English | French | Spanish |Italian
• Electronic version(3.9MB)
  Arabic | English | French | Spanish
• Print version (5.0MB)
  Arabic | English | French | Spanish
• Kindle version
  English