Ensayos y Síntesis

This Focus Note introduces some recent developments in this rapidly changing space. The featured case studies (i) identify traditional pain points in serving smallholder farmers (such as the cost and risk of making payments to farmers and delivering subsidized credit), (ii) discuss how DFS are being used to overcome these pain points, and (iii) highlight some initial obstacles and successes.

In 2014, Kenya was newly classified as a lower-middle-income country, with financial services and infrastructure expected to drive growth of 5 to 6 percent annually over the next five years. At the same time, the country is still in protracted crisis, with recurrent natural disasters, conflict, severe drought and hunger affecting livelihoods. Overall, about 10 million Kenyans suffer from chronic food insecurity and poor nutrition. Recurring drought means that a larger number of people in a growing population are unable to meet their food needs. Good seasons between droughts are increasingly rare, making it difficult for households to recover from crisis to crisis. Severe land degradation, primarily caused by deforestation, unsuitable agricultural practices and flooding, has had a negative impact on agricultural production.

Among the world’s developing regions, Asia and the Pacific region has witnessed the deepest and fastest structural transformation. The Green Revolution that began in the 1960s spurred the rapid spread of improved varieties of cereal crops, accompanied by public investments in and policy support to the agricultural sector. As a result, productivity of wheat and rice increased dramatically, stimulating economic growth and reducing rural poverty. In the following decades, and especially since 2000, the structural transformation further accelerated, leading to a declined share of the sector in both output and GDP and, to a lesser extent, in the total employment. Facilitated by a conducive institutional and policy environment, the process brought about a more diversified, market-oriented and high-value agricultural production; the expansion of food processing, agribusiness, food retailing and exports; and increased domestic and international competitiveness of agriculture – albeit with country and subregional differences. Nevertheless, poverty, deprivation and hunger remain widespread. Two thirds of the world’s poor and hungry people live in the region, mostly in rural environments. Income inequality has been rising fast in a number of countries, especially between urban and rural areas, with adverse effects on poverty reduction and increased risk of social conflict and political instability. Moreover, the countries and subregions are at different stages of the structural transformation process. In most developing economies, labour productivity in agriculture is still low and the shift of the agricultural workforce to other sectors is yet to take place. Therefore, agriculture remains a critical livelihood option and the largest employer sector for most rural people. 

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has undergone a transformation in recent years, adapting itself to an environment more complex and challenging than at any other point in its history: persistent hunger and food insecurity; rising and more volatile food prices; floods, droughts and the ever-more apparent effects of climate change; increasing competition for land; global financial crisis; and a growing human population that has surpassed 7 billion.

In 2001, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council approved the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as an executing agency under its policy of expanded opportunities for executing agencies. 

This publication illustrates IFAD’s experience in closing the gender gap and mobilizing the ‘gender advantage’ in climate change adaptation through ten case studies from across the world. 

This overview document represents a synthesis of 4 policy briefs produced by IFAD, complemented by joint work with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) in the area of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture in the post-2015 agenda. 

IFAD’s work in the post-2015 debate is inspired by its unique mandate to invest in poor rural people to enable them to overcome poverty and to transform their lives.

Article in F@rmletter - The E-magazine of the World’s Farmers (pg 12-13). It describes the Flexi Biogas system as an innovative portable biogas model. 

This was the result of small grant to pilot the technology as part of the Innovation Mainstreaming Initiative funded by the UK Department for International Development.

Annexes (Volume 2) of the Partnership in Progress: 2012-2013.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are funding a number of projects developed to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to improving food security, income generation and women’s empowerment, while respecting traditional knowledge and socio-cultural values. 

Family poultry production plays an essential role in some of these projects.

En el presente informe, FIDA pretende recopilar de exhaustiva las diferentes experiencias en la colaboración con las organizaciones campesinas y determinar las tendencias regionales que han ido surgiendo.

El estudio representa un punto de partida para la ampliación de escala y la profundización de los logros en otros países y contextos. Igualmente se analizan las modalidades de asocio utilizadas durante el bienio 2012-2013, y se exponen ejemplos de las experiencias exitosas y los logros alcanzados en el marco de los programas de FIDA en los países y su cartera de subvenciones.

El informe se basa en los resultados de una encuesta realizada por los gerentes de los programas del FIDA en los países de intervención, entrevistas con el personal de FIDA correspondiente y un examen teórico en profundidad de los documentos relativos a los proyectos nuevos y en curso y a determinadas subvenciones a nivel regional y programas en los países.

En el presente informe, FIDA pretende recopilar de exhaustiva las diferentes experiencias en la colaboración con las organizaciones campesinas y determinar las tendencias regionales que han ido surgiendo.

El estudio representa un punto de partida para la ampliación de escala y la profundización de los logros en otros países y contextos. Igualmente se analizan las modalidades de asocio utilizadas durante el bienio 2012-2013, y se exponen ejemplos de las experiencias exitosas y los logros alcanzados en el marco de los programas de FIDA en los países y su cartera de subvenciones.

El informe se basa en los resultados de una encuesta realizada por los gerentes de los programas del FIDA en los países de intervención, entrevistas con el personal de FIDA correspondiente y un examen teórico en profundidad de los documentos relativos a los proyectos nuevos y en curso y a determinadas subvenciones a nivel regional y programas en los países. 

These case studies present IFAD’s experiences in building PPPs in country projects and programmes around the world, from which we draw conclusions, lessons learned and the way forward.

Gender and rural development brief with specific focus on the Near East and North Africa.

Summary report on the workshop "Mainstreaming policy dialogue: from vision to action" organized by LAC and PTA on 17 October 2013.

Gender and rural development brief with specific focus on the Pacific Islands.

This paper seeks to draw on both the positive aspects of current practice and the critiques that have been made, to propose an action plan for strengthening IFAD’s engagement in country level policy dialogue.

It outlines a set of broad principles underpinning IFAD’s approach, the first of which is the reaffirmation that policy engagement must be shaped and led by the CPM.

It also makes specific proposals for more effectively integrating country-level policy dialogue in IFAD country programmes; for improving IFAD’s monitoring, reporting and knowledge management on the subject; and for strengthening in-house capacity for country-level policy dialogue.  

Describes what IFAD and the Policy and Technical Advisory division are supporting country-level policy engagement.

It also summarizes past experience and explains how Country Programme Managers can access funds to engage in country-level policy dialogue.

El mundo actual está lleno de paradojas, algunas grotescas, pero ninguna de ellas lo es más que el hecho de que mientras 870 millones de personas pasan hambre cada día, un tercio de todos los alimentos se pierde o se desperdicia. Nos maravillamos ante las tasas de crecimiento de los países de ingresos medios, pero en algunos de esos países viven decenas de millones de personas muy pobres. Alrededor del 75 por ciento de los habitantes más pobres del mundo viven en las zonas rurales y obtienen sus medios de vida principalmente de la agricultura, al tiempo que producen más del 80 por ciento de los alimentos que se consumen en África Subsahariana y partes de Asia. No obstante, muchos de ellos son a su vez compradores netos de alimentos.