المعرفة

Want to learn more about how you can design and implement  environment and climate activities within your projects?  Make sure you consult the e-learning modules on smallholder agriculture, environment and climate change.

Course benefits:

• Better understand the current challenges associated with environmental degradation and climate change, and particularly its impact on IFAD-funded projects and programmes and target groups;
• Outline the key elements of IFAD's approach to ENRM and climate change issues and of its related policies, strategies and procedures;
• Provide resources, best practices, case studies and tools that project practitioners can use to improve project outcomes;
• Share information on services and financial resources available to support IFAD's operations

 

 

Agriculture and fisheries, the backbone of food security and nutrition for coastal communities and globally, are under threat. 

In late 2016, regional consultation workshops in preparation for the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum were held in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific, attended by 97 representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations and institutions. 

Cash transfer and agricultural support programmes are both used to improve nutrition outcomes in developing countries. This paper examines previous reviews of the impact of these programmes and compares the evidence between the two. The paper finds that, although there are about the same number of programmes of each type, many more papers have been written about the cash transfer programmes than the agricultural programmes. While evidence suggests that both programme types improved the quality of food consumption, the paper concludes that both types show weak evidence of improvements in anthropometric outcomes.

The United Kingdom and IFAD are working closely together to meet Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2: ending poverty and hunger by 2030. They have made a special commitment to boost inclusive and sustainable economic paths and create jobs in the poorest rural areas of the world, especially in Africa, where 10 to 12 million young people enter the labour market every year.

Of the US$450 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.

This infographic illustrates the highlights of the 2017 Report on IFAD's Development Effectiveness (RIDE).

South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) is a key development instrument that can contribute to achieving the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It provides unprecedented opportunities for developing countries to leverage their own experience, knowledge and resources in support of social and economic transformation of their, and other, people.

The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) aimed to foster market-driven development of the informal dairy sector in Kenya. 

In Madagascar, the Project to Support Development in the Menabe and Melaky Regions (AD2M) aimed to improve the livelihoods of poor farmers by strengthening their tenure security and access to well-functioning irrigation systems.

Index insurance has a role to play in agricultural development and risk management, yet it faces operational and technical challenges to reach scale and sustainability. Data are a key challenge and were the focus of the project “Improving Agricultural Risk Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Remote Sensing for Index Insurance”. Limited availability, accessibility, quantity and poor quality of data on the ground are some of the primary technical constraints preventing scale-up and sustainability of index insurance. Without sufficient quality data, either it is impossible to design products for some areas and countries, or products that are designed can become unreliable, not compensating when they should. These inconsistencies intensify vulnerability, lead to distrust of insurance, and ultimately have an impact on demand. This publication details the project, which investigated overcoming issues with ground data by using remote sensing data for index insurance. It describes the different remote sensing options and opportunities available for index insurance, but it also recommends further investment in research and development, supplementary ground data and capacity-building going forward. 

This study describes the shifting age and sex patterns of populations across rural and urban sectors in sub‑Saharan Africa from 1980 to 2015. It examines the relationship between the slowdown in urbanization and rural and urban age structure gaps, sex composition and dependency ratios. Findings show that rural-urban migration of young adults plays a key role in explaining dependency ratios and sex compositional gaps in rural and urban areas. Results also highlight the value of taking into account local age and sex structures to better prepare for the demographic dividend and other consequences of demographic shifts in sub-Saharan Africa.

Established in 2005 as a permanent feature of the IFAD Governing Council, the Farmers’ Forum (FAFO) is a bottom-up process of consultation and dialogue between IFAD, governments and farmers’ organizations that represent millions of small-scale farmers, fisher folk and pastoralists, both men and women, across the world. The forum aims to strengthen partnership and collaboration between IFAD and farmers’ organizations in country programmes and investment projects and to build capacity within these organizations. In support of the Farmers’ Forum, projects are established to strengthen farmers’ organizations and activities in the field. Thus, IFAD, together with several other donors (EU, SDC, AFD), has engaged into partnership with FOs through continental grants in Asia with the Medium-term Cooperation Programme with Farmers’ Organizations in Asia and
the Pacific (MTCP) as well as in Africa with the Support to Farmers’ Organizations in Africa Programme (SFOAP).

The MilkIT research for development project set out to improve dairy-centred livelihoods in India and Tanzania through intensification of smallholder
production focused on enhancement of feeds and feeding using innovation platforms and value chain approaches.

The project worked in the state of Uttarakhand in India and in Morogoro and Tanga regions in Tanzania. In both countries dairy has considerable potential to improve the livelihoods and nutrition of poor farming families but this potential has been underexploited. MilkIT focused on improving milk productivity through multistakeholder engagement to increase milk marketing and dairy cow feeding.

Over the past 25 years, the Dominican Republic has enjoyed one of the strongest growth rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing and tourism.

Brazil is a major agricultural and industrial power, has the strongest economy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and is the seventh-largest economy in the world. It is the fourth-largest agricultural producing country, the main producer of coffee, sugarcane and citrus, and the second largest soybean, beef and poultry producer.

Mexico is the second-largest economy in Latin America. Despite being a large, upper-middle-income country, Mexico continues to have high rural poverty levels and wide social and economic disparities. While only about 21 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, they represent roughly two thirds of the extremely poor.

L’accès des agriculteurs à l’eau est un facteur de développement agricole. Cet accès dépend de plusieurs facteurs, dont des facteurs économiques, politiques, ou encore environnementaux. En effet, les décisions et stratégies adoptées par le gouvernement et les autorités locales permettent à la population, et plus particulièrement aux agriculteurs, de gérer de façon durable et efficace leurs ressources hydriques.

À Madagascar, le cadre législatif du secteur de l’eau agricole a évolué à partir des années 1980. Tout d’abord, en 1990, la reconnaissance de l’importance de la préservation de l’environnement et des ressources naturelles a débouché sur une Charte de l’environnement.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) were both created in response to the food crises of the 1970s. We have worked together for more than 20 years to catalyze agricultural and rural development and improve food security in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

IFAD and IFPRI have strengthened the productivity and resilience of smallholder farmers and other rural people, with a particular focus on helping expand their access to innovative local farming methods, climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies and financing, and more profitable markets.

To further promote rural development and transformation, IFAD and IFPRI have built cutting-edge information systems and tools that deliver sound data and analyses to governments, donors, farmer organizations, and other stakeholders. As a result, the two organizations have fostered evidence-based policy making and investments that promote agricultural growth and rural development.

This year’s edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World marks the beginning of a new era in monitoring the progress made towards achieving a world without hunger and malnutrition, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the report will henceforth monitor progress towards both the targets of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition. 

It will also include thematic analyses of how food security and nutrition are related to progress on other SDG targets. Given the broadened scope to include a focus on nutrition, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined the traditional partnership of FAO, IFAD and WFP in preparing this annual report. 

We hope our expanded partnership will result in a more comprehensive and integral understanding of what it will take to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition, and in more-integrated actions to achieve this critical goal.