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Rome-based Agencies Resilience Initiative: Strengthening the resilience of livelihoods in protracted crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Niger and Somalia
Research Series Issue 31 - Impact of modern irrigation on household production and welfare outcomes
Investing in rural people in Tajikistan
IFAD has been investing in the rural poor in Tajikistan since 2008, by strengthening local institutions and grass-roots organizations, and expanding their access to land, productive technologies and resources.
Investing in rural people in Azerbaijan
IFAD has enjoyed a long history of a strong and successful partnership with the Government of Azerbaijan in rural poverty reduction and overall agricultural development efforts, with focused interventions in remote and sometimes difficult to reach areas of the country where extreme pockets of poverty exist.
Investing in rural people in Uzbekistan
سلاسل القيمة المراعية للتغذية: دليل تصميم المشروعات - المجلد الاول
سلاسل القيمة المراعية للتغذية: تم إعداد دليل لتصميم المشروعات لسد الفجوة المعرفية الرئيسية في مجال سلاسل القيمة الناشئة للتغذية من خلال توفير التوجيه حول كيفية تصميم مشاريع سلاسل القيمة المراعية للتغذية، مع التركيز على المنتجين أصحاب الحيازات الصغيرة.
Investing in rural people in Tunisia
Since 1980, IFAD has financed 13 rural development programmes and projects in Tunisia for a total cost of US$453 million, with an IFAD investment of US$194.6 million directly benefiting 125,850 rural households.
Research Series Issue 30 - Nutrition-sensitive value chains from a smallholder perspective: A framework for project design
Research Series Issue 29 - Empowering through collective action
This paper explores the conditions for collective action to generate inclusion when agriculture transforms.
IFAD in the thousand hills of Rwanda: Transforming agriculture into business
Rural people and mobility: How to respond to opportunities in a changing world
Scaling up in agriculture and rural development
Transforming rural lives Building a prosperous and sustainable future for all
Grant Results Sheet: ICRAF - Climate-smart, Tree-based, Co-investment in Adaptation and Mitigation in Asia (Smart Tree-Invest)
The Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN)
حالة الأمن الغذائي والتغذية في العالم لعام 2018
Research Series Issue 28 - Understanding the dynamics of adoption decisions and their poverty impacts. The case of improved maize seeds in Uganda
The linkages between migration, agriculture, food security and rural development
Understanding contemporary migration, both international and internal, remains a challenge. The decision by people to migrate either within their own countries or across borders is influenced by an intricate set of factors. This report examines the complex interlinkages between migration, agriculture, food security and rural development and the factors that determine the decision of rural people to migrate; including economic factors, employment opportunities, conflict, poverty, hunger, environmental degradation and climate shocks.
Investing in rural people in Niger
Niger covers a landlocked 1,267,000 km² tract of the Sahel north of Nigeria. With a poverty rate of 48.9 per cent and income per capita of US$420, Niger is one of the world’s poorest nations. In 2015, it ranked last among 188 countries measured by the United Nations Human Development Index
Resultados relevantes por cada proyecto
Indigenous peoples’ collective rights to lands, territories and natural resources
Efforts to expand and strengthen indigenous peoples’ rights over their lands, territories and natural resources have become crucial to achieving the objectives of poverty reduction, more secure livelihoods, environmental sustainability and the preservation of indigenous cultural value systems. With this aim, over the past decades IFAD has worked together with indigenous peoples and their representing institutions to create enabling environments to secure their access to collective rights over ancestral territories, improve the sustainable management of indigenous lands, regulate the community use of natural resources and reduce conflicts over lands and resources.
Occasional paper: IFAD’s experience in scaling up in Asia and the Pacific region - Lessons learned from successful projects and way forward
The Asia and the Pacific region includes the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic countries and is a key driver of growth in the world economy.
Effective rural development: IFAD’s evidence-based approach to managing for results
This report reflects IFAD’s ongoing efforts to generate evidence to inform decision-making at the corporate and project level.
Research Series Issue 27 - Asia’s rural-urban disparity in the context of growing inequality
China-IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility
The China-IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility was established in February 2018 and is the first Facility in IFAD dedicated to SSTC.
Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development 2018 Asia-Pacific - Outcomes
Grant Results Sheet: Linking farmers to Fairtrade markets in Papua New Guinea through ICT to improve livelihoods in remote rural areas
The IFAD-GEF Advantage II: Linking smallholders and global environmental benefits
In 2014, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) released a report celebrating achievements through its partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Since then, the world has been responding to critical environmental and climate challenges.
التقرير السنوي للصندوق لعام 2017
تعرّف على عمل الصندوق واستثماراته ونتائجه في تقريرنا السنوي لعام 2017. اقرأ قصصاً عن نساء ورجال الريف الذين نقوم بتمكينهم، واحصل على الحقائق والأرقام التي نتشاركها بانتظام مع شركائنا والدول الأعضاء لدينا. يمكنك أيضاً أن تتعرَف أكثر على جهودنا الداعية للمحافظة على احتياجات المجتمعات الريفية في قمة خطة التنمية العالمية.
Grant results sheets - Inclusive growth, rural industrial policy and participatory value chains in Latin America and the Caribbean
Farmers’ Organizations in Africa
Grant Results Sheet - ICRISAT: Sustainable Management of Cropbased Production Systems for Raising Agricultural Productivity in Rainfed Asia
Grant Results Sheet - APRACA: Enhancing access of poor rural people to sustainable financial services through policy dialogue, capacity-building and knowledge-sharing in rural finance
agroentrepreneurs, so they are better equipped to face emerging challenges and benefit from new opportunities.
Grant Results Sheet - ICIMOD: Improving livelihoods and enhancing resilience of the rural poor in the Hindu Kush Himalayas to environmental and socio-economic changes (AdaptHimal)
Grant results sheet - ROUTASIA: Strengthening Knowledge Sharing on Innovative Solutions Using the Learning Route Methodology in Asia and the Pacific – Phase 2
International Day of Family Remittances Brochure - Endorsements in 2018
The African Postal Financial Services Initiative: A success story on remittances at the post office in Africa
The Business Advantage: Mobilizing private sector-led climate actions in agriculture
Preparing Rural Communities to Cope with Climate Change through South-South and Triangular Cooperation – post-seminar brochure
Toolkit: Engaging with pastoralists – a holistic development approach
How to do note: Engaging with pastoralists – a holistic development approach
Lessons learned: Engaging with pastoralists – a holistic development approach
Research Series Issue 26 - Exploration of a methodology for assessing the impact of policy engagement. What impact and how to assess it?
The Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network: Vision, Activity Lines, Commitments and Governance (2018-2020)
How To Do Note: Access to finance for renewable energy technologies
Lessons learned: Access to finance for renewable energy technologies
Toolkit: Access to finance for renewable energy technologies
Research Series Issue 25 - Structural transformation and poverty in Malawi. Decomposing the effects of occupational and spatial mobility
Research Series Issue 24 - Influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of smallholder farming households in East and Southern Africa
This paper aims to explore the influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of the beneficiaries of IFAD-funded projects.
Journal of Law and Rural Development - Issue 2: Renewable Energy and Rural Development
The Journal of Law and Rural Development provides a forum where the link between law and rural development can be explored.
Grant Results Sheet: FundaK - The Outreach Project: Expanding and scaling up innovative financial inclusion and graduation strategies and tools in Africa
IFAD’s support for land and natural resource tenure security
IFAD’s support for land and natural resource tenure security - Asia and the Pacific region
IFAD’s support for land and natural resource tenure security - East and Southern Africa
IFAD’s support for land and natural resource tenure security - Latin America and the Caribbean
This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC).
IFAD’s support for land and natural resource tenure security - Near East, Nord Africa Europe and Central Asia
This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia region (NEN).
IFAD’s support for land and natural resource tenure security West and Central Africa
This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the West and Central Africa region (WCA).
RemitSCOPE - Remittance markets and opportunities Asia and the Pacific
RemitSCOPE, a new website portal, is designed to provide data, analyses and remittancemarket1 profiles on individual countries or areas. In coordination with the Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development 2018, RemitSCOPE is being launched to provide market profiles for 50 countries or areas in the Asia and the Pacific region.
The additional four regions will be included gradually: Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Near East and the Caucasus. RemitSCOPE intends to address the fast-changing market realities in the remittance industry in order to help bring together the goals of remittance families, as clients, and the strategies of the private-sector service providers. RemitSCOPE is designed as a free, one-stop shop that is available to any organization or entity interested in accessing all relevant public information on remittances.
Research Series Issue 23 - The Effect of the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth on Rural and Urban Poverty
Research Series Issue 22 - Poverty reduction during the rural-urban transformation
Women-led business and value chain development; a case study in Tajikistan
Investments in smallholder goat development and related value chains are effective means to reduce poverty and increase the incomes of men and women from resource-poor households. They are also effective channels to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in remote mountainous
areas.
Rural women's leadership programme in grass-roots organizations: a case study in Nepal
Developing nutrition-sensitive value chains in Nigeria
design nutrition-sensitive value chain (NSVC) projects for smallholders. Such projects seek to shape thedevelopment of value chains for
nutritious commodities in ways that are likely to address nutrition problems.
Indigenous Peoples Glossary (English, French, Spanish)
Secretary (Language Services) and the Indigenous Peoples Desk in the Policy and Technical Advisory Division. The purpose of the glossary is to ensure
consistency and accuracy of terminology in English, French and Spanish, and standardize the terminology used in relation to indigenous peoples in official
documentation and publications, and in all aspects of meeting preparations. It is intended for use by IFAD staff, indigenous peoples' organizations and other
interested parties. Terms and definitions are accompanied by details of the source document and its date of publication.
Integrated promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment: economic empowerment, decision-making and workloads
address the cross-cutting and multifaceted nature of gender inequality through multiple entry points.
Household methodologies
Policy brief: How inclusive rural transformation can promote sustainable and resilient societies
and resilient societies”. The SDGs relating to water (SDG6), energy (SDG7), human settlements (SDG11), responsible consumption and production (SDG12), life on land (SDG15) and partnerships (SDG17) will be under in-depth review. In that context, the rural world – where most poor and hungry people live – deserves special attention.
Toolkit: Supporting smallholder seed systems
How to do: Supporting smallholder seed systems
Lessons learned: Supporting smallholder seed systems
Research Series Issue 21 - Does relative deprivation induce migration? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa
The Water Advantage: Seeking sustainable solutions for water stress
Among ecosystems services, freshwater is one of the most fundamental for life. For smallholders, water means the difference between a decent life and poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
IFAD’s engagement with rural youth
This publication seeks to provide development practitioners, governmental and non-governmental organizations and agencies with insights into the case studies on overcoming the challenges that young people face in diverse contexts.
Investing in rural people in Peru
Developing nutrition-sensitive value chains in Indonesia
Grant Results Sheet: Integrated crop– livestock conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification of cereal-based systems in Central and West Asia and North Africa
Agents of rural change: The IFAD story
Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development 2017 – Official Report
How to do note: Design of gender transformative smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes
Investing in rural people in Cameroon
Mapeo Participativo - Diálogos y acuerdos entre actores
Research Series Issue 20 - Transformation and Diversification of the Rural Economy in Asia
Reducing Poverty in Coastal Communities in Indonesia
Investing in Rural Areas, Investing in Indonesia
Investing in Rural Indonesia
Grant Results Sheet: CABFIN - Enhancing the CABFIN partnership’s delivery of policy guidance, capacity development and global learning to foster financial innovations and inclusive investments for agricultural and rural development
implement more effective interventions aimed at increasing access to rural and agricultural finance.
Grant Results Sheet: ICIPE - Scaling up biological control of the diamondback moth on crucifers in East Africa to other African regions
Belize: Country Technical Note on Indigenous Peoples Issues
To facilitate policy implementation at the country level, IFAD‟s Policy on Engagement with Indigenous Peoples (2009) recommended that Country Technical Notes be prepared to provide country-specific information on indigenous peoples, as well as to contribute to the development of country programme strategies and project design.
IFAD in the Philippines' Cordilleras
Research Series Issue 19 - Measuring Women's Empowerment in Agriculture: A Streamlined Approach
The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) can be a useful tool to measure the empowerment, agency and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector. However, computing the WEAI in its current form involves large data requirements, resulting in lengthy surveys with several questions on various dimensions and indicators within each dimension. This paper proposes a reduced version of the WEAI, or the R-WEAI, and examines two possible approaches to reduce the data requirements while ensuring comparability to the full WEAI.
Smallholder agriculture, environment and climate change
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
Foundations of project M&E in rural development
In recent years, the purpose of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) has shifted from assessing the use of resources and the implementation of project activities, to measuring the contributions a project is making to specific development outcomes for both men and women. The aim of this course is to provide guidance on good practices in project-based monitoring and evaluation for IFAD-funded projects in the Asia and the Pacific region.
This course will help M&E officers develop a foundational understanding of the concepts and tools that are necessary to design an M&E system that embraces a gender-responsive approach within a Results Based Management framework.
The goal of the course is to improve knowledge of the principles and tools that will increase staff capacity to apply a gender-sensitive and results-based approach to project monitoring and evaluation.
There are three modules in this course:
1. The concepts and principles of an engendered Results Based Management approach to M&E
2. A core planning tool called the Logical Framework Approach
3. Key planning approaches, tools and methods recommended for project monitoring and evaluation
It will take about five hours to complete the entire course.
This e-learning course was developed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) as part of the Asian Project Management Support Programme (APMAS).
The Marine Advantage: Empowering coastal communities, safeguarding marine ecosystems
Agriculture and fisheries, the backbone of food security and nutrition for coastal communities and globally, are under threat.
Proceedings of the Third Global Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples Forum at IFAD, 10-13 February 2017
Research Series Issue 18 - Do agricultural support and cash transfer programmes improve nutritional status?
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.
United Kingdom and IFAD
Remittances and microfinance networks
2017 RIDE infographic
South-South and Triangular Cooperation - Highlights from IFAD Portfolio
Impact Assessment: Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP)
The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) aimed to foster market-driven development of the informal dairy sector in Kenya.
Impact assessment: Project to Support Development in the Menabe and Melaky Regions
Remote sensing for index insurance - Findings and lessons learned for smallholder agriculture
Research Series Issue 17 - Population age structure and sex composition in sub-Saharan Africa: A rural-urban perspective
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.
Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Forum IFAD’s Medium-term Cooperation Programme with Farmers’ Organizations Phase Two (MTCP2)
the Pacific (MTCP) as well as in Africa with the Support to Farmers’ Organizations in Africa Programme (SFOAP).
Grant Results Sheet ILRI - Enhancing dairy- based livelihoods in India and Tanzania through feed innovation and value chain development approaches
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.
Investing in rural people in the Dominican Republic
Investing in rural people in Brazil
Investing in rural people in Mexico
Madagascar - Étude de cas L’Union et les associations d’usagers des eaux (AUE) de Migodo I
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.
Highlights of the IFPRI and IFAD partnership
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.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017
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.
Advancing rural women’s empowerment
Gender equality and the empowerment of women are prerequisites for the eradication of poverty and hunger. First and foremost, gender inequalities and discrimination represent fundamental violations of the human rights of women. In addition, it is well recognized that gender inequality and discrimination undermine agricultural productivity globally,1 negatively impact children’s health and nutrition, and erode outcomes across social and economic development indicators.
Much work on rural women’s empowerment has focused on the need to expand women’s access to productive resources, which can allow them to increase their productivity. However, much more attention needs to be directed at underlying gender inequalities such as gender-biased institutions, social norms, and customs that negatively impact women’s work (paid and unpaid), livelihoods and well-being. Within food systems, these biases manifest themselves in limiting women’s access to productive resources, to services (such as finance and training), to commercial opportunities and social protection (including maternity protection). These manifestations may be regarded as symptoms, therefore, rather than drivers, of gender inequality.
The Nutrition Advantage: Harnessing nutrition co-benefits of climate-resilient agriculture
Climate change and malnutrition are among the greatest problems in the twentyfirst century; they are “wicked problems”, difficult to describe, with multiple causes, and no single solution.
Annual report on Investigation and Anticorruption Activities during 2016
In 2016, the Office of Audit and Oversight (AUO) and its Investigation Section (IS) played a critical role in upholding IFAD’s zero-tolerance stance towards corruption, fraud and misconduct. AUO ensured a timely and effective response to alleged wrongdoing by completing its investigative actions for 56 complaints during the year – a closure rate much higher than in previous years – and generally ensuring a prompt and effective conclusion to issues.
Anticorruption awareness outreach was intensified through AUO participation in regional and other events, the pilot launch of an anticorruption e-learning module, celebration of International Anticorruption Day and increased coordination with the Financial Management Services Division (FMD), the Ethics Office (ETH) and the Programme Management Department (PMD). Investigative and sanctions processes were improved through revised procedures and AUO investigation capacity was strengthened through new forensic tools and segregated physical and IT environments.
Investing in rural people in Argentina
In Argentina, IFAD helps reduce rural poverty by investing in smallholder farmer organisations and indigenous communities to increase their income. The country programme strategy (2016-2021) is based on national priorities and has three strategic objectives focusing on income and strategic opportunities; human and social capital; and institutional development.
The strategy emphasizes the central role farmer and community organizations play in rural transformation processes. Key activities include:
• bolstering the economic sustainability of families and organizations by improving and diversifying productive activities, building resilience, improving their negotiating power in value chains, and promoting good nutritional practices
• strengthening the capacity of poor rural people and organizations by improving their managerial capacity, socio-economic condition, and their ability to engage in dialogue with the public sector
• building the capacity of government institutions to support rural development.
How to do note: Poverty targeting, gender equality and empowerment during project design
IFAD Results Series Issue 2
This issue presents and analyses experiences from the following IFAD-funded projects and programmes:
Ethiopia: Pastoral Community Development Project; Nepal: Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme; Palestine: Participatory Natural Resource Management Programme; Peru: Project for Strengthening Assets, Markets and Rural Development in the Northern Highlands (Sierra Norte); Sierra Leone: Rehabilitation and Community-based Poverty Reduction Project
Rules of procedure of the Executive Board (2017)
IFAD and you: delivering results
IFAD has a unique mandate and unmatched experience working in remote areas where others don’t go, and where poverty is most entrenched. IFAD-supported projects work directly with the most marginalized and disadvantaged people.
They focus on rural women, youth and indigenous communities. Our loans and grants enable developing countries to increase food production, create jobs and protect resources.
Research Series Issue 16 - Getting the most out of impact evaluation for learning, reporting and influence
Myanmar - Connecting rural people to knowledge, resources and markets
With Fostering Agricultural Revitalization in Myanmar (FARM), the first project it has financed in Myanmar, IFAD is scaling up the best parts of regional and global projects, both its own and those of other organizations. For example, FARM has introduced a new method to complement pre-existing extension services.
This is benefiting both farmers and landless microentrepreneurs across the project area. At the heart of FARM’s innovation is the establishment of Knowledge Centres (KCs). Built on the structure and network of public extension services, the KCs are staffed by a ministry extension worker – the KC Manager. The KC Manager brings together farmers and microentrepreneurs in common interest groups, and helps them make the most of newly available extension services.
Policy brief: Investing in rural livelihoods to eradicate poverty and create shared prosperity
Investing in inclusive and sustainable rural transformation is strategically important for the 2030 Agenda. This has been broadly recognized in debates about the SDGs, particularly the roles of sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition in relation to SDG2, the eradication of hunger. It is important to recognize that the eradication of hunger is inseparable from the eradication of poverty in all its forms (SDG1).
While poverty is often the main driver of food insecurity and malnutrition, hunger and malnutrition also result in the inability to escape poverty. Investments targeted at rural people are needed not only to ensure no one is left behind, but also to unlock the catalytic role that inclusive rural transformation has been shown to play in reducing and eradicating poverty and hunger, as well as promoting wider prosperity.
Research Series Issue 15 - Remittances, growth and poverty reduction in Asia
Remittances have increased in low-income and lower- middle-income countries in recent years, playing an important role as a stable source of finance at the macro-level, and in poverty reduction at the micro-level.
Drawing on a critical review of the literature and econometric analyses based on cross-country panel data, this study examines the relationships among remittances, growth and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific and highlights policy implications to be considered by governments and policy-makers.
The Republic of Korea and IFAD: working for food security and rural development
IFAD and the 2030 Agenda: Transforming rural lives: building a prosperous and sustainable future for all
Despite much progress – extreme poverty has been halved since the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted in 1990 – there are still 767 million extremely poor people in the world, and more than 75 per cent of them live in the rural areas of developing countries. Population increases and rising incomes are creating a growing demand for food, which creates both opportunities and challenges for people working in rural areas, including in smallholder agriculture and in the non-farm economy. Rising agricultural productivity, more jobs off the farm and migration are reshaping rural lives, but so too are climate change, environmental degradation, conflict and forced displacement.
IFAD’s experience in developing countries over the past 40 years clearly shows that investing in rural people leads to poverty reduction and economic growth that go beyond agriculture and rural areas. IFAD’s 2016 Rural Development Report presented evidence that inclusive and sustainable rural transformation is fundamental to economic and social growth, and to poverty reduction at the national level.
Policy brief: Promoting integrated and inclusive rural-urban dynamics and food systems
It is well recognized that with higher incomes and urbanization, patterns of demand for food change and expand – potentially creating new opportunities for food producers in many of today’s developing countries. It is not always equally well recognized that much of the urban expansion involves the growth of (often previously rural) towns, with these settlements retaining many of their rural characteristics.
The continued prevalence of small-scale farming in local livelihoods – albeit increasingly buttressed by increasingly dynamic non-farm sectors – remains a feature of many of these so-called “urban” settlements. Notably, small towns and cities of less than 500,000 inhabitants now represent the largest share of the global urban population, with the majority of the projected urban growth in the decades ahead to be absorbed by these centres.
Policy brief - Promoting integrated and inclusive rural-urban dynamics and food systems
IFAD Annual Report 2016
Learn about IFAD's work, investments and results in our 2016 Annual Report. Read stories about the rural women and men we empower, and get the facts and figures we share regularly with our Member States and partners. You can also learn more about our advocacy efforts to keep the needs of rural communities at the top of the international development agenda.
IFAD and the future_Striking at the roots of poverty and hunger
Famine, conflict, forced migration, poverty, hunger, inequality, drought, climate change.
To solve the greatest problems facing humanity, we must start at the bottom: with the underlying causes that are most difficult to alter, and with the most disadvantaged people who are most at risk and hardest to reach. These are the women and men who grow food, yet go hungry themselves: the small family farmers, traders, labourers, fishers, hunters and gatherers who are too often on the sidelines of modern value chains.
For four decades, only one organization has specialized in reaching these people. IFAD is that organization. A UN agency and an international financial institution – and the only such organization dedicated exclusively to rural areas. A people-centred organization that fights poverty and hunger hand-in-hand with families and communities. A fund that comes not just with advice and recommendations,
Remittances, investments and the Sustainable Development Goals: recommended actions
In 2015, Member States of the United Nations issued a call to action to eradicate global poverty, reduce economic inequality and place the world on a more sustainable pathway: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Research Series Issue 14 - Disbursement performance of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
This paper investigates the trends and the influencing factors of IFAD’s project disbursement performance over the past 20 years. Based on data from 577 projects in 111 countries, the study finds that disbursement of funds are often delayed and time-consuming.
Using econometric analysis, the study assesses the internal and external factors affecting the amount and timeliness of disbursements, and provides important lessons on how international financial institutions such as IFAD can better monitor and manage this important aspect of their development effectiveness.
International Day of Family Remittances Brochure - Endorsements in 2017
The International Day of Family Remittances recognizes the efforts of millions of migrants to improve the lives of their families and to create a future of hope for their children. Remittances – the money that is sent home by migrants – help to sustain 800 million people and are a major contributor to development. Some 40 per cent of remittances go to rural areas, where poverty and hunger are concentrated.
Sustainable Food Value Chains for Nutrition
Toolkit: Poverty targeting, gender equality and empowerment
Burundi IAP factsheet
Policy brief - Investing in rural livelihoods to eradicate poverty and create shared prosperity
Sending Money Home: Contributing to the SDGs, one family at a time
This report provides data and analysis of remittances and migration trends for developing countries over the past decade, as well as the potential contributions of remittance families to reaching the SDGs by 2030.
Global Forum on Remittances, Investments and Development 2017 - agenda
Grant Results Sheet CABI - Plantwise A country-based approach to improve farmer livelihoods
Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa experience losses equivalent to 30- 40 per cent of total yields due to pests that attack their crops.
They need help to diagnose the problem and identify practical, economic, feasible and environmentally safe measures to deal with them.
The goal of this programme was to significantly increase the productivity of key crops and/or improve household incomes for smallholder farmers by establishing plant clinics and training plant doctors.
Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development 2017 - Recommendations
On 15 and 16 June 2017, on the occasion of the International Day of Family Remittances, over 350 practitioners from the public and private sectors gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the fifth Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development (GFRID). The participants had the opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities in the remittance market, and present innovative approaches and successful business models, framing the discussions around the role of migrants’ remittances and investment towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) by 2030.
Nigeria IAP factsheet
Five years of the AAF’S technical assistance facility
The Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) has a mandate to increase economic and physical access to food for low-income Africans by providing technical assistance to the portfolio companies of the African Agriculture Fund (AAF).
The AAF is a private equity fund created in response to the food security challenge across the continent, financed by African, European and US development finance institutions, and private investors. It is comprised of two funds; the AAF and a subsidiary Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Fund. As TAF enters its fifth year, this report reflects on the progress of 42 projects implemented to date through technical assistance to ten AAF portfolio companies.
Sustainable urbanization and inclusive rural transformation
security, territorial development, urban food planning, natural resource management or infrastructure.
Nutrition Mainstreaming in East and Southern Africa: Operational approaches
Research Series Issue 13 - Graduation models for rural financial inclusion
Graduation out of chronic poverty has recently been receiving considerable attention by the global development community for its potential synergies with social protection, microfinance and livelihoods development approaches to poverty reduction.
This paper examines the evidence regarding the effectiveness of graduation strategies in reducing extreme poverty, with a focus on rural households, and proposes a new analytical framework to support future work on graduation as a learning and adaptation process in development practice.
Research Series Issue 12 - An evidence-based assessment of IFAD’s end-of-project reporting
Project Completion Reports (PCRs) are a critical tool for development organizations, both for accountability purposes, and as a means of learning from project experience to inform the design of future operations. This paper analyses a sample of PCRs from IFAD to assess the extent to which evidence is used to determine a project's effectiveness in bringing about development.
The report finds that most claims on results are not supported by evidence, and discusses implications for the objective measurement of development effectiveness.
The JP RWEE pathway to women’s empowerment
Gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls is a pre-condition for the eradication of poverty and essential to achieve progress across all goals and targets set by the Sustainable Development Agenda. The JP RWEE facilitates transformation through rural women’s leadership, making gender equality and women’s empowerment a reality. Support to women's economic empowerment allows for increased influence, education and information for women to decide the use of their income, savings and loans, and the ability to make decisions about their life.
IFAD’s approach to policy engagement
Grant Results Sheet RAIN Foundation Rainwater for food security, setting an enabling environment
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is often overlooked as a source of water supply. Yet it holds great potential to address the ever-increasing shortages of water globally. The huge potential of RWH for multiple-use services, such as food production, soil and water conservation and water, sanitation and hygiene, has not been adequately recognized, and certainly not implemented, as a solution for water problems on a wider and larger scale.
RWH initiatives are still too scattered and the lessons and results not shared. Policies, legal regulations and government budgets often do not include RWH in integrated water resource management and poverty reduction strategies.
A decade of IFAD’s engagement with indigenous peoples
Over the past ten years, formal recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples has significantly advanced, beginning with the adoption in 2007 by the United Nations General Assembly of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). With more than 30 years of experience working with indigenous peoples, IFAD empowers communities to participate fully in determining strategies for their development and to pursue their own goals and visions. Over the last decade, IFAD has taken steps to support indigenous peoples’ control of their own development efforts.
This publication touches on the evolution of IFAD’s engagement with indigenous peoples through the voices and perspectives of the people who worked together in this process of change. In line with the approach of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind, the IFAD Strategic Framework 2016-2025 reaffirms IFAD’s commitment to indigenous peoples’ self-driven development. The quotes and pictures contained here were gathered during the third global meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, at IFAD from 10 to 13 February 2017.
ASAP Mozambique factsheet
A recent study by the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC)1 of Mozambique suggests that within ten years the impact of climate change will be increasingly felt within the Limpopo Corridor. The soil moisture content before the onset of the rains is set to decrease and higher temperatures and droughts are expected to increase in the southern region.
The goal of PROSUL is to improve the livelihoods and climate resilience of smallholder farmers in selected districts of the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors.
Grant Result Sheet ICRAF - Strengthening rural institutions
The programme, referred to as the Strengthening Rural Institutions (SRI) project, was implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Eastern and Southern Africa Region from 2011 to 2014. The project aimed to bring about a sustainable rural transformation process by strengthening the “institutional infrastructure” for integrated natural resource management, food security and poverty alleviation in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The project’s main goal was to support grassroots organizations to meaningfully participate in governance processes where their livelihoods and well-being, and the environment, are at stake, with an emphasis on enabling poor rural households to aggregate, mobilize and access rural services.
Grant Results Sheet UNESCO - Spate irrigation for rural economic growth and poverty alleviation
The goal of this programme was to develop spate irrigation policies and programmes, based on action research and documented practical experiences, that contribute to rural poverty alleviation and accelerated economic growth in marginal areas in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen.
Specific objectives: 1. Strengthen networks in the four countries. 2. Prepare country policy notes. 3. Implement two innovative action research activities per country that can be scaled up. 4. Further develop knowledge, including in local languages, and open-source knowledge-sharing. 5. Train four international MSc students. 6. Incorporate spate irrigation into programmes of universities and agricultural colleges in the four target countries. 7. Create a global inventory of spate irrigation and flood-based farming systems. 8. Provide technical backstopping to IFAD projects and country programmes.
Research Series Issue 11 - Food safety, trade, standards and the integration of smallholders into value chains
This paper analyses how food safety challenges and requirements affect smallholder farmers' access to markets. High food safety standards in destination countries force governments of developing countries to make strategic choices about establishing domestic standards and upgrading the infrastructure and knowledge base of smallholder farmers.
The paper suggests mechanisms that can be used to respond to these challenges, to enable smallholder inclusion in different markets.
Glossary on gender issues
IFAD Results Series Issue 1
This issue presents and analyses experiences from the following IFAD-funded projects and programmes:
Brazil: Sustainable Development Project for Agrarian Reform; Settlements in the Semi-arid North-east (Dom Hélder Câmara Project);
China: South Gansu Poverty Reduction Programme;
Ghana: Rural Enterprises Programme; Morocco: Rural Development Project in the Mountain Zones of Al-Haouz Province;
Uganda: Vegetable Oil Development Project.
Grant Result Sheet IWMI -Safe nutrients, water and energy recovery
The goal of this grant was to provide best business case options to producers and consumers to recover nutrients, water and energy from agricultural and domestic wastes for food security and food safety. The project sought to identify innovative market-driven and scalable approaches to enhance the sustainability of agricultural production considering environmental and health requirements of immediate users and end-consumers.
The development challenges were to: 1. identify and share pathways with relevant stakeholders to make business cases more replicable, scalable and sustainable; 2. strengthen national, regional and local stakeholder platforms (from agricultural and/or sanitation sectors) by extending their interest in knowledge of safe reuse as a business; 3. formulate initiatives from donors, government departments and/or the private sector in order to incorporate project results.
Grant Results Sheet CIMMYT - Understanding the adoption and application of conservation agriculture in southern Africa
The programme’s goals were to increase the food security of smallholder farm households in southern Africa and enhance their livelihoods while conserving and improving the natural resources used for agriculture.
The focus of the programme was on developing productive farming systems for smallholder farmers who managed maize-based systems, based on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA): increasing the profitability, sustainability and labour efficiency of agricultural production.
Grant Results Sheet IUCN - Enabling land management, resilient pastoral livelihoods and poverty reduction in Africa
Historically, pastoralists have been marginalized, and policies have been geared towards encouraging, and in some instances forcing, their settlement and sedentarization. Misunderstanding of their livelihoods has also led to abandonment of their customary institutions and practices. However, scientific evidence shows that mobile pastoralism is the most sustainable way of using marginal lands (such as arid, cold and mountain areas). The project goal was “to develop sustainable land management and resilient livelihoods in rangeland environments”.
The objective of the project was to develop knowledge and build capacity for pastoral advocacy, create opportunity for pastoral advocacy and engage directly in policy dialogue, in order to promote policies and investments for sustainable management of rangeland environments and pastoral livelihoods. A significant aspect of the project was strengthening networking and building a global movement on sustainable pastoralism; this relied on the credibility and recognition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a science-based intergovernmental organization.
Grant Results Sheet OXFAM Novib - Community-led value chain development for gender justice and pro-poor wealth creation
This programme set out to empower 35,000 vulnerable women and men in rural value chains directly and another 65,000 indirectly through direct and peer capacity-building and action learning to negotiate a better position in value chains and achieve sustainable and equitable “win-win” collaboration between value chain stakeholders.
The programme aimed to adapt and integrate participatory action learning methodologies into the policies and practices of at least 10 civil society organizations (CSOs) and to disseminate them through e-forums and capacity- building events then to be taken up by other relevant IFAD and Oxfam projects, in countries such as Ghana, India and Sierra Leone. Knowledge institutes also contributed to participatory planning and gender mainstreaming in value chain research and training.
Journal of Law and Rural Development - Issue 1: Land governance
Research Series Issue 10 - Inclusive finance and inclusive rural transformation
This paper provides an overview of concepts, issues and research on the relationship between financial inclusion and inclusive rural transformation.
It demonstrates how changing demand for financial services, innovations in rural finance, and different investment strategies affect the interplay of supply and demand.
Research Series Issue 9 - Social protection and inclusive rural transformation
This paper analyses how different types of social protection interventions affect rural livelihoods. It examines how these interventions can help rural transformation by increasing productivity and asks how they can influence inclusiveness.
Using country-level evidence, it suggests that the effectiveness of social protection depends upon specific contexts and combinations of interventions, and asks what this means for building policy.
Household mentoring Handbook for Household Mentors: Project for Restoration of Livelihoods in the Northern Region (PRELNOR)
Investing in rural people in Nigeria
Grant Results Sheet PAMIGA - Responsible and sustainable growth for rural microfinance in sub-Saharan Africa
During the period covered by the project, the landscape of global microfinance was deeply modified and “the game has changed”. On the one hand, the saturation of the market has led to over-indebtedness of very poor clients, scandals and systemic crises that have swept the whole sector in some prominent countries. On the other hand, it has been difficult for the industry to demonstrate tangible impact and, therefore, show that it has delivered against its promises of lifting hundreds of millions of very poor people out of poverty.
In this challenging context, the project aimed to help unlock the economic potential in sub-Saharan Africa, by promoting the growth of existing financial intermediaries that serve rural areas (rural financial institutions, RFIs) so that local entrepreneurs could take advantage of new opportunities to be more productive and more competitive, and improve their living conditions sustainably.
Guide for Practitioners on ‘Institutional arrangements for effective project management and implementation’
Grant Results Sheet INBAR - Producing and selling charcoal - Income for women and benefits to the environment
The goal of the grant was to develop home-based production of charcoal from cooking with firewood into a new livelihood opportunity – and thus create a sustainable value chain for the economic empowerment of poor rural women.
Women from poor rural households in Ethiopia, India and Tanzania were trained to put out fires when they had finished cooking in order to prevent smouldering, and to collect household charcoal through collection clusters, process it into briquettes and market the output through innovative partnership-based enterprises.
Grant Results Sheet MIX - Improving performance monitoring and effectiveness in rural finance
Transparent performance reporting is a key requirement for effective resultsbased management of IFAD rural finance interventions. Better reporting, tracking and management have benefits throughout the entire IFAD project cycle, from design to implementation and learning from performance data, and for actors at different levels: partner financial service providers (FSPs); programme coordination units (PCUs); government policymakers; and IFAD decision makers and managers.
The goal of this initiative was to contribute to establishing an inclusive financial system that meets the needs of the rural poor by supporting the growth of healthy microfinance markets and microfinance service providers. Underpinning this goal is the notion that timely and credible information is critical to the functioning of markets.
Grant Results Sheet IWMI - Mainstreaming innovations and adoption processes from the CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food in IFAD’s portfolio
Investing in rural people in Nicaragua
• Inclusion. Access is facilitated to assets, markets and income-generating activities, and job opportunities increase.
• Productivity. Labour productivity is increased through incentives that facilitate access to information, technology and technical and financial services.
• Sustainability. Environmental, fiscal and institutional sustainability are improved.
ASAP Ethiopia factsheet
ASAP Malawi factsheet
Research Series Issue 8 - Fostering inclusive rural transformation in fragile states and situations
structural and rural transformation? (ii) In three selected case studies of diverse fragile situations (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Haiti and the Republic of the Sudan – drawing on IFAD financed programme and country experience), what have been the key elements of structural and rural transformation and to what extent has rural transformation been inclusive? (iii) In these cases, how does fragility affect the inclusiveness of rural transformation? Which policies and approaches can successfully promote inclusive rural transformation in
fragile situations?