المعرفة

Learn more about IFAD’s work to promote rural transformation in our 2007 Annual Report. Discover how our investments are empowering rural women and men, and review the facts and figures we share with our Member States and partners. You can also find out more about our advocacy work on behalf of rural communities worldwide.

As part of its obligations undertaken to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, IFAD committed itself to enabling the rural poor to help themselves out of poverty by increasing theirorganizational capacity to influence institutions of relevance to rural poverty reduction (policies, laws and regulations).

As a result, IFAD has embarked upon a process to strengthen its own organizational competencies in institutional analysis and dialogue.
This sourcebook is an attempt to complement and further this process. It has been written keeping in mind the needs of country programme managers, as well as consultants working with IFAD.

Large, well-constructed ‘agro-wells’ are making farming profitable for farmers living in dry areas of Sri Lanka. Farmers in the dry areas of the district of Matale benefited from the Regional Economic Advancement Project (REAP) from 1999 to 2007.

REAP was mostly funded by a loan of US$11.7 million from IFAD to the Government of Sri Lanka. The project had a total budget of US$14.5 million,
and benefited some 30,000 households.

A major activity of REAP’s subcomponent on soil conservation and water management was assistance to the poorest farmers to enable them to
construct agro-wells for irrigation purposes. This activity was started in 2001.

IFAD has been working closely with the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD) since they were established in July 2001, seeking new ways to combat rural
poverty across the continent. African leaders created NEPAD to promote sustainable development
and strengthen efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the international
community’s time-bound targets to meet the needs of the world’s poorest people. Within the
framework of NEPAD, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was
prepared in June 2002.

The main objectives of IFAD’s operations in the country are to improve food security and family nutrition. Since 1980, IFAD has supported agricultural development by investing a total of US$64.3 million in seven programmes and projects to reduce poverty in the country’s rural areas.
Normally, Lesotho is not in a position to grow enough food to feed its growing population. 

Offsetting the effects on poor households of declining agricultural production, IFAD investments support the efforts of small-scale farmers to ensure food security for their families and improve their incomes. Increased productivity is a key to achieving these aims and to reducing poverty in rural areas. IFAD finances programmes and projects that encourage poor people’s participation in the planning and development of income-generating activities, including microenterprises.

In 2004 and 2005, IFAD underwent a comprehensive Independent External Evaluation (IEE). The evaluation was conducted to determine IFAD’s contribution to rural poverty reduction, examine the relevance of its mission and objectives, assess its corporate learning and performance, and make recommendations on policy directions and steps to improve IFAD’s performance. It was, at the time, probably the most ambitious exercise of its kind for a United Nations agency, breaking new ground in addressing institutional performance in terms of impact.