المعرفة

Smallholder farmers are the backbone of the
rural economy – but they are bearing the brunt
of climate change. Worldwide, there are
500 million smallholder farms supporting some
2 billion people. These farmers inhabit
some of the most at-risk landscapes, including
hillsides, deserts and floodplains. Climate change
multiplies the threats facing smallholders, endangering
the natural assets they depend on and accelerating
environmental degradation.

Food price trends have a major impact on food security,
at both household and country levels. Many of the world’s
poorest people spend more than half their income on food.
Price hikes for cereals and other staples can force them
to cut back on the quantity or quality of their food.
This may result in food insecurity and malnutrition,
with tragic implications in both the short and long term.
Undernourishment increases disease and mortality, lowers
productivity and can have severe lifelong effects, particularly
for children. Price spikes can also limit the ability of poor
households to meet important non-food expenses, such
as education and health care. When they occur globally,
price hikes can affect low-income, food importing
countries, putting pressure on their limited financial
resources. Higher food prices have a particularly negative
impact on food security when prices spike suddenly or
reach extremely high levels.

Plus de 35 ans sont passés depuis la première conférence mondiale de la femme des Nations Unies au Mexique en 1975, et de nombreuses autres conférences et événements se sont succédés, avec comme résultats des engagements politiques, des documents d’action et des
recommandations. 

Malgré cela, nous sommes loin de pouvoir affirmer que l’objectif d’égalité entre les sexes ait été atteint. En ce qui concerne les pays en voie du développement, le Sommet mondial du développement social, en 1995 a été déterminant. C’est alors que le monde a pris conscience de la nécessité d’établir des indicateurs pour pouvoir analyser la situation des femmes dans le monde à diverses échelles.

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.

The case study in Sudan, undertaken in the framework of the Initiative for Mainstreaming Innovation (IMI), analyzed training and skills development activities in the IFAD-supported Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project (GSLRP).

The study is an assessment of the type of capacity building and training that can be implemented in an area of great poverty using innovative approaches in community development and training. It illustrates the kind of impact that is possible at individual and community level.

IFAD commissioned this Rwanda case study, through an IMI initiative, to document the diversity of approaches of training and skills development, particularly to assess relevance, effectiveness and efficiency, outcomes and challenges with respect to the following key components:
(i) Targeting and transition to employment or business creation; (ii) Types of training and providers; (iii) Transfer of knowledge and sustainability. The objective of this study is to present the experience of IFAD in technical vocational and skills development in the context of Rwanda and by doing so, highlight the innovative features and lessons learnt for further replication.

This study was commissioned as part of IFAD’s Initiative for Mainstreaming Innovation (IMI) with the objective of learning lessons from IFAD experience in Bangladesh regarding training and capacity building, and so to improve the effectiveness of training for social development, capacity building, technology dissemination and innovation.

IFAD’s efforts to promote the innovations launched by its programmes are illustrated here with an analysis of activities to strengthen non-agricultural rural apprenticeships under the Support Programme for Rural Microenterprise Poles and Regional Economies (PROSPERER) and the future Vocational Training and Agricultural Productivity Improvement Programme (FORMAPROD)1 in Madagascar.

This paper reports on the major findings of a study on innovations in training and capacity building developed within the Rural Opportunities Programme of Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Brochure highlighting explaining the content and functions of the RemittancesGateway.org portal - a one-stop shop providing the latest news, information, documents and statistical data from a broad range of institutions and stakeholders on the subject of remittance flows. 

One of IFAD’s most significant
partnerships is with the Member States
of the OPEC and the OIC.1 These
countries, spread over three geographic
regions – the Near East and North
Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia –
have been active partners and strong
supporters of IFAD, both as
contributing countries and as recipients
of financing for development projects.
IFAD also works in close partnership
with many Arab and Islamic
development institutions and funds in
the financing, design, implementation
and monitoring of its rural
development projects.
The long-term partnership between
IFAD and OIC Member States and
institutions has, in recent years, taken
on greater significance than ever
before. The challenges are greater than
they were three decades ago when
IFAD was first established. But the
opportunities for making an even
bigger impact on the lives of the poor
rural people are well within our grasp.

When women are economically and socially
empowered, they become a potent force for change.
In rural areas of the developing world, women play
a key role in running households and make major
contributions to agricultural production. But the
inequalities that exist between women and men make it
difficult for women to fulfil their potential.

El programa de encadenamientos empresariales de AGEXPORT tiene como objectivo principal la generación de empleo e ingresos en comunidades en condiciones  de pobreza de Guatemala por medio de la creación de negocios exitosos basados en la asistencia técnica especializada, inteligencia de mercados, promoción comercial, capacitación e inovación tecnológica, una visión de manejo sostenible de los recursos naturales.

On previously barren land in the Egyptian desert, Ahmad Abdelmunem Al-Far and his fellow farmers are showing how market-oriented agriculture can transform lives and move people out of poverty.

Today’s generation of young people – defined by the United Nations as those aged 15 to 24 – is the largest in history. In the developing world as a whole, they make up on average 20 per cent of the population.
Young people have power and persistence. In the right conditions, a substantial young generation offers countries a priceless resource for economic development and social progress. However, in the current climate and for differing reasons, many developed and developing countries are struggling to provide their young people with a future, either in cities or in rural areas.

The global population is projected to rise from its present level of 6.9 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050. An estimated 1 billion people already are going hungry, and young rural people are increasingly disillusioned about working in the agricultural sector, which in many countries is stagnant and unproductive. So the question must be asked: Who is going to feed this growing world population?

Nearly 1.4 billion people live on less than US$1.25 a day. Seventy per cent live in rural areas where they depend on agriculture, but where they are also at risk from recurrent natural disasters such as drought and flooding. Natural disasters have a devastating impact on the food security and overall social and economic development of poor rural households. 

According to data from Munich Re’s NatCatSERVICE, natural disasters account for losses, on average, of US$51 billion in developing countries every year. Unless well managed, weather risks in agriculture slow development and hinder poverty reduction, ultimately resulting in humanitarian crises. Poor farmers have few options for coping with significant losses, and in order to reduce their exposure to risk, they often forgo opportunities to increase their productivity. 

 

Pursuant to the adoption by the Executive Board in December 2005 of the IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption in its Activities and Operations (EB 2005/85/R.5/Rev.1, paragraph 26) (the anticorruption policy), the Investigation Section of the Office of Audit and Oversight (AUO/IS) has a mandate to investigate alleged irregular practices, namely: (i) fraud and corruption, in relation to entities, contractors and non-staff individuals applying for or participating in an IFAD-financed project or headquarters-related contract; and (ii) staff misconduct. Implementation of this policy and the subsequent establishment of a Sanctions Committee have aligned IFAD with best practices applied by other United Nations agencies and the major multilateral development banks in this area.

In 2010 there were some indicators that the proactive anticorruption awarenessraising activities undertaken by AUO/IS in past years were bearing fruit. An increase in complaints received by AUO/IS in 2010, discussed in more detail below, could reasonably be attributed, at least in part, to training and anticorruption presentations given by staff of the Investigation Section. AUO/IS also noted the excellent response in 2010 from Programme Management Department (PMD) staff with regard to reporting allegations and in terms of cooperation afforded to the Section.

Young women and men who live in rural areas are the world’s future farmers, entrepreneurs and leaders. The challenges of meeting future food demand, developing vibrant rural centres and promoting broad-based economic growth in developing countries depend on them. These are compelling reasons to place rural young people and smallholder agriculture at the forefront of global strategies for food security, poverty reduction and income growth.

“The problem today is that no matter how hard you work, it’s never enough to feed the family…” “For about a year, perhaps more, there have been no rains… That is why people are suffering…” “Without education a person can do nothing…” “The men have left to work outside the village. The main labour force here is women…” These are first-hand accounts of just a few of the men, women and young people who were interviewed for this report. Their stories give us vital insight into what it is like to live in today’s changing reality of rural poverty. Listening to their experiences – and learning from them – is essential if we are to comprehend that reality. And it is the first step in identifying appropriate and effective solutions to turn rural areas from backwaters into places where the young people of today can find opportunities to work their way out of poverty, and where they will want to live and to raise their own children. We need a clear understanding of what the face of poverty looks like now, a basket of practical solutions to today’s myriad challenges and a coherent approach for tackling the evolving challenges of the future. This report provides all three. IFAD’s Rural Poverty Report 2011 – New realities, new challenges: new opportunities for tomorrow’s generation, is an in-depth study of rural poverty. The findings in the report come from a collaboration among dozens of experts in the field of poverty reduction – both inside and outside IFAD. They also come from the poor rural people themselves.

IFAD works for and with the poorest people in Viet Nam, including ethnic minorities, small-scale farmers and households headed by women. Strategies to reduce poverty and improve living conditions include building partnerships, strengthening institutional capacity and promoting participation. IFAD works with the government and other partners to empower poor rural people so they can have a role in decisionmaking.

To do this, IFAD finances programmes and projects that focus on developing and testing innovative approaches to poverty reduction that can be replicated and scaled up by the government and other agencies. Interventions are area-based and multisectoral. They target regions where poverty reduction is a priority.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has for many years stressed innovation, knowledge and scaling up as essential ingredients
of its strategy to combat rural poverty in developing countries. This institutional review of IFAD’s approach to scaling up is the fi rst of its kind: A team
of development experts were funded by a small grant from IFAD to assess IFAD’s track record in scaling up successful interventions, its operational policies and
processes, instruments, resources and incentives, and to provide recommendations to management for how to turn IFAD into a scaling-up institution. Beyond IFAD,
this institutional scaling up review is a pilot exercise that can serve as an example for other development institutions.

Desertification occurs when the tree and plant cover that binds the soil is removed. It occurs when trees and bushes are stripped away for fuelwood and timber, or to clear land for cultivation. It occurs when animals eat away grasses and erode topsoil with their hooves. It occurs when intensive farming depletes the nutrients in the soil.

Wind and water erosion aggravate the damage, carrying away topsoil and leaving behind a highly infertile mix of dust and sand. It is the combination of these factors
that transforms degraded land into desert.

Learn about IFAD's work and results in the 2009 Annual Report. This includes stories about the rural people we invest in, and covers our advocacy to keep the needs of rural communities at the top of the international development agenda. The Report also provides the facts and figures we regularly share with our Member States and partners.

As a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries, IFAD supports programmes and projects with strong natural resource management components. In particular, efforts to combat deforestation, soil degradation and desertification are central to IFAD’s operations. All country strategic opportunities papers, which guide IFAD’s lending and grant activities in each
country, give attention to an integrated approach to improving livelihoods through better access to natural resources and their sustainable management.

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.

This publication looks back at three decades of experiences in introducing labour-saving technologies and practices to rural women and persisting gender discrimination in access and control. It also takes into account major developments in science, technology and innovation over the last several years and shows they can benefi t women.

Drawing on a literature review, this report examines a range of business models that can be used to structure agricultural investments in lower- and middle-income countries, and that provide an alternative to large-scale land acquisitions. A business model is the way in which a company structures its resources, partnerships and customer relationships in order to create and capture value – in other words, a business model is what enables a company to make money. Business models are considered as more inclusive if they involve close working partnerships with local landholders and operators, and if they share value among the partners.

This report was prepared for informing IFAD‘s Country Strategic Opportunities Program (COSOP) 2012 – 2017 for Viet Nam. In preparation of this report a brainstorming workshop was held on 9 May 2011 in Hanoi bringing together key national research institutes working on climate change (CC) and environment related issues, ministries of agriculture and environment and bilateral and multilateral donors.