In The Gambia, women often farm on degraded, unproductive land. The more fertile land is usually reserved for men. But things are changing.

Like thousands of poor farmers living on the slopes of East Mount Kenya, Christine Mugure Munene used to depend on seasonal rains to water her crops. Now she has water whenever she wants.

Small-scale fishing communities in Mozambique struggle to eke out a living in remote areas with depleting resources. An IFAD-supported project has helped build artisanal fishers' capacity to improve their livelihoods while reducing pressure on resources, and to link with higher authorities to ensure that their concerns are voiced at the ministerial level.

In rural households throughout the developing world, women and girls work hard each day to protect their families' basic rights to nutrition, health and well-being. Research shows that they comprise 43 per cent of all smallholder farmers and spend an average of 20 per cent more time than men working on agricultural and domestic chores. Yet they have far less control over the land they cultivate or the income they earn.

In many ways, Niger is a country on the edge. Geographically, its productive farmland is confined to a narrow, semi-arid band across the south. Politically, it remains stable in the wake of peaceful elections held last year, but crises in neighbouring Libya, Mali and northern Nigeria have driven thousands of refugees across its borders. Socially and economically, its human development indicators are low, and it is among the poorest nations in the world.

A statement of intent to build a stronger partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) means improved support for the world's smallholder farmers.

As popular discontent swept across much of the Arab world over the past year, some observers were puzzled. “How is it,” asked the World Bank’s World Development Report 2011, “that countries in the Middle East and North Africa could face explosions of popular grievances despite, in some cases, sustained high growth and improvement in social indicators?”

"When the massacres began in 1993 we were forced to take sides, seeking protection with either the government or the rebels", says Jean-Claude Sindayihebura, who is from Burambi in Bururi province.