Savoirs

Ghana has the third largest IFAD country programme in the West and Central Africa region. The programme contributes to building inclusive and
sustainable institutions, backed by pro-poor investments and policies as well as relevant innovation and learning. IFAD supports the main thrusts of the government’s Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda – including accelerated agricultural modernization, sustainable natural resource
management and enhanced private-sector competitiveness. 

Its work also aligns with Ghana’s Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan on food security, income growth and other programme areas related to rural poverty reduction.

Africa Regional Workshop in preparation for the Second Global Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD.

To address food security problems and soaring prices for basic commodities, in December 2008 the European Union launched a Food Facility totalling €1 billion spread over three years, from 2009 to 2011. Under this initiative, the regional programme IFAD-EU-ECOWAS Food Facility was established with a budget of €20 million. The regional programme covers a number of countries in West Africa.

To assure food security and protect the population from recurrent crises, countries dependent on foreign aid for much of their food supply, such as Benin, Mali, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, have designed strategies and programmes to support food security that are intended to increase food production through the intensification of strategic crops such as rice, cassava, yams and ground nuts, and widespread use of selected seeds and mineral fertilizers.

The indigenous population of the Republic of Congo (RC) include the Baka, Mbendjele, Mikaya, Luma, Gyeli, Twa and Babongo peoples. Depending on sources, these peoples represent a small minority of 1.25 to 10 percent of RC’s estimated population of 4.4 million, primarily of Bantu origin.

Young people are the future. But all too often in today’s world young women and men are marginalized and excluded – from decent employment and from crucial decisions about how to address the big challenges that face us all. Their voices are rarely heard in democratic debate and their needs and views are rarely reflected in policies and programmes. Yet more than ever the world needs young people’s ideas, their talents and their energy. In rural areas, we particularly need their drive and innovative skills to sustainably produce the food required by an increasingly populous and urbanized world.

La République du Niger a une population multi-ethnique, parmi laquelle, les Touareg, les Peulh et les Toubou s‘auto-identifient comme autochtones.

The DRC is a multi-ethnic country with some 250 ethnic groups, including several indigenous Pygmy groups.

Une grave crise alimentaire menace actuellement le sud du Soudan. En Afrique de l’Est, où des millions d’individus dépendent déjà de l’aide alimentaire, un fort renchérissement des denrées de base se profile à l’horizon. Ce n’est là qu’un des derniers exemples d’une période agitée qui a débuté il y a
deux ans, lorsque l’escalade mondiale des prix a provoqué des pénuries alimentaires dans de nombreux pays d’Afrique et d’Asie. La flambée des prix alimentaires a plongé dans une misère encore plus noire les pauvres, déjà aux prises avec mille difficultés pour satisfaire leurs besoins les plus élémentaires. Elle a laissé dans son sillage la crise financière mondiale, qui les a à nouveau pénalisés le plus durement. L’agriculture est le principal employeur, créateur d’emplois et exportateur de la plupart des pays en développement. D’un point de vue historique, elle est le moteur économique de nombreux pays, générant une croissance qui s’est avérée au moins deux fois plus efficace que celle d’autres secteurs pour la réduction de la pauvreté. Les investissements dans le développement agricole et rural sont par conséquent essentiels pour la sécurité alimentaire et un développement économique durable.

Le présent rapport se fonde sur les résultats d’une étude commandée par le FIDA et réalisée par Manuel Orozco, d’Inter-American Dialogue.

Over the past 12 months, large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have made headlines in a flurry of
media reports across the world. Lands that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest are now being sought by international investors to the tune of
hundreds of thousands of hectares. And while a failed attempt to lease 1.3 million ha in Madagascar has attracted much media attention, deals
reported in the international press constitute the tip of the iceberg. This is rightly a hot issue because land is so central to identity, livelihoods and food security.

Many rural development efforts in Western and Central Africa have focused on how to improve poor farmers’ yields. But better yields have not always translated into greater incomes. As the use of cassava has grown, the role of efficient markets and a better coordinated cassava chain have become increasingly important to producers and processors who depend on a stable cassava sector for income.