Knowledge

In Yemen, a community-led project for fostering women's empowerment has imporoved the food security of thousands of landless and smallholder famers living in the poorest areas of the country.  

From 2004 to late 2012, the Dhamar Participatory Rural Development Project, cofunded by IFAD and the Government of Yemen, addressed the needs of the rural population in the Dhamar Governorate.  By ensuring the participation of rural people in the decision-making processes and income-generating activities, the project improved the food security of substience farmers and their families in the villages of Dhamar.

In Syria, large areas of degraded land have been turned into arable land thanks to several IFAD projects that managed to combine the sheer power of bulldozers with the long-term commitment of farmers.

In Syria, a sanduq – a local microfinance institution owned and managed by its members – provides much needed loans to poor rural people, with particular attention to women.

In Somalia, much-needed sources of underground water were identified by using advanced geophysical surveys in those same areas where previous trial-and-error drilling had delivered no results.

In Armenia, Macedonia and Moldova, low-cost refinancing capital makes rural investments attractive and profitable for local banks, and reduces rural poverty by stimulating economic growth.

In Macedonia, IFAD trained individuals to become agricultural advisors and assisted them in establishing private companies that today operate in the market for agricultural development services.

In Jordan, the success of a project co-funded by IFAD largely rested on how quickly rural women were able to learn about borrowing money and setting up and running their own small enterprises.

A Holistic Approach to Farming Research In Egypt, land productivity was improved by an IFAD project that created strong links between farmers, research and extension, and raised resource-use efficiency by integrating crops and livestock. The governorates of Fayoum, Beni Sueif and Minia in Upper Egypt extend for about 200 km along the Nile. In this area, land productivity is low and the potential for bringing additional land into production is limited. The only options available to raise the incomes of rural people living in the area are to improve land productivity and intensify land use. This is what an IFAD project has done through a project consisting of three main elements: 1) agricultural research; 2) the dissemination of research findings through extension activity; and 3) the provision of credit necessary to adopt new technologies. The project established an innovative Farming System Research Unit (FSRU), which operated with a holistic approach. That is to say, the FSRU carried out research activities that were adapted to farmers’ real needs and closely linked to extension delivery, and broadened its focus to include livestock – a relatively neglected area in Egypt.

The primary objective of the project was to promote innovative approaches and ICT-based technologies for timely transfer of weather, water-and crop related information and advice to relevant end users in Africa for informed decision-making and enhanced negotiation capacity with water and farm-related service providers.

This policy reinforces IFAD’s position as a leader in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in agricultural and rural development. It builds on IFAD’s experience and achievements in field operations and in the broader policy arena in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. The policy will provide IFAD with strategic guidance in systematizing, intensifying and scaling up its efforts to close gender gaps and improve the economic and social status of rural women in rapidly changing rural environments.