Knowledge

The overall objective of the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP) is the 1.reduction of poverty and sustained improvement in the standard of living of the population in the Lower Usuthu Basin through commercialization and intensification of agriculture. The immediate objectives of LUSIP Phase I were: (a) the integration of smallholder farmers into the commercial economy through the provision of irrigation infrastructure, development of the policy and legal framework for smallholder irrigation, as well as the establishment of farmer-managed irrigation institutions; and (b) sustainable improvement in environmental health in the project area to ensure that the population derives the full benefits of agricultural commercialisation.

In order to improve your knowledge in this key area, make sure you consult our new e-learning course.

Flash News for the IMI-funded project “Filling the intergenerational gap in knowledge on Agricultural Water Management: twinning Junior and Senior Experts”.

Gender and rural development brief with specific focus on the Near East and North Africa.

En la actualidad Latinoamérica presenta diferentes retos para promover el desarrollo rural de sus comunidades, combatir la escasez de agua y garantizar su seguridad alimentaria. En los últimos años, México ha sufrido una serie de eventos hidrometeorológicos que han generado graves daños sociales y económicos que requieren de importantes inversiones para permitir a las regiones afectadas regresar a su condición habitual. Esto ha hecho evidente la gran vulnerabilidad del país así como la importancia que juega la capacidad de adaptación de la nación o en otras palabras, la resiliencia del país.

Summary report on the workshop "Mainstreaming policy dialogue: from vision to action" organized by LAC and PTA on 17 October 2013.

IFAD has committed US$71.4 million in loans to Jordan since 1981 to support agricultural development and reduce rural poverty. The funds have been used in six agricultural development programmes and projects with a total value of US$189.3 million. 

The Government of Jordan and project participants have contributed US$63.2 million. The programmes and
projects are designed by IFAD in collaboration with rural people, the government and other partners. They address poverty through promotion of sustainable natural resource management, particularly water and soil conservation. A seventh project is being designed.

Gender and rural development brief with specific focus on the Pacific Islands.

This paper seeks to draw on both the positive aspects of current practice and the critiques that have been made, to propose an action plan for strengthening IFAD’s engagement in country level policy dialogue.

It outlines a set of broad principles underpinning IFAD’s approach, the first of which is the reaffirmation that policy engagement must be shaped and led by the CPM.

It also makes specific proposals for more effectively integrating country-level policy dialogue in IFAD country programmes; for improving IFAD’s monitoring, reporting and knowledge management on the subject; and for strengthening in-house capacity for country-level policy dialogue.  

Describes what IFAD and the Policy and Technical Advisory division are supporting country-level policy engagement.

It also summarizes past experience and explains how Country Programme Managers can access funds to engage in country-level policy dialogue.

An IFAD Supervision Mission visited the project from 20th June to 5th July 2013. The main 1.objectives of the supervision mission are to ensure that the development objectives of the projects are being met and to satisfy IFAD‟s fiduciary responsibilities, with a focus on: (i) assessment of the implementation progress of the project, including assessment of the achievement of outputs by component and outcome as per the logframe of the project; (ii) assistance to identify and remove implementation bottlenecks and constraints; and (iii) agree on a set of actions to be implemented by the project in the next six to twelve months period.

Today’s world is full of paradoxes, some of them grotesque – none more so than the fact that while 870 million people go hungry every day, a third of all food is lost or wasted. We marvel at the growth rates of middle-income countries, yet some of those countries are home to tens of millions of very poor people. About 75 per cent of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and mainly derive their livelihoods from agriculture, while producing over 80 per cent of the food consumed in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. Yet many are themselves net buyers of food.

Brochure illustrating IFAD's support to coffee value-chain development.

Small-scale producers in the development of tea value chain partnerships 

Brochure illustrating IFAD's support to cocoa value-chain development.

The thesis of this article is that governments of countries that plan their agricultural and rural development programmes on a large scale – typically covering the entire agriculture sector and including all or most of the important ingredients for agricultural growth and rural development – do better in terms of agricultural production and reduction of rural poverty and hunger than do country governments that do not invest broadly and at scale in such development.

Read about IFAD's results and impact in the 2012 Annual Report. The Report also tells the stories of the women and men we work with in rural areas – their challenges and their successes. This year's Report showcases IFAD's new directions and new initiatives, which are helping to increase food security and reduce rural poverty across the developing world. And it provides the facts and figures that the Fund regularly shares with its Members States and partners. 

IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), have entered into a partnership to implement the „Land and Natural Resources Learning Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)‟. 

The initiative aims to improve knowledge management strategies and approaches towards pro-poor and gender-sensitive land and natural resource tenure rights in selected East and Southern African countries. 

The Jr/Sr twinning project was developed in the context of IFAD‟s Initiative for Mainstreaming Innovation. The project seeks to enhance IFAD's capacity to promote innovations that will have a positive impact on rural poverty: testing new methodologies to respond to old and new challenges with new solutions.  

What can information and communication technologies (ICTs) do for the world's 900 million extremely poor people who live in rural area? The question is crucial to the fight to enable rural poor people to overcome poverty.