Knowledge

Fragile states are home to nearly 30 per cent of the world’s poor people. Though measures of fragility vary, such countries typically lack some of the basic tools of nationbuilding: good governance,
strong policies, skilled personnel, functional infrastructure and services, educated citizens, an active civil society and a competitive private sector. Civil and border conflict is an all-too frequent reality.
Poor people living in rural areas of fragile states are particularly vulnerable as they have very limited means to cope with the situation created by fragility.

The country’s challenge now is to create the conditions for economic growth – and the Government of Togo believes that the best way to achieve lasting growth is through increased production and productivity in the agriculture sector.

For these reasons, after more than a decade out of the country, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is working closely with the Republic of Togo to put agricultural and rural development on track.

There is a growing need to investigate different crop production systems that prevent soil degradation while increasing productivity. Conservation agriculture (CA) offers a promising solution. Conservation agriculture is a climate resilient technology and management system that has demonstrable potential to secure sustained productivity and livelihood improvements for millions of climate-dependent farmers working in semi-arid areas around the world. Success stories are recorded for some countries in Asia, and in Australia and Brazil. However, for sub-Saharan Africa adoption of the technology has lagged behind these other countries, and concerns have been raised as to the suitability of the technology within the smallholder farming context.

The already vulnerable Sahel area is highly exposed to climate change impacts due to the strong dependence of its population on rainfed agriculture and livestock. Rainfall variability, land degradation and desertification are some of the key factors that are heavily impacting on local livelihoods. Droughts with varying degrees
of severity occur in two out of every five years, making harvests of the major food and cash crops highly uncertain. The recurrent droughts of the 1970s and 1980s caused huge losses of agricultural production and livestock, the loss of human lives to hunger and malnutrition, and the massive displacement of people and
shattered economies. Most climate models predict that the Sahel region will become even drier during this century.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the central issues around land tenure and management in Argentina, in light of the global changes in agriculture and rural
territorial development. In addition, a series of policy options are put forward to address the most conflictridden  situations, keeping in mind the goals of equity
and development.

L’accès qu’ont les agriculteurs aux ressources hydriques est déterminé par de nombreux facteurs. Le cadre politique national et les stratégies adoptées par le gouvernement ont, entre autres, un impact important sur l’accès à l’eau, et sur les projets et programmes qui travaillent dans ce domaine. Au fur et à mesure qu’évolue le contexte politique, il est donc nécessaire de revoir la mise en oeuvre de ces projets, en particulier ceux qui ont trait à la construction d’ouvrages hydrauliques, afin de s’assurer que l’environnement politique et stratégique reste adapté aux besoins locaux et permette la mise en place d’une gestion locale, durable et efficace de l’eau agricole.

Learn about IFAD's work and results in the 2010 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.

The objective of this report is to identify, characterize, and evaluate best practices in smallholder private irrigation in West Africa. The report presents a comparative assessment of the smallholder private irrigation initiatives in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. 

Issues discussed include: the potential and impacts of new technologies; the successes and challenges of different approaches to develop smallholder private irrigation (promotion of technologies, institutional arrangements, advisory and financial services, and environmental impact mitigation); and the lessons learned.

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.

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.