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Leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation to achieve results - Proceedings of the IFAD Roundtable Discussion
July 2015
On 7 July 2015, IFAD’s Strategy and Knowledge Department convened a roundtable discussion entitled “Leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation to Achieve Results”. The event benefited from contributions made by more than 50 participants, including both IFAD stakeholders (management, staff and Member State representatives) and participants representing IFAD grantees, sister institutions and partners, including: the African Development Bank, CIRAD, Embrapa, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Poverty Reduction Center in China, PROCASUR, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, the World Bank Group and the World Food Programme. The roundtable focused on four areas of discussion: (i) the evolving context – the ‘utility’, demand, supply, risks and opportunities – associated with delivering South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) activities; (ii) incorporating technical assistance exchanges, study tours, learning routes and similar activities into countries’ development strategies; (iii) using grant mechanisms to facilitate the transfer of development solutions through SSTC; (iv) developing knowledge hubs and other models. A number of observations, experiences and good practices were shared over the course of the day, and much of the richness of the discussion has been recorded in the following pages of this report. The most salient messages are presented in the Conclusions section and are summarized briefly below.
Delivering public, private and semi-private goods: Institutional issues and implementation arrangements
June 2015
IFAD uses several approaches to deliver a mix of public, private and semi-private goods to poor people living in rural areas. These approaches include: community-driven development (CDD), which targets communities and empowers them to improve their livelihoods; value chain development, which links poor producers to markets through farmers’ organizations; and territorial development, where the focus is a specific geographic territory or area.
Annual report on investigative and anti-corruption activities 2014
June 2015
In line with its mandate, the Office of Audit and Oversight (AUO) and its Investigation Section (IS) played a critical role in upholding IFAD’s zero-tolerance stance towards corruption, fraud and misconduct in 2014. It also supported effectively IFAD’s risk management efforts by focusing on areas of increased relevance to the Fund’s evolving operational and financial model and by ensuring a timely and effective response to alleged wrongdoing.
Getting to work: financing a new agenda for rural transformation
June 2015
This paper offers IFAD’s perspective on some of the key issues on the current debate on financing for development.
Brokering Development - Summary of Indonesia Case Study
June 2015
This report forms part of a series of case studies that seek to identify key success factors for public–private partnerships (PPPs) in rural development, based on learning from IFAD’s experiences with PPPs in four countries (Ghana, Indonesia, Rwanda and Uganda). The Indonesian study aimed to identify the key factors driving the effectiveness of the cocoa value chain PPP in Sulawesi Tengah province. This was part of a larger five-year investment programme (2009-14) called Rural Empowerment and Agricultural Development (READ), implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture. The PPP was developed as a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture (represented by READ) and a private sector partner, Mars.
The Republic of Turkey and IFAD - Partnership for smallholder investments and opportunities
June 2015
This publication is the result of a fruitful and close partnership between the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MFAL), both at state and provincial levels, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Additional languages:
English,
Turkish
Sending Money Home: European flows and markets
June 2015
The findings in this report are based on a series of studies and surveys commissioned by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and on analyses undertaken by IFAD on World Bank data. Financial contributions in support of the report were made by members of the IFAD-administered Financing Facility for Remittances, including the European Commission, the Government of Luxembourg, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund.
Brokering Development - Summary of Rwanda Case Study
June 2015
The aim of this series is to support policy and decision-makers in government, business, donor agencies and farmers’ organisations to build more effective PPPs that bring about positive development outcomes sustainably and at scale.This study focuses on two established PPPs (at Nshili and Mushubi, in Southern province), both facilitated and funded by IFAD
Brokering Development - Summary of Uganda Case Study
June 2015
A case study of the Oil Palm PPP in Kalangala, Uganda. The PPP aimed to establish oil palm production (a new cash crop in Uganda) through private sector-led agro-industrial evelopment on Bugala Island, Lake Victoria. The study is mainly based on qualitative data collection through semi-structured key informant interviews and focus group discussions, and a document review. Researchers interviewed representatives of the main partners involved.
Brokering Development-Summary of Ghana Case Studies
June 2015
This is a summary of the Ghana Country Report, based on research carried out in 2014 in association with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) as part of an IFAD-funded programme on the role of PPPs in agriculture. It is one of the four IFAD project-supported Public-Private-Producer Partnerships analysed for the research report ‘Brokering Development: Enabling Factors for Public-Private-Producer Partnerships in Agricultural Value Chains’. The report syntheses the four case studies and discuss the findings on how PPPPs in agricultural value chains can be designed and implemented to achieve more sustained increases in income for smallholder farmers and broader rural development.
Brokering development - Enabling factors for public-private-producer partnerships in agricultural value chains
June 2015
This research seeks to understand how public-private-producer partnerships (PPPPs) in agricultural value chains can be designed and implemented to achieve more sustained increases in income for smallholder farmers and broader rural development.
Project to Support Food Security in the Region of Maradi (PASADEM)
June 2015
The project objective is to improve food and nutrition security of rural people around 5 centers of economic development (Tessaoua, Tchadoua, Sabon Machi, Guidan Roumdji and Djirataoua) in 18 communes in the Maradi region.
Enhancing Resilience of Agriculture Sector in Georgia (ERASIG)
June 2015
The project aims to demonstrate the adaptation potential of climate-resilient crop production systems and technologies – especially efficient irrigation technologies and conservation agriculture – combined with the rehabilitation and climateproofing of irrigation schemes and value chain infrastructures (e.g. improved storage and processing facilities, and greenhouses) in ten selected crop value chains.
GEF Niger factsheet
June 2015
The project objective is to improve food and nutrition security of rural people around 5 centers of economic development (Tessaoua, Tchadoua, Sabon Machi, Guidan Roumdji and Djirataoua) in 18 communes in the Maradi region.
Participatory Coastal Zone Restoration and Sustainable Management in the Eastern Province of Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka
June 2015
The project design focuses on overcoming three key barriers to the restoration of coastal ecosystems: i) the gap in technical knowledge for low-cost restoration methods; ii) low priority assigned to environmental issues during the tsunami relief and reconstruction programme; and iii) continuation of ecosystem and land degradation processes.
Mainstreaming Food Loss Reduction Initiatives for Smallholders in Food-Deficit Areas
June 2015
For the first time, the three Rome-based agencies of the United Nations have joined forces to raise awareness on the importance of food losses and to stimulate change and action in member countries to reduce them.
The state of food insecurity in the world 2015
June 2015
This year´s annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report takes stock of progress made towards achieving the internationally established hunger targets, and reflects on what needs to be done, as we transition to the new post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. United Nations member states have made two major commitments to tackle world hunger. The first was at the World Food Summit (WFS), in Rome in 1996, when 182 governments committed “... to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015”. The second was the formulation of the First Millennium Development Goal (MDG 1), established in 2000 by the United Nations members, which includes among its targets “cutting by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015”. In this report, we review progress made since 1990 for every country and region as well as for the world as a whole. First, the good news: overall, the commitment to halve the percentage of hungry people, that is, to reach the MDG 1c target, has been almost met at the global level. More importantly, 72 of the 129 countries monitored for progress have reached the MDG target, 29 of which have also reached the more ambitious WFS goal by at least halving the number of undernourished people in their populations.
Achieving zero hunger
June 2015
FAO, IFAD and WFP welcome this global commitment to end poverty, hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Our proposal on how to achieve zero hunger by 2030 is in the context of the proposed Sustainable Development Goal to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2030, which, in turn, goes hand-in-hand with the proposed Sustainable Development Goal 1 to eliminate poverty at the same time. With almost 800 million people suffering from hunger and almost four-fifths of the extreme poor living in rural areas, it is necessary to raise agricultural and rural incomes to achieve those two priority Sustainable Development Goals.
How to do note: Mainstreaming portable biogas systems into IFAD-supported projects
June 2015
Access to modern renewable energy services is a key factor in eradicating poverty and ensuring food security.
IFAD Annual Report 2014
June 2015
Learn about IFAD's work and results in the 2014 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.
Toolkit: Youth Access to Rural Finance
May 2015
With the mounting awareness of the unmet demand for youth financial services and the growing evidence that serving young people is viable, there is also a need to assess and document the implications for rural areas. This toolkit on Youth Access to Rural Finance aims to contribute to filling that gap. The Lessons Learned and How To Do Note on this topic provide IFAD country programme managers, project design teams and implementing partners with insights and key guidance on designing and offering appropriate financial services for rural youth. The toolkit on Youth Access to Rural Finance synthesizes best practices and offers examples from around the world.
Lessons learned: Youth Access to Rural Finance
May 2015
Although there have been improvements in YFS access, youth are still lagging significantly behind adults in being able to access financial tools. Across high- and low-income countries, young people are less likely than adults to have a formal account. There are even starker differences related to a country’s income level, with 21 per cent of youth in low-income economies having a formal account compared with 61 per cent in upper-middle-income economies (Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2013). Even with this data, determining the exact extent of youth access to financial services can be complicated because there is a lack of consistent data and definitions on youth (see Box 3). The lack of data is more limited for rural areas. While there is some analysis of the urban-rural gap in access to financial services, with those living in cities significantly more likely to have an account than rural residents (Klapper, 2012), there are currently no comprehensive studies with disaggregated data for rural youth.
Scaling up note: Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and rural development
May 2015
In 1977, IFAD made improving “the nutritional level of the poorest populations in developing countries” one of the principal objectives of its founding agreement. Since then, governments, civil society and development organizations also have come to recognize the central importance of nutrition – which comprises undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight – to development.
PARM Result Factsheet May 2015
May 2015
Since its inception in December 2013, PARM has worked for a better management of risks in agriculture in developing countries, considered as a main constraint to improve farmers’ livelihoods.
How to do note: Youth access to rural finance
May 2015
IFAD’s mission is to invest in rural people, with the objective of overcoming poverty. Young people have increasingly become a priority target for IFAD as part of the agency’s fight against rural poverty (IFAD, 2014a).
ASAP Chad factsheet
May 2015
Climate change is exacerbating natural resource degradation and reducing the potential of productive lands. For example, rural farmers have to contend with climate shocks such as drought, rainfall deficits, floods and locust invasions. These shocks are reducing yields and making the cropping seasons hard to predict for traditional farmers. Traditional resilience strategies are no longer as effective as they were and the lean season is becoming more challenging to smallholder farmers.
ASAP Lesotho factsheet
May 2015
Lesotho ranks 158 out of 186 in the UNDP Human Development Index. Poverty is rife, and it is concentrated in the rural areas of the country, with the greatest incidence in the mountain areas. Lesotho's rural economy is dominated by livestock production. Lesotho's chief export is directly related to this livestock, that of wool and mohair production. Lesotho is the second largest global producer of mohair, and this counts towards a large percentage of the country 's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Only high quality wool and mohair can be exported, and this is dependent on the quality and health of the livestock. The main factor in raising high quality livestock is maintaining healthy rangelands.
Scaling up note: Agricultural water management
May 2015
Water is of fundamental importance to human development, the environment and the economy. Access to water and water security is paramount to improving food security, incomes and livelihoods of rural communities. Reliable access to water remains a major constraint for millions of poor farmers, mostly those in rainfed areas, but also those involved in irrigated agriculture. Climate change and the resulting changing rainfall patterns pose a threat to many more farmers, who risk losing water security and slipping back into the poverty trap.The need, therefore, to strengthen the communities’ capacity to adopt and disseminate agricultural water management technologies cannot be overemphasized.
Investing in rural people in Cuba
April 2015
IFAD recently resumed operations in Cuba after more than 20 years. The official launch of the Cooperative Rural Development Project in the Oriental Region (PRODECOR) took place on 30 October 2014. Given the challenges the agricultural sector faces, IFAD is in a position to serve as one of the country’s strategic partners, contributing to the ongoing modernization process. Cooperatives in Cuba are key actors in ensuring food security, as they represent 80 per cent of the country’s agricultural production. The Government of Cuba has expressed interest in re-establishing the partnership with IFAD with a view to modernizing agriculture. This will be achieved mainly through developing non-state smallholder farmer business cooperatives. In this respect, IFAD is well placed to provide technical assistance through its projects to increase the physical, human, social and environmental assets of cooperatives.
Remittances and mobile banking: The potential to leapfrog traditional challenges
April 2015
With mobile phone coverage generally surpassing 90 per cent of the population, even in developing countries, the potential to leapfrog to mobile banking holds the promise of addressing many of the challenges currently faced by rural remittance recipients.