Knowledge

This programme bolsters Djibouti’s climate adaptation and resilience by bridging multiple sectors, including fisheries, rural development and gender. This required considered coordination and communication among diverse stakeholders.

This project introduced a range of renewable energy technologies to enhance the lives of rural people. Biogas digesters were coupled with latrines and slurry storage was developed. Sustainable bio slurry will replace chemical fertilizers, allowing households to save money and consume healthier foods. Biogas digesters also alleviate burdens on women and reduce deforestation.

This project established a Natural Resources Governance Framework which enables communities to manage their natural resources sustainably and reduce conflicts between settled farmers and pastoralists.

PROSUL introduced innovations across various value chains, including technology for vegetable production and improved cassava varieties. Moreover, the project built climate-resilient infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, multifunctional boreholes and cattle fairs.

The project introduced various innovations, including tidal irrigation for rice production, village gardens to grow fruits and vegetables, roads to improve market access, soil and water conservation and ecosystem restoration, such as agroforestry and mangrove planting.

This report presents the results of IFAD’s climate-focused finance and shows how IFAD combines up-to-date, robust knowledge on climate and sustainable agricultural development with easy-to-access financial mechanisms.

The Climate-Resilient Post-Harvest and Agribusiness Support Project pioneered the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) model which combines weather data with farmers’ knowledge to enhance their decision-making.

The Adapting to Markets and Climate Change project influenced national policy for early warning and climate information for coffee and cocoa.

This technical paper summarizes experiences and lessons learned on CIS, including from IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP).

ASPIRE implemented a demand-driven approach to agricultural extension services, fostering innovation through new policies and strategies.

The Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) piloted talking maps in Bolivia. This innovative tool brings together science and traditional community knowledge to identify key issues and adaptation priorities, giving Indigenous Peoples, women and youth a voice in decision-making.

This project empowered local communities and promoted more sustainable pasture management practices for more responsible pasture usage.

In the pursuit of sustainable rural development, the LPDP-II project empowered rural people, enabling them to establish Pasture User Unions and create Community Livestock Pasture Management Plans to address the degradation of pasture resources.

The project mainstreamed climate-informed socio-economic development plans in two provinces.

This brief shares the results and lessons learned from the first phase of the Insurance for Rural Resilience and Economic Development (INSURED) programme.

 This paper finds that investing in rural women helps achieve climate goals, while simultaneously addressing gender inequality and poverty.

This evidence and gap map (EGM) plots studies on the effectiveness of interventions for youth employment in developing countries in the context of climate change, conflict and crisis, demonstrating where evidence exists and where it is lacking.

IFAD’s INSURED programme has been working with partners in Indonesia to improve the availability of climate risk insurance that enables farmers to strengthen their resilience. 

This third edition of the GEF-IFAD Advantage highlights the partnership's advantages in various domains, including food systems, biodiversity, climate change adaptation and land degradation.

The policy brief focuses on the challenge of equitable and sustainable development for all and proposes a task list for multilateral development agencies and outlines potential for reform.

This report is a guide to shape investments by IFAD and other international donors in climate change mitigation actions in the East and Southern Africa region.

INSURED is a technical assistance programme working to strengthen agricultural insurance in IFAD’s portfolio.

Resilient Food Systems promotes a holistic approach to enhancing agricultural productivity and restoring degraded landscapes in smallholder farming systems. This report showcases the achievements and innovations of the programme in 2022 across 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) was established at COP23 to address six topics in the agricultural sector's role in climate change.

This paper discusses which climate variables to collect, and from which sources, when incorporating them into an impact assessment.

This paper focuses on activities targeting improved pasture management, supplemental feed sources and livestock value chain development.

This brochure provides an overview of ASAP+, which is expected to be the largest fund dedicated to channelling climate finance to small-scale producers.

This note provides an overview of how IFAD-supported irrigation projects are designed and outlines the steps to achieve the full potential of irrigation development.

This evidence gap map (EGM) presents a landscape of studies on the effectiveness of behavioural science interventions in developing countries within the context of climate change.

This paper presents a systematic review on behavioural science interventions in the human development and environmental fields in developing countries.

This review examines which interventions are effective in promoting environmental and development outcomes from individuals, households, communities and companies, and how effective efforts have been to date.

This review examines the effectiveness of specific behavioural science interventions.

This evidence gap map (EGM) visualises the areas in which most research on effective interventions for women’s empowerment is concentrated—and where there are gaps.

This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness of life skills training programmes for empowering women in developing countries.

This approach paper describes the strategy for data collection and analysis and the contours of the evidence gap map and systematic review.

This protocol for the systematic review details the methods used in the meta-analysis.

This publication describes Climate-smart agriculture case studies in Egypt, Georgia, Moldova and Somalia.

After COP27, this paper discusses the proceedings most pertinent to IFAD’s mission of investing in rural people and helping them build resilience to climate change.

This paper outlines a methodological strategy for incorporating weather and long-term climate conditions into impact assessments, based on an IFAD-supported project that invested in grain storage in Chad.

Farm Radio International’s On Air Dialogues gathered the perspectives and experiences of rural people in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso as they contend with climate change. People responded to poll questions and left voice messages sharing their opinions on and experiences of climate change and what global leaders should do to help them adapt and prosper.

This paper defines gender sensitive as recognizing different roles of women, men, boys and girls, inequalities and gender power dynamics and trying to mitigate negative impacts in programme/action design.

This fourth edition of IFAD’s Climate Action Report does not restrict itself to reviewing the progress and results of the past year, but also situates these results within the larger context of IFAD's 11th Replenishment.

This paper applies a methodological framework for incorporating current period weather and long-term climate conditions into impact assessments.

This paper focuses primarily on climate resilience in the agriculture sector. If proven successful, this can be replicated in other resilience sectors such as water, forests and urban development to address shocks beyond climate. 

This briefing note summarizes the fiscal and financial instruments the public sector can use to support climate-smart small-scale farming. The overall focus is on using limited public funds more efficiently and amplifying impacts.

IFAD's unique investing position serves as a starting point for a discussion on how it might scale up and support gender-based responses for adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

Climate and conflict are linked, and this briefing note summarizes the evidence about the relationship between the two, what role climate finance can play in mitigating their risks, and where policy recommendations can be made to address the vulnerabilities created by both.

To help tackle biodiversity loss and track biodiversity gains, IFAD has adopted a new biodiversity core (outcome) indicator, 3.2.4. ‘Biodiversity improvements at ecosystem-level’ as part of its Biodiversity Strategy 2022-2025.

This study is part of a broader Paris Alignment Roadmap, which will ensure that IFAD can play a key role in supporting countries in realising their climate action plans in the small-scale agriculture.

This knowledge brief explores the benefits of and rationale for community engagement in index insurance initiatives, with examples from a pilot project in rural Ethiopia. 

The Strategy and Knowledge Department (SKD) Learning Note #1 captures lessons about the design and supervision of Green Climate Fund (GCF) projects and lays out some possible recommendations, in order to build IFAD’s capacity and continue strengthening the partnership with GCF.

 

This How To Do Note provides guidance on building climate-resilient livelihoods through natural resources management.

Moving to a process that contributes to improving rather than endangering livelihoods is the challenge that climate change adaptation and resilience-building efforts currently face.

In this review, the role of farmed animals in circular food systems in the tropics is presented in four case studies.

Agroecology applies ecological principles to agriculture and ensures a regenerative use of natural resources and ecosystem services, while addressing the need for socially equitable food systems in which people can choose what they eat and how it is produced.

This article reviews how food system activities contribute to climate change and how dietary changes affect food systems. It shows that while emissions from food production are increasing in most regions, emissions from land use change are decreasing.

Resilient Food Systems (RFS) promotes a holistic approach to enhancing agricultural productivity and restoring degraded landscapes in smallholder farming systems. This report showcases the achievements and innovations of the programme across 12 countries in 2021.

The Agricultural Value Chains Development Programme (PADFA) seeks to improve post-harvest activities (packaging, storage, processing and marketing) for rice, vegetables, and mango in Côte d’Ivoire.

This  catalogue features innovative geospatial tools and real life case studies from IFAD’s operations, to give a flavour of how and where IFAD uses such technology. 

This brief describes how an IFAD-GEF project promotes sustainable peatland management, secure carbon stocks, and conservation of biodiversity, while improving the living standards of local communities.

Understanding market demand is a critical step in the process of developing solutions to meet the risk management needs of rural poor people, particularly with regard to insurance.

This report offers a consolidated analysis of pre-COVID food security and nutrition challenges across the Pacific Islands and outlines key actions needed to respond to the current impacts, inform medium- to long-term recovery planning, and better prepare for future crises.

The purpose of this strategy is to facilitate a more systematic, organized and generalized integration of the protection, sustainable use and promotion of biodiversity in IFAD operations.

This third edition of the IFAD Climate Action Report (CAR) describes the efforts that IFAD has made during the year to integrate climate change into every aspect of its plans and operations. 

This brief illustrates effective instruments that overcome barriers to investments and leverage existing policy tools and instruments to address sustainable financing in the AFOLU sector.

This study examines six projects, in three principal ecosystems of the region: a mountainous region, wetlands and a river delta.

This brief summarizes relevant findings from socio-legal analyses, combining the review of key legal and policy documents and literature on existing barriers to the recognition of women’s land rights.

This paper presents key results and lessons learned on NbS, mainly from IFAD’s Adaptation
for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) portfolio, to inspire future programmes to
reach greater scale in supporting inclusive rural transformation.

With funding from ASAP2, eight Climate Risk Analysis reports were produced by the University of Cape Town, covering Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This note offers practical guidance for IFAD staff, consultants and in-country partners for seeking FPIC in the design and implementation of IFAD-funded projects and programmes, in compliance with IFAD policies and procedures.

IFAD’s second Biodiversity Advantage report showcases five IFAD projects which highlight the integral importance of biodiversity in agriculture.

IFAD’s technical assistance programme INSURED (Insurance for rural resilience and economic development) has been building knowledge about how to strengthen women producers’ access to climate risk insurance. 

In partnership with six radio stations in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda, Farm Radio International asked small-scale farmers, vendors, processors, marketers, and others how the food system should be changed to meet their needs and the needs of their communities.

Prototyping aims to gather direct feedback on the solution and the wider insurance scheme, incorporate changes before pilot testing, and make any additional adjustments before the official roll-out.

This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD project on Livelihood and Productivity Enhancement of Smallholder Farmers (PROSPER) in Ghana.

This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project (SACP) in Zimbabwe.

This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD project on Restoration of Landscapes and Livelihoods (ROLL P) in Lesotho.

Collaboration with Local Companies for Adaptive Agriculture in Cambodia.

The 2020 Annual Report showcases the achievements and innovations of the RFS regional partners, country project teams and beneficiary communities across 12 targeted countries.

The people you will meet in this book are all participants in IFAD projects. They come from some of the world’s most fragile and remote communities. 

What risks and challenges do small-scale producers of oilseeds in Uganda face, and could agricultural insurance help them manage and mitigate those risks?

This brochure provides an over view of the Sustainability, Stability and Security (3S) Initiative in Africa. 

This brochure provides an overview of the GCF-GGW initiative.

This brochure provides an overview of the Rural Resilience Programme (2RP), an innovative umbrella programme that consolidates multiple sources of financing channelled to small-scale producers and their communities.

The Adaptation Framework is a repository of adaptation actions for small-scale agriculture, including livestock, forestry, and fisheries. It provides an approach for incorporating adaptation practices into project design.

This mid-term review assesses the extent to which the design and results to date of the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) are relevant for farmers facing climate change. 

In a rapidly changing world, agriculture remains the heart of sustainable development. The risks facing the world in this final decade left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals are many, but the opportunities are equally numerous.

IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) is the largest multi-donor global fund specifically dedicated to enabling smallholder farmers to adapt and build their resilience to climate change.

This collection of data on sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and approaches includes relevant information on different SLM practices, their implementation details, and their ecological and socio-economic benefits and disadvantages.

IFAD’s community of practice for geospatial applications aims to enhance IFAD’s operations and impact through systematic integration of geospatial tools, methods and data analytics. 

Rice farmers in the mid-hills region of Nepal are vulnerable to drought, which can drastically reduce yields. Stress-tolerant rice varieties can mitigate this vulnerability, as can having a high seed replacement rate and using best management practices in rice cultivation.

This brief highlights a project in Niger that is tackling climate change and land degradation and scaling up sustainable natural resource management for family farming.

Discover how the Resilient Food Systems programme is enhancing long-term sustainability and resilience for food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study reviews evidence on initiatives that invest in climate-resilient infrastructure to support smallholder farmer organizations and agribusinesses in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) category and, ultimately, to foster inclusive and sustainable agricultural value chains. Case studies from the BRACED and ASAP programmes across sub-Saharan Africa are presented.

Today we stand at a critical juncture – historic progress in reducing hunger has stalled and the successes of recent decades are being reversed.

Climate change matters for all young people, especially for those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. This study shows that adaptation to climate change is feasible and options increase as new technologies and management approaches come on-stream. 

The Climate Action Report 2019 provides an overview of IFAD’s work on climate change and reports on progress, challenges and achievements.

Development projects that integrate investments in rural indigenous people, youth and women with measures to adapt to climate change are more likely to be successful in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a new report launched today by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

A new report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) shows that by working with women, men, young people and indigenous peoples as change agents we are best placed to beat back the impact of climate change on rural communities in West and Central Africa (WCA).

This report presents selected achievements and lessons from the growing portfolio of fisheries and aquaculture investments supported by IFAD.

Brazil and Africa share similar environmental, climate and social conditions, and both face similar development challenges. This creates interesting opportunities for South-South collaboration through technology transfer in several areas, including agriculture, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and value chains development.

This collection of sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and approaches was compiled as part of the Scaling-up SLM practices by smallholder farmers project funded by IFAD. 

This collection of sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and approaches was compiled as part of the Scaling-up SLM practices by smallholder farmers project funded by IFAD.

For millions of poor people in East and Southern Africa, bamboo has huge potential to alleviate poverty, protect the environment and help achieve the SDGs. 

The Climate Adaptation in Rural Development – Assessment Tool (CARD) is a platform to explore the effects of climate change on the yield of major crops. 

This study estimates the mitigation potential of agricultural practices supported by IFAD’s current investments in order to provide guidance for the design of future investments. 

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system.

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

This Climate Action Report aims to present an overview of how IFAD is working to put into action its climate change mainstreaming agenda. It is intended not as a comprehensive review of its portfolio, but rather to provide its stakeholders with an understanding of how IFAD is stepping up its efforts and ambitions to contribute to addressing one of the greatest challenges faced, most acutely, by the rural poor. This report focuses on recent progress in 2017 

The Climate and Commodity Hedging to Enable Transformation (CACHET) initiative supports smallholder farmers against price and climate volatility negatively affecting their revenues.

The grant mainstreamed climate-smart, tree-based agricultural good practices into the climate adaptation and mitigation programmes of governments, NGOs and the private sector in Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

​In 2014, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) released a report celebrating achievements through its partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Since then, the world has been responding to critical environmental and climate challenges.

The grant is one of three projects implemented under a broader regional programme (Adaptation to Change) financed by IFAD, the Government of Norway, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). 

In March 2018, IFAD and the Government of Pakistan organized a one-day seminar entitled “Preparing Rural Communities to Cope with Climate Change through South-South and Triangular Cooperation”.  

​With private contributions becoming increasingly pivotal to global climate finance, it is evident that scaling up and channeling private capital is crucial in meeting the goal of achieving the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.

Among ecosystems services, freshwater is one of the most fundamental for life. For smallholders, water means the difference between a decent life and poverty, hunger and malnutrition. 

This How to Do Note (HTDN) is intended to provide guidance on how to design smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes that consider the differential impacts of climate change on women, men and youth smallholder farmers. This includes recognizing that programme interventions – from design to staffing to capacity development of beneficiaries and local organizations – need to consider how gender will affect sustainability and impact. The experiences, social positions and differing access to resources of marginalized populations are fundamental considerations in the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of gender transformative smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes.

Agriculture and fisheries, the backbone of food security and nutrition for coastal communities and globally, are under threat. 

Climate change and malnutrition are among the greatest problems in the twentyfirst century; they are “wicked problems”, difficult to describe, with multiple causes, and no single solution.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits. 

This Household Mentoring handbook is a tool to assist household mentors to mentor selected poorer households.

Ethiopia is the second most populated African country with an estimated 96.9 million citizens. Of the total population, 81 per cent are classified as rural. The population is also growing at a rate of around 3 per cent per year. Whilst extreme poverty is declining, it is still widespread and in 2011 was counted at 30 per cent.