Knowledge

Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be used in an IFAD-sponsored project to measure performance in a
regular and consistent manner. This note discusses the use of KPIs as well as the challenges associated with it. This discussion is followed by a review of the lessons learned by IFAD and other organizations, and concludes with strategic recommendations for follow-up.

Matching grants (MGs) are used increasingly by multilateral and bilateral institutions, including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank, to cofinance productive assets and investments. Although confined initially to investments with clear public good characteristics, their use has spread. They finance a broad array of assets and productivity-enhancing technologies for groups, companies and individuals, benefiting the private sector directly with clear private goods characteristics. MGs are used as a short-term financing instrument to promote diffusion of technologies and enable target groups to carry out productivity-enhancing investments, compensating for the limited availability and high costs of term finance. At times, MGs incorporate a “crowding in” mechanism to attract financiers by sharing the risks and increasing the effective collateral value of the asset being financed. They are also used to support innovations that, by their nature, are more risky and less likely to attract loan finance. Despite their appeal as a relatively simple instrument to address access to finance constraints in the short run, there are several risks, which can limit their effectiveness and impact. When poorly designed and poorly implemented, MGs can distort and crowd out private and public investments. 

The results of the studies highlighted the importance of agriculture as an economic activity to the reproduction of such units all over the continent, and showed that specialized family farmers are the largest group in relation to the total. Moreover, we verified the function of rural residency and the combination of activities and income sources as an important feature of all the countries studied.

This Focus Note introduces some recent developments in this rapidly changing space. The featured case studies (i) identify traditional pain points in serving smallholder farmers (such as the cost and risk of making payments to farmers and delivering subsidized credit), (ii) discuss how DFS are being used to overcome these pain points, and (iii) highlight some initial obstacles and successes.

The objective of this Annual Progress Report is to review the activities of the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) during its first year of life or, more precisely, thirteen months since its launch in December 2013.

In 2014, Kenya was newly classified as a lower-middle-income country, with financial services and infrastructure expected to drive growth of 5 to 6 percent annually over the next five years. At the same time, the country is still in protracted crisis, with recurrent natural disasters, conflict, severe drought and hunger affecting livelihoods. Overall, about 10 million Kenyans suffer from chronic food insecurity and poor nutrition. Recurring drought means that a larger number of people in a growing population are unable to meet their food needs. Good seasons between droughts are increasingly rare, making it difficult for households to recover from crisis to crisis. Severe land degradation, primarily caused by deforestation, unsuitable agricultural practices and flooding, has had a negative impact on agricultural production.

MPAT was originally developed in China and India. In China, iterative testing was conducted in 2008 in order to refine and improve the draft Household and Village Surveys. After five rounds of testing in China and India, the project team felt that the surveys and indicators were sufficiently developed to warrant a large-scale pilot in both countries.

In China, the pilot was conducted in the context of an ongoing IFAD-supported project in Gansu Province in China’s arid north. The data from the pilots in China and India (see also Box 2 and Box 3) were then shared with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre so they could conduct an independent evaluation of MPAT. Results from a pilot village in China are presented, together with a photo of farmers planting seeds below.

The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool provides data that can inform all levels of decisionmaking by providing a clearer understanding of rural poverty at the household and village level. As a result, MPAT can significantly strengthen the planning, design, monitoring and evaluation of a project, and thereby contribute to rural poverty reduction.

Following an inclusive consultation and negotiation process, which involved more than 70 countries, international organizations, and representatives of the civil society and the private sector, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGs) were officially endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security on 11 May 2012. The VGs set out principles, technical recommendations and practices for improving the governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests. They promote secure tenure rights and equitable access to these resources as a means of eradicating hunger and poverty, supporting sustainable development and protecting the environment. They give recommendations to countries and to other key actors, who are strongly encouraged to adopt and use them on a voluntary basis.

Annexes (Volume 2) of the Partnership in Progress: 2012-2013.

Depuis 1981, le FIDA a financé 12 projets et programmes au Burkina Faso pour un montant total de 158,6 millions de dollars des États-Unis. 

This report is the most comprehensive attempt in IFAD for  taking stock of the different experiences in collaborating with FOs and identifying the emergence of regional trends.

This provides the starting point for scaling-up and broadening successful approaches in other countries and contexts.

The report analyses the modalities of the ongoing partnership over the biennium 2012-2013, highlighting successful stories and achievements within IFAD country programmes and grant portfolio. 

This report is the most comprehensive attempt in IFAD for taking stock of the different experiences in collaborating with FOs and identifying the emergence of regional trends.

This provides the starting point for scaling-up and broadening successful approaches in other countries and contexts. The report analyses the modalities of the ongoing partnership over the biennium 2012-2013, highlighting successful stories and achievements within IFAD country programmes and grant portfolio.

The report is based on the results of a survey completed by IFAD country programme managers, interviews with relevant IFAD staff and an indepth desk review of documents concerning ongoing and new projects, as well as selected regional grants and country programmes. 

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.

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.

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.