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Senegal: the road to opportunity
April 2016
When the seasonal rains came to some regions of south-eastern Senegal, the flooding used to cut off the inhabitants from the rest of the country. But that has changed with the IFAD-supported project known as PADAER – Projet d’Appui au Développement Agricole et à l’Entreprenariat Rural. Thanks to the projects’ work on rebuilding roads, rural people have new possibilities to make a living, they can access health services and education, and bring their products to markets. A new lifeline; a new way of life. For poor rural people, lack of infrastructure often translates into lack of options and alternatives. The project is changing that.
Lessons learned: Pastoralism land rights and tenure
April 2016
This note describes the land tenure issues faced by pastoralists and how IFAD has dealt with some of these through its programmes and projects.
Research Series Issue 3 - Fostering inclusive outcomes in African agriculture: improving agricultural productivity and expanding agribusiness opportunities
April 2016
This paper looks at the role of agriculture in fostering inclusive and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses how improving agricultural productivity, smallholder access to markets and expanding agribusiness opportunities can accelerate transformation, investment and industrialization. The paper presents key investment and policy elements to be considered and points to the centrality of smallholders for the rural transformation process to be inclusive.
ASAP Bangladesh factsheet
March 2016
Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries affected by climate change. During the monsoon period, the Haor region of Bangladesh becomes completely inundated with 4-8 metres of water for around 6-7 months of the year. Flash fl oods are common, and in some years 80-90 per cent of crops are lost because of extreme weather events. The situation is expected to worsen as a climate change-related shift towards pre-monsoon rainfall is coinciding with the paddy rice pre-harvest period. This severely affects food output in the Haor, which provides up to 16 per cent of national rice production.
Financing Facility for Remittances: a migration and development programme
March 2016
In 2016, around 200 million migrants worldwide sent home an estimated US$ 445 billion to their families in developing countries. These remittances provide for basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter that are essential to lifting millions of people out of poverty. The truly transformative potential of these funds, however, lies in their investment in education, healthcare and asset building. To meet these needs, the us$36 million multi-donor Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) has been working since 2006 with the goal of increasing the development impact of remittances and enabling poor households to advance on the road to financial independence and rural transformation. The FFR is administered by IFAD, a specialized agency of the United Nations with the mandate to invest in rural people to eradicate poverty in developing countries.
Toolkit: Digital financial services for smallholder households
March 2016
Recent advances in technology and telecommunications have the potential to make financial services more accessible and affordable for smallholder households in rural areas. With digital platforms such as mobile phones, smallholders can now use financial services without having to visit a bank branch.
10 points for a strategic approach to partnering with the private sector
March 2016
Partnerships have always been a key element of IFAD’s work. In recent years the private sector has become an ever more important collaborator in the development of enabling rural business environments, pro-poor value chains and private rural finance.
How to do note: Public-private-producer partnerships (4Ps) in Agricultural Value Chains
March 2016
This HTDN provides guidance for project design teams on how to design a 4P component and how to support the implementation of 4Ps within IFAD-funded projects. It builds on findings and lessons learned from previous IFAD-supported projects, as summarized in the 2013 report, IFAD and Public-Private Partnerships: Selected Project Experiences, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS)/IFAD publication, Brokering Development: Enabling Factors for Public-Private-Producer Partnerships in Agricultural Value Chains. This HTDN begins by defining the 4P and related concepts and then analyses the basic elements that need to be considered when designing and establishing a 4P followed by recommendations for the implementation of 4Ps.
GEF Ethiopia factsheet
March 2016
The Community-based Integrated Natural Resources Management Project is located in the Lake Tana Watershed within Amhara National Regional State. The project covers 21 Woredas (districts) comprising 347 kebeles. Project operations will consist of two components, namely: (i) Community-Based Integrated Watershed Management; and (ii) Institutional, Legal and Policy Analysis and Reform.
GEF Swaziland factsheet
March 2016
GEF finance was allocated to help land users living around the LUSIP with no land, who may face greater pressure on their access to grazing lands as a result of the project. The LUSIP-GEF incremental project has enabled these land users to convert their farming systems into sustainable, productive smallholder and agro pastoralist enterprises while protecting the wider agroecosystem.
Lessons learned: Digital financial services for smallholder households
March 2016
Recent advances in technology and increasing penetration of telecommunication systems into rural areas have the potential to make financial services more accessible to smallholder households. Mobile telephony and data networks, coupled with agent networks, can enable the use of digital payments and savings and provide a platform for credit and insurance, without smallholders having to visit a bank branch. Mobile phones can also bridge information asymmetries by offering weather forecasts and real-time market prices, which can improve the ability of farmers to prepare and respond to inclement weather and price fluctuations.
How to do note: Digital financial services for smallholder households
March 2016
Advances in digital technology and telecommunications are presenting new financial inclusion opportunities for smallholder farmers in rural areas.1 A growing number of payments, savings, credit and insurance products can be delivered digitally to address the financial needs of smallholder households. Smallholders can especially benefit from mobile phone platforms, which offer immediate, safe access to government subsidies, cash transfers and remittances. The messaging features of mobile phones can complement digital financial services (DFSs) by offering timely information on weather conditions, farming tips, market prices and potential buyers, which can help increase farming yields and profitability.
Research Series Issue 2 - Migration and Transformative Pathways
March 2016
This paper analyses the role of migration in promoting rural livelihoods and discusses how migration interacts with transformative economic processes. Focusing on migration out of rural areas, it examines the impacts of migration on rural livelihoods and challenges the perspective that sees rural outmigration as a failure of rural development.
IFAD-Japan: A partnership for inclusive rural development
March 2016
The origins of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) stretch back to the food crisis of the early 1970s, which sparked the World Food Conference of 1974. Three years later, with support from donors, including Japan, IFAD was created as both a specialized agency of the United Nations and an international financial institution. Since 1978, IFAD has empowered about 453 million people to grow more food, manage their land and other natural resources more productively, learn new skills, start businesses, build strong organizations and gain a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
The price of development and the cost of inaction (2015)
March 2016
The objective of development is not to create wealth for its own sake, or the benefit of a few, but rather to build better societies to achieve broad inclusiveness. Preparing the ground for people to succeed – and to survive, if disaster strikes – requires foresight and investment, both public and private.
Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) initiative
February 2016
Brochure that describes the Why, the Who, the Where and the How the the Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) initiative will seek to foster job growth in local communities, contribute to poverty alleviation and reduce the need to migrate.
IFAD and Farmers' Organizations - Partnership in progress: 2014-2015
February 2016
Report to the sixth global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum in conjunction with the thirty-ninth session of IFAD’s Governing Council.
Insights from Participatory Impact Evaluations in Ghana and Vietnam
February 2016
This paper by Adinda Van Hemelrijck and Irene Guijt explores how impact evaluation can live up to standards broader than statistical rigour in ways that address challenges of complexity and enable stakeholders to engage meaningfully. A Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning. Approach (PIALA) was piloted to assess and debate the impacts on rural poverty of two government programmes in Vietnam and Ghana funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
GFRD2015 Official Report
February 2016
This report proceeds from the Global Forum on Remittances and Development held in Milan, Italy in 2015.
FAO's and IFAD's Engagement in Pastoral Development
February 2016
This joint evaluation synthesis report (JES) has been prepared by FAO and IFAD Evaluation Offices (OED and IOE) within the framework of ‘Statement Intent’ of 2 April 2013 for strengthening collaboration across the two Rome-based agencies.
Country-Level Policy Engagement - a review of experience
February 2016
Policies affect every dimension of the institutional and legal context in which poor rural people pursue their livelihoods; they shape the world they live in and the economic opportunities open to them. Supportive policies can go a long way towards providing the conditions in which people can lift themselves out of poverty. Conversely, policies that do not create opportunities, or that exclusively reflect the interests of other economic players, can be an insuperable barrier or an unbridgeable gulf – roadblocks barring the way out of the poverty trap. Thus, an enabling country-level policy environment for agriculture and rural development is not only critical for effective implementation of IFAD-supported projects, but also a precondition for enabling rural people to overcome poverty. As IFAD shifts its focus from exclusively project-specific goals to making a broader contribution to rural poverty reduction, engaging in country-level policy processes is becoming an increasingly important activity within country programmes, supported by dedicated services and products, and an important mechanism through which to scale up proven approaches and lessons learned at the project level.
IFAD’s Junior Professional Officer Programme
February 2016
IFAD launched its Junior Professional Officer (JPO) programme in 1980, just three years after IFAD was established, and has maintained a dynamic JPO programme ever since. The JPO programme was originally established by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a way of recruiting young professionals for service in the field of development assistance. The programme is sponsored by Member States interested in investing in young, university-trained nationals of their own country or other countries, for employment in organizations of the United Nations system.
Farmers’ Africa: Complementary actions for the benefit of African producers
February 2016
Farmers’ Africa is a capacity-building programme that aims to improve the livelihoods and food security of rural producers in Africa. It works with farmers’ organizations (FOs) to help them evolve into more stable, performing and accountable organizations that effectively represent their members and advise them on farming enterprises. The programme supports the main functions of FOs, promotes their engagement in policy processes and contributes to their professionalization. It also supports the efforts of FOs to provide economic services to their members.
African Postal Financial Services Initiative
February 2016
The African Postal Financial Services initiative is a joint regional programme launched by IFAD and the European Commission in collaboration with the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) – a specialized United Nations agency for the postal sector, the World Savings Banks Institute/European Savings Banks Group (WSBI/ESBG) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). This uniquely broad-based partnership seeks to enhance competition in the African remittance market by promoting and enabling post offices in Africa to offer remittances and financial services. Post offices are ideally placed to deliver remittances in rural areas, but they often lack the business model, technology and expertise to process real-time payments such as remittances in an efficient and safe manner. The goal of this initiative is to promote, support and scale up key postal networks in Africa in the integration of remittance services.
Methodological Reflections following the second PIALA Pilot in Ghana
January 2016
IFAD has to report to its Members States on the total number of rural people lifted out of poverty1. The government programmes it funds, however, are implemented in complex ways and environments that challenge mainstream evaluation practice. The challenge for IFAD and its co- implementing and co-funding partners, moreover, is not just to rigorously assess impact but also to understand the processes generating impact in order to realize its ambitious targets (IFAD, 2011). Albeit a strong emphasis on quantitative measurement, there is a need for impact evaluation that fosters learning and responsibility.
How to monitor progress in value chain projects
January 2016
This note helps IFAD design and supervision teams to improve the M&Eindicators of VC projects
How to do note: Livestock value chain analysis and project development
January 2016
The step-by-step approach to VC analysis and project design follows the basic IFAD project design cycle.Each step is briefly described and followed by guiding questions for the project design team. The VC approach should be adopted early in the project cycle, such as when developing project concept notes for a country strategic opportunities programme (COSOP).
Research Series Issue 1 - Agricultural and rural development reconsidered
January 2016
This paper is a guide to current debates about agricultural development. It analyses the changes in development approaches and thinking in recent decades and explores today's critical issues in agricultural and rural development policy. With the main focus on Africa, the paper also includes insights from Asia and Latin America.
Scaling up note: Ghana
December 2015
Since the mid-1980s, Ghana’s impressive development has made the country one of the strongest performers in Africa, although economic challenges and a fiscal deficit are currently slowing down the pace of growth.
Note sur la transposition à plus grande échelle: Nigéria
December 2015
En dépit de l’abondance des ressources agricoles et pétrolières du pays, la pauvreté est omniprésente au Nigéria et elle n’a cessé de gagner du terrain depuis la fin des annés 90. Environ 70% des habitants vivent avec moins de 1,25 USD par jour. La pauvreté est particulièrement grave en milieu rural où jusqu’à 80% de la population vit en dessous du seuil de pauvreté tandis que les services sociaux et l’infrastructure y sont limités. Les femmes et les hommes pauvres des zones rurales sont tributaires de l’agriculture pour leur nourriture et leurs revenus. Environ 90% de la production vivrière nationale sont fournis par les paysans qui cultivent de petites parcelles et dépendent des pluies plutôt que de l’irrigation.
Scaling up note: Egypt
December 2015
Egypt has undergone dramatic political upheaval over the last four years, following long-simmering grievances over the lack of economic opportunities and political inclusion that led to a revolutionary uprising in early 2011.
Scaling up note: Ethiopia
December 2015
With a population of 92 million, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with consistent growth averaging more than 10 per cent over the last ten years. Per capita income is, however, markedly lower than the average for developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole (US$400 compared with US$1,547 per capita per year).1 Much of Ethiopia’s growth is attributable to the agricultural sector, which accounts for about 45 per cent of GDP, almost 90 per cent of exports and 85 per cent of employment. About 90 per cent of the agricultural land under cultivation is devoted to subsistence agriculture. Livestock and livestock products are important in Ethiopia and contribute about 10 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings, with hides and skins constituting about 90 per cent of this.
Scaling up note: Peru
December 2015
Peru is an upper-middle-income country with one of the fastest-growing economies in the region. In the last decade, the country more than halved its poverty rate, which fell from 59 to 24 per cent. Reduction was uneven geographically, however. In the rural areas of the highlands and the rainforest areas, poverty still affects about 53 and 43 per cent of the population1 respectively, and particularly indigenous communities.
Scaling up note: Sudan
December 2015
The analysis underlying the results-based country strategic opportunities programme for the Republic of the Sudan (RB-COSOP) developed in 2013 identified major constraints on the reduction of rural poverty. These included prolonged conflicts, the separation of South Sudan (2008), reduced oil revenues for the Government of Sudan; greatly increased numbers of people and livestock reliant on static technologies; environmentally and economically unsustainable pressures on finite natural resources exacerbated by the negative impacts of climate change; and little residual capacity within the public sector, all within a problematic geopolitical environment.
Scaling up note: Bangladesh
December 2015
Bangladesh has recently been classified as a lower-middle-income country and aims to reach upper-middle-income country status by 2021. To achieve this, the Government of Bangladesh will need to overcome considerable challenges in agricultural development and rural economic growth. The country’s annual GDP growth averaged about 6 per cent between 2000 and 2013, and was accompanied by a decline in the national poverty rate from 48.9 per cent to 31.5 per cent over the first decade of the century, effectively lifting some 16 million people out of poverty.
Scaling up note: China
December 2015
In terms of population, China, with 1.35 billion people, is the largest country in the world. It is the first developing country to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing by half the number of its people living in extreme poverty and hunger, and only 6.3 per cent of the population were estimated to be living in extreme poverty in 2013. Substantial progress has been made with respect to overall development and China is now considered in the high human development category of UNDP’s Human Development Index, ranking 91 out of 187 countries.
GEF Sao Tome & Principe facsheet
December 2015
The project will address sustainable management in shade forests, marine areas, and mangroves in the buffer zones of protected areas (Obo and Principe natural parks) through the development of participatory management plans in five co-management areas, and the implementation of investments for integrated ecosystem management.
Promoting the leadership of women in producers' organizations - Lessons from the experiences of FAO and IFAD
December 2015
This paper explores aspects of promoting rural women’s leadership in producers’ organizations (POs). Despite the vast amount of work that women perform in the agriculture sector, their role remains largely unrecognized. The concerns and issues of women farmers are scarcely heard at the local, national and global levels. One reason for this silence is that there are not enough women in leadership positions to be able to represent the interests of rural women. This shortage is compounded by women’s lack of voice in decision-making processes at all levels − from households to rural organizations − and in policymaking.
GEF Ghana facsheet
December 2015
The SCCF project focuses on individual/groups of women and youth (mainly involved in cassava processing activities) and men farmers (mainly involved in cassava production activities, processing and marketing) living in fairly remote rural areas. These target beneficiaries are most prone to food insecurity because of the difficult access to markets.
The Policy Advantage: Enabling smallholders’ adaptation priorities to be realized
December 2015
Policies affect every dimension of the institutional and legal context in which poor rural people pursue their livelihoods. They shape the world they live in and the economic opportunities open to them. This means that supportive policies can go a long way towards providing the conditions in which people can lift themselves out of poverty. Conversely, policies that do not create opportunities, or that exclusively reflect the interests of other economic players, can be an insuperable barrier or an unbridgeable gulf – roadblocks barring the way out of the poverty trap.
Scaling up note: Mauritania
December 2015
In recent years, Mauritania has enjoyed political stability, with the June 2014 presidential elections taking place peacefully. In addition, the country registered a robust growth rate of 6.7 per cent in 2013 and continues to be characterized by macroeconomic stability. The country, however, remains exposed to vulnerabilities related to lack of diversification, international price volatility and reliance on foreign inflows. While it has succeeded in increasing per capita income in recent years, income distribution has remained relatively unchanged for the last two decades, and the challenges of unemployment remain daunting. Sound management of natural resources is essential to foster inclusive and long-term growth.
Scaling up note: Indonesia
December 2015
Indonesia is the largest economy in South-East Asia and has developed rapidly over the past decade into a competitive and decentralized electoral democracy with a fast growing middle class. Despite the country's positive progress in reducing poverty, vulnerability and inequality remain high. Nearly 40 per cent of Indonesians are highly vulnerable to shocks, which can push them back below the poverty line.
Changing lives through IFAD water investments: a gender perspective
December 2015
The following study was designed by IFAD in order to contribute to the knowledge about the relationship between gender, water investment and time saving. It is also intended to contribute to gender mainstreaming in IFAD’s water projects. The focus of the study is to see how much time women and men gain when they have improved access to sources of water and to establish what individuals, particularly women, do with the time they save by not having to walk long distances in search of water. The study further aims to discover to what extent the projects/investments contribute to reducing drudgery and to achieving equitable workloads between men and women. The survey targeted ongoing projects from the five regions in which IFAD operates that were either in their second phase or a mature stage of operation. In each project, one community was covered and 24 households were targeted. The survey successfully covered seven communities and 140 households and was mainly conducted through project officers facilitated by country programme managers or country programme officers.
Executive summary, final report on the participatory impact evaluation of the Root & Tuber Improvement & Marketing Programme in Ghana
November 2015
This document presents the findings from the impact evaluation of the Root & Tuber Improvement and Marketing Program (RTIMP) in Ghana. The program was executed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Government of Ghana (GoG) from 2007 until end of 2014, and co-financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for a total amount of US$ 18.83 million.
Climate change and food security - Innovations for smallholder agriculture
November 2015
Climate change is the most compelling challenge facing the world today. It affects rural smallholders across the developing world, with effects that pose a grave threat to their own, and to the world’s food security.
A new generation of rural transformation: IFAD in Latin America and the Caribbean
November 2015
The Latin America and the Caribbean region is a different place than it was 25 years ago. Today, every nation except Haiti is categorized as middle income. The region has reduced poverty by half, and the prevalence of hunger has declined by almost two thirds. More than half the adult population has attended secondary school. Rural areas are changing too. They are no longer narrowly defined by their food production role, and key issues encompass many non-agricultural topics – including non-farm employment opportunities, especially for young people and women; migration and remittances; social protection; and the role of secondary cities.
Toolkit: Integrated homestead food production
November 2015
Since its founding, IFAD has focused on enabling smallholder farmers to increase agricultural production and productivity as a means for reducing poverty. However, experience shows that increased productivity and incomes do not automatically translate into improved nutritional status of poor rural people, especially women, young people and children.
Strengthening Country-Level Agricultural Advisory Services in the target countries of Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda
November 2015
The African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) goal is to increase use of improved knowledge and technologies by agricultural value chain actors through efficient, effective and synergistic linkages and partnerships between Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) of member Countries to improve the delivery of these services to farmers.
Enabling rural transformation and grassroots institutional building for sustainable land management and increased incomes and food security
November 2015
The enabling rural transformation and grassroots institutional building for sustainable land management and increased incomes and food security, referred to as the Strengthening Rural Institutions (SRI) project was undertaken by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Eastern and Southern Africa Region since 2011.
Investing in rural people in El Salvador
November 2015
IFAD has acquired considerable experience during its three decades of partnership with the country. It has contributed directly and indirectly to the mobilization of resources aimed at removing structural obstacles to the development of rural poor people. This has been achieved through the active involvement of, and coordination with, family farmers, indigenous peoples, rural youth organizations, government, international cooperation agencies, civil society and, more recently, the private sector. IFAD-funded projects mainly support family farmers and entrepreneurs in municipalities in which poverty is prevalent. Activities have also helped to address needs arising after the end of the 12-year internal armed conflict and the 2001 post-earthquake reconstruction process.