Knowledge

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. 

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. 

​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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

​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. 

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.

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 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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of roughly 70 per cent of the world’s poor, supporting farmers, consumers, traders and laborers throughout the developing world. The increasing demand for livestock products for the growing populations of developing countries, particularly in Africa, offers new market opportunities for poor farmers in rural areas.

Success in raising small-farmer productivity leads to improvements in household food security, nutrition and income, leading to poverty reduction. However, in vast areas of sub-Saharan Africa, increased and sustained animal production by small farmers is greatly hampered by livestock diseases. Animal diseases severely constrain livestock enterprises of smallholder livestock keepers in sub-Saharan Africa but are not given the attention they deserve by the global community

The IFAD-GEF supported project aims to increase the resilience to climate change of agriculture in Jordan, focusing on water as a key natural resource for agricultural production in the country. The proposed project will promote technically reliable, economically competitive, clean and sustainable irrigation technology for the agricultural sector in different agro climatic production regions in Jordan.

IFAD will seek to improve food security, natural resource management, livestock value chains, and climate resilience for the poor rural people of Sudan.

This note presents lessons learned on integrated homestead food production (IHFP) emerging from projects and programmes implemented by IFAD and other development actors around the world. It aims to complement the How To Do Note (HTDN) on the same subject by illustrating success stories and good practices through case studies.

Integrated homestead food production (IHFP) is considered to be a nutrition-sensitive, pro-poor and women-controlled approach to household food production that includes vegetable and fruit gardens, backyard livestock-raising and small fish ponds. It can enhance poor rural people’s access to a variety of nutritious fresh foods, grown in close proximity to their households and requiring relatively limited human, financial and productive resources. The how to do note provides operational guidance on how to design and implement projects that incorporate IHFP.

Today more people live in cities than ever before, but we still depend on  rural areas for our food. In the developing world, up to 80 per cent of food
is produced on small farms that are usually family-run. Yet it’s also true that 70 per cent of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas, where the lack
of opportunity is forcing many young rural people to leave their homes in search of work in overcrowded cities or abroad.

Fisheries and aquaculture are important contributors to food security and livelihoods at household, local, national and global levels. However, while aquaculture production is growing rapidly throughout the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, many of the world’s fisheries are at grave risk from human pressures, including overexploitation, pollution and habitat change. Climate change is compounding these pressures, posing very serious challenges and limiting livelihood opportunities.

​This survey was commissioned by the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and undertaken by Taylor Nelson Sofres, TNS-RMS, in the context of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI). 

Like many development partners, IFAD has found that innovative free- standing development projects alone are not an effective vehicle for eradicating poverty at scale: they must be part of a longer-term process that can sustain learning and scaling up. 

​The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted a critical trade-off between agricultural development and climate change mitigation.

The Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) was launched by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in 2012 to make climate and environmental finance work for smallholder farmers. A multi-year and multi-donor financing window, ASAP provides a new source of cofinancing to scale up and integrate climate change adaptation across IFAD’s approximately US$1billion per year of new investments. The programme is joined up with IFAD’s regular investment processes and benefits from rigorous quality control and supervision systems.

ASAP is driving a major scaling up of successful ‘multiple-benefit’ approaches to smallholder agriculture, which improve production while reducing and diversifying climate-related risks. In doing so, ASAP is blending tried-and tested approaches to rural development with relevant adaptation know-how and technologies. This will increase the capacity of at least 8 million smallholder farmers to expand their livelihood options in an uncertain and rapidly changing environment.

Agriculture and food are critical areas in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – a global action plan aiming to guide the actions of governments, the private sector and a range of other stakeholders over the next fifteen years. The agrifood sector is a key area of investment for food security and nutrition. 

This policy brief argues that the post-2015 development agenda should be designed to encourage governments and other actors to facilitate the economic and social empowerment of the poor rural people, in particular, marginalized rural groups such as women and indigenous peoples. 

The Use of Remittances and Financial Inclusion A report prepared by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank Group to the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion.

Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA)

 

Proceedings of the 2nd Global Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples Forum at IFAD, 12-13 February 2015

This case study illustrates how the Family Life Model (household methodology) has been used effectively in Uganda, highlighting how it has worked in a particular context. 

With a small grant, INBAR has innovated Household Charcoal (HHC) production from cooking with firewood into a new livelihood opportunity and sustainable value chain for the economic empowerment of poor rural women. Women from poor rural households in Ethiopia, India and Tanzania were trained to put out fires when they had finished cooking to prevent smouldering, collect household charcoal through the clusters and process it into briquettes. INBAR has also developed the NCPP Social Enterprise Model which is an Innovative & Inclusive Institutional system to strengthen the rural development ecosystem and enable safe investment opportunities for rural women.

This How To Do Note provides a step-by-step guide on how to implement Household Methodologies (HHMs). It describes activities at the household level, different approaches for implementing HHMs, service providers and the facilitator system, and the role of the community and the wider environment. The main points to consider when incorporating HHMs in project design and implementation are noted.

​This HTDN is directed primarily at the design phase of IFAD value chain projects, though it does have some relevance for both pre-design and implementation phases.

Over the last decade, Ecuador’s poverty levels have fallen despite a period of recent political and economic crises. Nevertheless, in rural spheres, indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities continue to face barriers to economic inclusion, ranging from lack of secure access to land and water resources to limited investment opportunities. The situation varies across regions and social groups. In the Amazon for instance, indigenous groups struggle to obtain clear titles for communal lands that are under increased pressure from oil exploration and production. In the highlands, peasant communities face shortages of land and increasing degradation due to agricultural intensification and unregulated expansion into the upper reaches of water basins (páramos). In the coastal regions, communities face growing encroachment on their lands by large landholdings, in addition to degradation of mangrove forests due to unsustainable exploitation.

The project interventions focus on water resources management through three
main components: i) capacity building, awareness raising and knowledge
management at the national level, ii) water harvesting and watershed
management, and iii) water conservation and efficient irrigation.

The project interventions focus on water resources management through three
main components: i) capacity building, awareness raising and knowledge
management at the national level, ii) water harvesting and watershed
management, and iii) water conservation and efficient irrigation.

Project activity has been classified into separate components, however they all come together to deliver the same overall objective. One component revolves around sustainable growth and capacity building. It will focus efforts on things such as improvements to infrastructure and hydro agriculture; developing wetlands and watershed areas.

The project work will be split into two components. The first will deal with Rural Livelihoods and the second with Market Linkages and Climate Resilient Infrastructure.
PRELNOR will enable smallholder farmers to improve their productivity to a level where there is enough surplus production that the farmer can sell at market.

The project objective is to strengthen sustainable forest management in the
project area and develop local capabilities, leading to the reduction of carbon
emissions from deforestation and the increase of carbon sequestration
through the financing of initiatives for the most vulnerable. Project operations
are focused in 25 municipalities, in which 83 per cent of the population are
indigenous peoples.

This How To Do Note is intended as a tool for IFAD staff and partners involved in investment projects with climate resilience objectives.

This report proceeds from the First African Conference on Remittances and Postal Networks held in Cape Town, South Africa 2015.

Since the 1990s, Colombia has experienced sustained, strong economic growth. However, it is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The gap between urban and rural areas is particularly wide. While the incidence of poverty is 27.8 per cent of the population at the national level, 40.3 per cent of rural people live in poverty. The percentage is even higher among indigenous peoples and communities of African descent. The agricultural sector represents 6.1 per cent of Colombia’s GDP and 16.3 per cent of employment. However, these figures could be even higher because the country has huge agricultural potential.

In August 2015, a grant agreement was signed between IFAD and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “demonstrate that the goat subsector in India has a great potential to contribute to poverty alleviation and offers opportunities where donors can partner with private sector, public sector, and producers to effect large-scale productivity improvement in small ruminant value chains in Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh states”.

This Progress Review evaluates the status of IFAD’s Adaptation to Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) at programme mid-term, 2.5 years after the first ASAP-investment has been approved by the IFAD Executive Board.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have joined forces to reduce the vulnerability of poor rural people to extreme weather events that can be devastating to agricultural productivity. With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IFAD and WFP are working to improve the access of poor rural people in developing countries to index-based weather insurance. This type of insurance can help them cope better when extreme weather hits, and can open the door to other financial services, in particular credit.

IFAD uses highly concessional loans in an innovative way in the Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Moldova. Low-cost refinancing capital makes rural investments attractive and profitable for formal financial institutions and reduces rural poverty by stimulating economic growth.

In the past seven years, IFAD has successfully used refinancing facilities in economies in transition to stimulate investments on farms and in rural processing companies. The facilities have refinanced projects for a total value of over US$50 million in the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Armenia, with an excellent recovery performance. Refinancing operations have proved to be a viable alternative to established modes of financing rural investments through lines of credit and microfinance. And they have encouraged financial institutions to expand their rural networks and start investing in agro-projects from their own funds. 

Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General

IFAD is unique in the very clear focus of its mandate, and this sharp focus that also gives IFAD great strength, your specialist knowledge of agriculture and rural development will be even more valuable in the years ahead. Speech to IFAD staff, Chief Executives Board for Coordination meeting, May 2014

Marisa Lago, Assistant Secretary for International Markets and Development, United States Department of Treasury

By taking an innovative, community-based approach to investing in smallholder farmers - the most vulnerable members in rural societies – IFAD is an important partner in the global fight against poverty and hunger. I’ve witnessed first-hand the positive impact of IFAD’s work in providing technical training, facilitating access to microfinance, and strengthening farmers’ organizations in countries ranging from Uruguay to Tanzania to Morocco. The United States was a founding member of IFAD and proudly remains a strong supporter.

Projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that, in the future, warming in Latin America could range from 1-4 degrees Celsius to 2-6 degrees Celsius, depending on the various climate scenarios. As land-use changes in Latin America have intensified the use of natural resources, land degradation and desertification have accelerated. The IPCC predicts that, by the 2050s, about 50 per cent of agricultural land in the region will be subject to desertification, and in some areas salinization. From the Amazon rainforest and the high mountains of the Andes to the coral reefs of the Caribbean and the coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean is host to unique ecosystems and biodiversity of global importance. Despite the region’s relatively small contribution to global warming, its natural environments and resource-dependent economies are threatened by the impact of climate change, and poor and marginalized rural communities are at greatest risk. 

The average temperature in the Asia and Pacific region could rise by some 0.5 to 2 degrees Celsius by 2030 and between 1 and 7 degrees Celsius by 2070. Annual rainfall is also expected to increase in several parts of Asia while arid and semi-arid areas would become drier. The areas predicted to get more annual rainfall would nonetheless suffer decreased water availability as the rainfall would be concentrated during the rainy season in fewer incidences of highintensity rainfall – with massive run-off and floods expected to be the result. Rising sea levels will affect a significant number of countries in the region, with small atoll Pacific Island countries, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Viet Nam particularly hard hit. In the past 50 years, Viet Nam has experienced a 50-centimetre sea-level rise, as recorded in the Hon Dau station. It is expected that a 30-centimetre increase will be experienced in the Mekong Delta by 2050, and this increase, coupled with salinity intrusion, will lead to the loss of some 420,000 hectares of arable land. The projected sea-level rise is likely to result in significant losses of coastal ecosystems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes with high confidence (about an 8 out of 10 chance of an event happening) that 1 million people along the coasts of South and South-East Asia will be at risk from flooding.

The Near East and North Africa region is one of the world's driest and most water-scarce regions. In many areas in the region, demand for water already outstrips supply. Although the region contributes relatively little to greenhouse gas emissions, it will be among those hardest hit by climate change. Climate experts predict that, in future, the climate will become hotter, drier and more variable. Over the next 15 to 20 years, average temperatures are estimated to rise by at least 2 degrees Celsius, and possibly up to 4 degrees Celsius. Higher temperatures and reduced precipitation will increase the occurrence of drought, as is already evident in the western part of North Africa. Densely populated low-lying coastal areas in Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are particularly at risk from rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion into agricultural land.

Agriculture plays a significant role in Africa, accounting for about 30 per cent of GDP south of the Sahara, as well as a significant proportion of export value. Not surprisingly, in most African countries, 60 per cent or more of employees work in agriculture.
Yet this barely scrapes the surface of Africa’s promise. Only 6 per cent of cultivated land is irrigated in Africa, compared with 37 per cent in Asia, for example. Africa also has the largest share of uncultivated land with rain-fed crop potential in the world. In addition, African farmers use substantially less fertilizer per hectare than counterparts in East Asia and the Pacific.

Improving the livelihoods of the rural poor is at the heart of IFAD’s work, and maximizing agriculture’s contribution to improving nutrition is an essential
part of that mission. Of course, other sectors have roles to play, but good nutrition begins with food and agriculture.

Water lies at the heart of sustainable development and is essential for economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. It is the basis of human and environmental health, energy security, sustainable urbanization and the ability of rural women and men in developing countries to pursue productive activities. 

But one billion people still lack access to safe water and even more lack access to basic sanitation. Around three quarters of the world’s poorest and hungriest people live in rural areas, often forgotten and bypassed by economic growth and development programmes. The majority of rural people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but face numerous barriers in accessing services and securing vital resources, including water.

Despite strong and sustained economic growth over the past two decades, and a considerable reduction in national poverty rates, poverty in rural LaoPeople’s Democratic Republic (PDR) affects 30 per cent of the population. IFAD’s engagement in Lao PDR is guided by a country strategy that focuses on three primary goals: improved community-based access to, and management of, land and natural resources; improved access to advisory services and inputs for sustainable, adaptive and integrated farming systems; and improved access to markets for selected products.

Mexico is an upper-middle-income country with numerous policy initiatives aimed at addressing poverty and improving the well-being of both rural andurban populations. However, the country suffers from low productivity, low levels of GDP growth, and persistent poverty. Poverty is especially high in rural regions: in 2012, as much as 61 per cent of the rural population was categorized as poor (compared with 45 per cent of the total population) after little change over the past two decades.

Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics, and 77 per cent of its population lives in rural areas. Rural livelihoods typically depend on subsistence farming, livestock and remittances, with livestock ownership being a key component in income generation and diversification. In poor and remote agroecological regions the production of angora (which is processed into mohair) and cashgora goats often represents the only source of livelihood, particularly for poorer households. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the sector has been constrained by the absence of goat breeding programmes, the limited harvesting and processing skills of small producers, and the lack of access to high-value markets. These factors have had direct impacts on the incomes of poor rural households, and particularly women, in Tajikistan.

Cooperatives play a significant role in the economies of the five countries of EAC. There are more than 30,000 registered cooperatives in the region and the movement employs – directly or indirectly – more than 15 million people. About half of these cooperatives are related to agriculture. Savings and credit cooperatives are also becoming increasingly popular in the region.

The SAIL programme has several components: i) community and livelihood development, ii) agriculture development and diversification, and iii) rural financial services.
The community development activities will focus on the ''new lands'' that have been settled by smallholder farmers. Community development associations will be strengthened so that they can allow for the inclusion of women and youth. The project will also provide buildings and financing for schools, health clinics, community centres and clean water infrastructure.

Overall the KCEP-CRAL project is divided into two objectives, which will be achieved through three technical components. The first project objective is to graduate smallholder farmers to commercially-oriented, climate-resilient agricultural practices through improvements in productivity, post-production management practices and market linkages for targeted value chains. The second objective is to empower local government and communities to sustainably manage their natural resources whilst building resilience to climate change.

Family Farming Development Programme (ProDAF) in Maradi, Tahoua and Zinder.

The Integrated Participatory Development and Management of Irrigation Project (IPDMIP) in Eastern and Western Indonesia is a major initiative supporting smallholder irrigated agriculture in that country. The project is expected to start in 2016, supporting smallholder farmers who depend on irrigation in up to 74 target districts in 16 provinces.

Under the Programme de Développement des Oasis (PDDO), the Government of Mauritania, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have introduced and piloted solar-powered water pumping for agricultural use in the oases. 

The first programme component will focus on three areas: plants/crops, animals and infrastructure. 

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. 

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.

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. 

This paper offers IFAD’s perspective on some of the key issues on the current debate on financing for development.

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).

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. 

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Access to modern renewable energy services is a key factor in eradicating poverty and ensuring food security.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

 

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. 

​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).

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.

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.

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.