Knowledge

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.

FAO, IFAD and WFP are leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) to support national Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes (HGSF).

This publication highlights some of the innovations in rural development promoted in Kenya, Tanzania and other African countries by IFAD and AGRA.

The Republic of Korea is one of the founding members of IFAD and currently sits on the Fund’s Executive Board. The Republic of Korea and IFAD remain committed to eradicating poverty and hunger, and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The RDMT aims at providing a framework for building the resilience of rural households and a step-by-step guide to designing for and monitoring the performance of resilience-building interventions during project implementation.

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.

This diagnostic provides an assessment of Uganda’s remittance market, with special reference to factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a market-oriented approach. 

The Senegal diagnostic provides an evaluation of remittance market into Senegal, under a supply-based approach. 

This report provides an assessment of the remittances market in Morocco.

The diagnostic covers key focus areas of Ethiopia’s formal remittance market, including the impact of the parallel foreign exchange market on remittances.

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 study provides food for thought for operators wishing to tailor their financial tools to the needs and expectations of the diaspora while stimulating the interest of public actors.

IFAD research shows that Mali’s diaspora want to invest in businesses within the agricultural sector, and specifically in businesses owned by members of the diaspora and their relatives.

Myanmar is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries in the Asian region, and ethnicity is a complex, contested, and politically sensitive issue in the country where ethnic groups have long believed that successive governments of Myanmar manipulate ethnic groups for political purposes.

This brochure highlights the stories of some of the rural people supported by the Rural Poor Stimulus Facility (RPSF), which helped mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of small-scale farmers across the country.

This publication provides a brief background on rangeland management in Tajikistan and offers key principles of rotational grazing practices that explain how and why such systems can achieve ecologically sustainable outcomes.

Handbook for Scaling Irrigation Systems is a joint publication between IFAD and IFC on how to develop and scale innovative solutions to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and increase crop productivity.

This diagnostic provides an assessment of Cabo Verde’s remittance market, which contributes over 15 per cent to the country’s GDP.

There are different and conflicting opinions, and until very recently, acute shortage of reliable data and statistics, regarding the population size of the different Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh

Indigenous peoples of Nepal have been living in Nepal since time immemorial.

The South Africa country diagnostic has been prepared in accordance with the PRIME Africa goals, to provide more in-depth analysis and additional evidence for the areas of action identified in the country road map.

This Learning Note showcases the methodology used for assessing the impacts of IFAD's investments on the livelihoods and lives of its project participants.

Gathering good data can reduce the cost of livestock insurance for smallholder farmers, making coverage affordable and building their resilience. The Insurance Toolkit new brief shares lessons learned in Georgia.

IFAD is a key partner in Haiti’s rural development. Its series of strategies, projects and programmes since 1978 testify to its long-standing commitment against rural poverty, with the active participation and inclusion of the Haitian rural population.

This note focuses on the challenge of verifying refugee identity in Uganda, outlining the current issues at stake and the rationale for solving this challenge and potential solutions for doing so.

IFAD has been working in India for more than 40 years. The current country strategic opportunities programme is fully aligned with the government’s policy framework. 

This publication documents some of these examples stemming from IFAD-supported livelihood projects in the most remote and fragile parts of India.

This learning brief summarizes the challenges, opportunities, and responses of agri-SMEs, financiers and development partners to the current food crisis.

This course covers key Financial Management (FM) aspects, with focus on IFAD-specific project FM requirements. The course provides key information on FM aspects and strengthen the skills of FM professionals.

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 publication explores how FPIC is solicited through consultation and the participation of communities and local institutions at specific stages of the project cycle.

This technical guide provides orientation for project designers and implementers on how to combine participatory methods and geomatics technology to strengthen legitimate tenure rights in land-based investments.

This desk review explores the evidence on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures with nutrition co-benefits, and vice versa.

See how IFAD charted a new path to help build the resilience of the world’s most vulnerable people.

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

This practical manual provides guidance on how to use geographic information systems (GIS) in the monitoring and evaluation of rural development projects.

To capture and systematize findings on programme implementation models, IFAD’s Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia (NEN) office reviewed models that are proving successful in boosting programme efficiency or capturing key project implementation lessons.

This guide provides assistance on formulating indicators to measure changes in gendered social norms in the context of food security and nutrition.

This study was conducted to develop a better understanding of the scope, challenges, and opportunities for integrating smallholder farmers’ organizations (SFOs) in IFAD-financed projects in the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region.

MobileRemit Africa is a key instrument of the Platform for Remittances, Investments and Migrants’ Entrepreneurship in Africa (PRIME Africa) initiative, co-financed by the European Union and initially implemented in seven African countries along with their main remittance corridors.

With eight years remaining to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition (SDG 2), the world is moving in the wrong direction.

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.

In this report, we highlight past trends and explore possible future trajectories of smallholder farming to predict who the farmers of the future are.

Using a food systems approach, this paper reviews existing evidence and discusses the conditions, rural population segments, and timelines needed to achieve desired outcomes.

This paper explores the role of water in Egypt’s food system and the dilemma the country faces: raise food self-sufficiency by allocating freshwater resources from the Nile to food production, or rely on food imports from water-abundant regions worldwide.

The paper finds that short- to medium-term interventions are most effective for improving the livelihoods of poor farmers, including food security and health, off-farm employment, and social assistance.

In this paper, the certification requirements and schemes of two export commodities—banana and cocoa—are discussed using food system analysis.

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.

IFAD’s strategy in Ethiopia focuses on providing smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agropastoralists with the critical assets they need to enhance productivity and resilience. These include natural resources, technology, finance, institutional capacity and access to markets.

Remittances sent by migrant workers to and within Africa were over US$85 billion in 2018, of which US$25 billion were sent by migrants residing in Europe.

This Just-in-Time Policy Note examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Pakistan’s food system and provides recommendations on key policy actions and adjustments to make the food systems more resilient to future shocks.

This paper explores the rise of SMEs in transforming food systems—from traditional, to transitional, to modern.

Developing competitive and inclusive food value chains requires domestic macroeconomic policies to improve the agricultural sector’s business environment and create outside opportunities, and sector-specific targeted measures to promote smallholder participation in competitive value chains by reducing market access costs.

This paper explores how traditional processing of fermented foods can be scaled up while enhancing functional food properties and strengthening local value chains.

This document offers insights into the challenges and opportunities of building public-private partnerships, and their potential to transform food systems in the region.

This briefing note provides a background of the Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool and case studies from projects in Kenya and Eswatini.

This paper argues that food systems transformation should incorporate a dietary perspective that is guided by information on diets, dietary trends, consumer motives, and the food environment characteristics.

This background paper examines the linkages and interactions between women’s empowerment, food systems, and nutrition.

This paper provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change.

This brief lays out the key elements of IFAD’s response to the global impacts of the war in Ukraine. Our goal is to protect the development gains and livelihoods of poor rural people, while reinforcing their resilience, focusing on the poorest and most affected countries. 

Greening our food systems to deliver healthier and more nutritious food sustainably cannot be done without financially empowered agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (agri-SMEs).

Faced with a triple health, economic, and social crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) have been called on by members and partners to play a variety of roles in response to the crisis.

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.

This paper shows that while anticipated increases in food demand by 2050 can largely be met regionally, potential yield increases or diversification will not contribute automatically to inclusive rural transformation. Instead, urbanization may potentially increase rural inequality and poverty.

Although the importance of inclusion in food system transformation is gaining traction, this paper argues that recent research and discourse on the topic is insufficient and that specific actions are needed to ensure that this transformation does not take place on the backs of the rural poor.

This toolbox provides guidelines on how to design and assess food biodiversity and dietary diversity projects with local communities, with the aim of improving the diets and nutrition of Indigenous Peoples.

Since 1981, IFAD has financed 19 rural development programmes and projects in Rwanda, for a total amount of US$358.04 million, and directly benefiting about 1,540,157 rural households.

Since 1979, IFAD has invested US$455.09 million in 20 programmes and projects in Kenya (at a total cost of US$980.31 million), in support of the Government’s efforts to reduce rural poverty.

This policy brief explains what FPIC is, how IFAD seeks FPIC, and examples of how IFAD and indigenous peoples are working together with FPIC.

This report documents how GIS methods and secondary data can be used as a complementary set of tools to conduct impact assessments when in-person interviews are not possible.

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 glossary provides standardized terms in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish in order to share knowledge and widen understanding of nutrition.

Based on the work of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development over the last two years, this white paper presents a set of responses and priorities for donor engagement and a menu of options for future donor commitments.

Using country-level data from 85 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), this paper outlines a food systems index (FSI) and analyses the linkages between food systems and structural and rural transformation, as well as population distributions.

This paper explores the prospects for a food system index (FSI) capturing several key components that influence differences in food system performance at the country level.

This paper highlights five fundamental paradigm shifts that are required to overcome trade-offs and build synergies between health and nutrition, inclusive livelihoods, environmental sustainability, and food system resilience.

This report looks at how the EU and IFAD have leveraged the partnership to develop new approaches that scale up actions to drive innovation in public-private sector partnerships, financing models, and pro-poor agricultural research, as well as supporting farmers’ networks.

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is one of the countries with the largest number of different ethnic groups in the world. The history of these ethnic groups extends beyond human memory.

Internationally, the ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (STs) of India are generally referred to as ‘Indigenous Peoples (IPs)’. However, the Government of India emphatically rejects equating Scheduled Tribes (STs) with IPs even while abiding by the operational directives of bilateral and multilateral agencies with regard to IPs while operationalising projects with their financial aid.

This note provides practical guidance on how to roll out the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) for IFAD-funded projects.

This How-to-do note outlines how an internal knowledge gap mapping exercise can be put together to derive meaningful inferences.

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. 

Since 1979, IFAD has funded 17 rural development projects in Madagascar for a total of US$434.285 million. Four projects are currently ongoing.

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.

This policy note discusses how China could further advance its food and agricultural development model, making it greener, more sustainable, and more inclusive.

This policy note discusses the challenges and opportunities for China to update its development model to reflect the new context. It suggests three priority areas and nine policy actions which China should focus on.

The IFAD Development Practices Community shares ideas, good practices, tools and lessons to enhance the effectiveness of development projects and better address the needs of the people IFAD serves.

EvalForward is a Community of Practice on Evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development.

This brief raises awareness about water harvesting systems and describes the design of water harvesting interventions. It aims to inform stakeholders on the assessment of water demand, water available for harvesting, and the selection of suitable water harvesting systems.

The Farmer Field School (FFS) approach is adopted in the vast majority of projects funded by IFAD in sub-Saharan Africa. Through this stocktaking, we analyse the extent to which the FFS approach helped peasant farmers engage in collective action, band together, and become more autonomous in responding to the problems they face.