Knowledge

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.