Knowledge

IFAD has been investing in Uzbekistan since 2012, providing financing worth US$81.7 million to three loan-financed projects/programmes that are intended to directly benefit 98,800 households at a total cost of US$81.7 million. 

The Nutrition-sensitive value chains: A guide for project design has been produced to fill a key knowledge gap in the emerging field of value chains for nutrition by providing guidance on how to design nutrition-sensitive value chain (NSVC) projects, with a particular focus on smallholder producers.

Since 1980, IFAD has financed 13 rural development programmes and projects in Tunisia for a total cost of US$453 million, with an IFAD investment of US$194.6 million directly benefiting 125,850 rural households. 

This paper addresses an important gap regarding the systematic knowledge and evidence on how value chains can contribute to nutrition, while remaining financially viable and inclusive of smallholder farmers. 

This paper explores the conditions for collective action to generate inclusion when agriculture transforms. 

A model for successful project implementation

People’s movement between rural and urban areas is necessary for stable and vibrant modern economies.

The who, what, where, why and how of Scaling Up.

IFAD’s vision of inclusive and sustainable rural transformation fits closely with the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda. We work to create the social and economic conditions that can transform rural areas into places of prosperity and hope, where people can build decent livelihoods. Increasingly, IFAD acts as an assembler of development finance, mobilizing resources from a range of sources to fund projects that empower poor rural people to grow, process and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. 

The grant mainstreamed climate-smart, tree-based agricultural good practices into the climate adaptation and mitigation programmes of governments, NGOs and the private sector in Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

The Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN) is an inclusive partnership of actors working in different parts of the global ecosystem for agricultural and related small and medium enterprise (SME) finance and investment. 

New evidence in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2018 confirms a rise in world hunger: the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to levels from almost a decade ago.

This study estimates the impact of agricultural research, specifically improved maize seeds varieties, on agricultural productivity and welfare in Uganda using a three-wave panel survey. 

Understanding contemporary migration, both international and internal, remains a challenge. The decision by people to migrate either within their own countries or across borders is influenced by an intricate set of factors. This report examines the complex interlinkages between migration, agriculture, food security and rural development and the factors that determine the decision of rural people to migrate; including economic factors, employment opportunities, conflict, poverty, hunger, environmental degradation and climate shocks.

Niger covers a landlocked 1,267,000 km² tract of the Sahel north of Nigeria. With a poverty rate of 48.9 per cent and income per capita of US$420, Niger is one of the world’s poorest nations. In 2015, it ranked last among 188 countries measured by the United Nations Human Development Index

Las organizaciones indígenas parte del IPAF han identificado los resultados más relevantes de sus proyectos.

Efforts to expand and strengthen indigenous peoples’ rights over their lands, territories and natural resources have become crucial to achieving the objectives of poverty reduction, more secure livelihoods, environmental sustainability and the preservation of indigenous cultural value systems. With this aim, over the past decades IFAD has worked together with indigenous peoples and their representing institutions to create enabling environments to secure their access to collective rights over ancestral territories, improve the sustainable management of indigenous lands, regulate the community use of natural resources and reduce conflicts over lands and resources.

 

The Asia and the Pacific region includes the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic countries and is a key driver of growth in the world economy.

This report reflects IFAD’s ongoing efforts to generate evidence to inform decision-making at the corporate and project level.

This paper uses the available cross-country data to analyse the causes for the increase in the disparity between rural and urban areas in Asia. 

The China-IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility was established in February 2018 and is the first Facility in IFAD dedicated to SSTC.

A set of specific priorities and actionable outcomes resulted from the GFRID 2018. These are directly linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. 

The project “Connecting Fairtrade Communities to ICT” in Papua New Guinea is a small grant of US$360,000 funded by the Republic of Korea in partnership with IFAD. 

Learn about IFAD's work, investments and results in our 2017 Annual Report. Read stories about the rural women and men we empower, and get the facts and figures we share regularly with our Member States and partners. You can also learn more about our advocacy efforts to keep the needs of rural communities at the top of the international development agenda.

​In 2014, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) released a report celebrating achievements through its partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Since then, the world has been responding to critical environmental and climate challenges.

The project aimed to promote a more dynamic insertion of small rural producers into value chains as a way to foster structural change in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Support to Farmers’ Organizations in Africa Programme (SFOAP): Main phase (2013 - 2018) is a continental programme which strengthens the institutional capacities, policy engagement and engagement of value chains of African farmers’ organizations (FOs). The programme supports the 5 regional networks of African FOs (EAFF, PROPAC, ROPPA, SACAU and UMNAGRI), their members at national level, and the pan-African FO (PAFO).

The programme aimed to intensify the cropping systems with grain legumes to improve the productivity and sustainability of rainfed agriculture while diversifying smallholder farmers’ income-generating opportunities. 

This programme, also known as FinServAccess, aimed to enhance access to sustainable rural financial services for smallholder producers and
agroentrepreneurs, so they are better equipped to face emerging challenges and benefit from new opportunities.

The grant is one of three projects implemented under a broader regional programme (Adaptation to Change) financed by IFAD, the Government of Norway, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). 

The programme Strengthening Knowledge Sharing on Innovative Solutions Using Learning Route (LR) Methodology1 in Asia and the Pacific (ROUTASIA) is the second phase of a four-year IFAD-funded large grant to Procasur Corporation. 

On 12 June 2018, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the International Day of Family Remittances as a universally recognized observance. New partners and supporters from private and civil society sectors have endorsed the Day 2018.

The African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI) was a unique broad-based partnership led by IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR), and bringing together the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and was cofinanced by the European Union (EU). The joint goal of this regional programme was to enhance competition in the African remittance marketplace through supporting and enabling African post offices in offering financial services. More specifically, it aimed at promoting a cheaper, faster, more convenient and more client-friendly transfer of remittances, particularly to rural areas, while fostering dialogue among stakeholders, regulators and policymakers. 

In March 2018, IFAD and the Government of Pakistan organized a one-day seminar entitled “Preparing Rural Communities to Cope with Climate Change through South-South and Triangular Cooperation”.  

​With private contributions becoming increasingly pivotal to global climate finance, it is evident that scaling up and channeling private capital is crucial in meeting the goal of achieving the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.

Pastoralism is a way of life based on territorial mobility, adopted in response to the challenges faced by human communities living in harsh or difficult environments.

This How To Do Note first outlines the problems developers need to be aware of in pastoral development.

These lessons learned have been developed for planners and policymakers: (a) to help them avoid investment strategies and policies that impact negatively on pastoralists; and (b) to enable them to ensure that specific policies and plans for pastoral development are more closely tailored to the needs of pastoralists.

Policy engagement is a difficult activity to accurately monitor and evaluate, particularly when development agencies are interested in attributing impact to their efforts. 

​The Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN) is an inclusive partnership of actors operating in different parts of the ecosystem for agricultural and related rural small and medium enterprise (SME) investment, with a focus on access to finance and complementary services.

In the context of population growth, increasing inequality and natural resource depletion, universal access to energy – specifically to renewable energy (RE) – now has high importance on political agendas. 

Access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is often associated with economic development and considered vital to alleviating extreme poverty (World Bank, 2018). Yet access to clean sources of energy is still a challenge for many smallholder farmers, their families and rural entrepreneurs.

The toolkit focuses on end-user finance for renewable energy technologies for rural households, smallholder farmers, and rural micro, small and medium enterprises.

This paper aims to identify the main drivers of poverty reduction in Malawi. Using an augmented poverty decomposition methodology, it explores in what way the different farm and non-farm economic activities contribute to poverty reduction and income growth. 

This paper aims to explore the influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of the beneficiaries of IFAD-funded projects.

The Journal of Law and Rural Development provides a forum where the link between law and rural development can be explored.

The Outreach Project was implemented in selected African countries (Gambia, Mozambique, and Tanzania) and aimed to improve the financia inclusion strategies of ongoing IFAD-funded operations by transferring and adapting innovative solutions, tools and methodologies previously tested in various countries of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region.

IFAD recognizes the importance of strengthening land tenure security as a key condition to ensure inclusive rural development and poverty eradication. As IFAD does not support stand-alone projects on land tenure, land-related interventions are typically integrated into broader components and activities.

This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the Asia and the Pacific Region (APR).

This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the East and Southern Africa region (ESA).

This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC).

This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia region (NEN).

This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the West and Central Africa region (WCA).

 

​RemitSCOPE, a new website portal, is designed to provide data, analyses and remittancemarket1 profiles on individual countries or areas. In coordination with the Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development 2018, RemitSCOPE is being launched to provide market profiles for 50 countries or areas in the Asia and the Pacific region.

The additional four regions will be included gradually: Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Near East and the Caucasus. RemitSCOPE intends to address the fast-changing market realities in the remittance industry in order to help bring together the goals of remittance families, as clients, and the strategies of the private-sector service providers. RemitSCOPE is designed as a free, one-stop shop that is available to any organization or entity interested in accessing all relevant public information on remittances.  

This paper analyses the channels through which growth reduces poverty by evaluating the relationship between the sectoral composition of economic growth and the rural-urban composition of poverty. 

This paper analyses the relation between urbanization and poverty reduction, by exploring the role of secondary towns, mega cities and rural non-agricultural sector in relation to poverty reduction.

IFAD, with support from the Government of Norway, developed the Rural Women’s Leadership Programme (RWLP) to strengthen the role and voice of women leaders in rural organizations, including in policy dialogue. 

Investments in smallholder goat development and related value chains are effective means to reduce poverty and increase the incomes of men and women from resource-poor households. They are also effective channels to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in remote mountainous
areas.
 

With funding from the German government, IFAD recently carried out a set of studies in Nigeria and Indonesia to determine how to
design nutrition-sensitive value chain (NSVC) projects for smallholders. Such projects seek to shape thedevelopment of value chains for
nutritious commodities in ways that are likely to address nutrition problems.

This publication presents IFAD’s first glossary of terms related to indigenous peoples. It has been developed jointly by specialized staff in the Office of the
Secretary (Language Services) and the Indigenous Peoples Desk in the Policy and Technical Advisory Division. The purpose of the glossary is to ensure
consistency and accuracy of terminology in English, French and Spanish, and standardize the terminology used in relation to indigenous peoples in official
documentation and publications, and in all aspects of meeting preparations. It is intended for use by IFAD staff, indigenous peoples' organizations and other
interested parties. Terms and definitions are accompanied by details of the source document and its date of publication.

The causes of gender discrimination pervade different aspects of our lives – social, economic, political, environmental – affecting gender roles and relations in domestic, productive and public domains and from the local to the international level. Time-bound development projects need to
address the cross-cutting and multifaceted nature of gender inequality through multiple entry points.

Interventions in the agricultural sector to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) mainly focus on strengthening women’s economic opportunities and decision-making capacities as farmers or in groups. However, the same women often remain disempowered within the household.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target an interrelated set of issues that must be addressed to eradicate hunger and poverty and ensure a future in which no one is left behind. This year’s High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) focuses on “Transformation towards sustainable
and resilient societies”. The SDGs relating to water (SDG6), energy (SDG7), human settlements (SDG11), responsible consumption and production (SDG12), life on land (SDG15) and partnerships (SDG17) will be under in-depth review. In that context, the rural world – where most poor and hungry people live – deserves special attention.

Agriculture begins with seed. Without seed, there can be no crops and no food production. When harvests fail or seed stocks are lost, seed insecurity ensues, which can reduce food security and livelihoods. 

This How To Do Note (HTDN) in this toolkit on Supporting Smallholder Seed Systems tackles the complexities of seed systems, setting out a process to support national agricultural policy decision makers, national and international development agencies and IFAD Country Programme Managers (CPMs) in the design and supervision of seed-related projects. The other publications in this toolkit are the Teaser and Lessons Learned.

This publication, Lessons Learned, presents some key lessons from the experiences of IFAD and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other seed-related development projects. These lessons will help the reader of the How To Do Note (HTDN) to have a greater understanding and appreciation of the framework for analysing national seed systems and how to use the HTDN to inform the design and implementation of more effective seed projects.

This paper challenges the traditional view that portrays income maximization as the main driver of migration and tests whether relative deprivation and social inequality lead to migration in sub-Saharan Africa. Examining data from the Living Standards Measurements Study – Integrated Surveys in Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, the paper finds that a household’s migration decision is based not only on its well-being status, but also on the position of the household relative to the wealth distribution in the local community. Results indicate that relative deprivation of wealth was positively associated with migration, implying a need to renew the discussion of relative deprivation and social inequality as a cause of migration in sub-Saharan Africa.

Among ecosystems services, freshwater is one of the most fundamental for life. For smallholders, water means the difference between a decent life and poverty, hunger and malnutrition. 

This publication seeks to provide development practitioners, governmental and non-governmental organizations and agencies with insights into the case studies on overcoming the challenges that young people face in diverse contexts. 

Peru has made great strides in poverty reduction over the past decade, leading to a significant decline in the national poverty rate from 42.4 per cent in 2004 to 20.7 per cent in 2015. Nevertheless, by 2016 the gap between rural and urban poverty had tripled, at 44 per cent versus 14 per cent. Income inequality among Peruvian households remained virtually unchanged between 2004 and 2015. The most salient result is differential access by urban and rural people to education, health care, financial services and productive assets.

In Indonesia’s eastern Maluku and North Maluku provinces, malnutrition levels are high. Nutrition challenges include monotonous diets with inadequate levels of energy, micronutrients and protein. Studies commissioned by IFAD suggest that strengthened value chains for foods such as bananas, cassava, maize, spinach, sweet potatoes and fish could make business sense for smallholders and lay the foundations for a strong local food system that sustainably delivers nutritious foods for healthy diets.

The goal was to improve the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers through the adoption of integrated crop–livestock conservation agriculture.

Some of today’s biggest challenges are not new – poverty, hunger and inequality, in particular. But in addition, major threats and trends continue to emerge.

Remittances constitute a critical lifeline for around 1 billion people around the world. These vital flows of private money, sent by over 200 million international migrant workers, help families raise their living standards and contribute to improved health, education and housing. 

This How to Do Note (HTDN) is intended to provide guidance on how to design smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes that consider the differential impacts of climate change on women, men and youth smallholder farmers. This includes recognizing that programme interventions – from design to staffing to capacity development of beneficiaries and local organizations – need to consider how gender will affect sustainability and impact. The experiences, social positions and differing access to resources of marginalized populations are fundamental considerations in the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of gender transformative smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes.