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"Leaving no one behind": Living Up To The 2030 Agenda
The 2030 Agenda is a global commitment, made at the highest level, to “leave no one behind” in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Arguably, this is one of the most challenging features of the agenda, and an apt theme for the 2016 session of the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), as the foremost global forum for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda.
Nowhere is the challenge of leaving no one behind more salient than in rural areas. Since the vast majority of people living in poverty are in rural areas, “leaving no one behind” clearly demands a special focus on rural women and men. Rural-urban gaps exist for virtually all development indicators. The 2016 session of the HLPF is an opportunity to consider how to put poor rural people at the centre of national, regional, and global efforts to implement the agenda and to measure progress.
Research Series Issue 5 - Rural-urban linkages and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa
This paper examines the role of rural-urban linkages in fostering inclusive and sustainable food systems and how these contribute to rural transformation and, more broadly, to sustainable and inclusive development. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the paper analyses the interdependencies between rural and urban areas and points to the key roles played by rural-based populations and producers, particularly smallholders, in promoting inclusive, mutually beneficial and sustainable urbanization.
International Day of Family Remittances - Endorsements 2016
Endorsements by the United Nations and international organizations.
IFAD in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEN)
in 59 projects in 13 countries of the CEN region.
The Adaptation Advantage: the economic benefits of preparing small-scale farmers for climate change
It is now beyond a reasonable doubt that the earth’s changing climate is a result of human actions.
The expanding total volume of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is precipitating higher global surface temperatures and sea level rise.
The effects of human-induced climate change threaten the very existence of numerous species across the planet, including our own.
IFAD Annual Report 2015
Facility for Refugees, Migrants, Forced Displacement and Rural Stability (FARMS)
IFAD’s engagement in Least Developed Countries: A review
Research Series Issue 4 - The effects of smallholder agricultural involvement on household food consumption and dietary diversity: Evidence from Malawi
Investing in rural people in Paraguay
IFAD-funded operations in Paraguay focus on empowering smallholder farmers and indigenous families by creating and strengthening rural organizations - in terms of governance, organizational administration and service capacity - to provide members with the tools they need to manage their own development.
Investing in rural people in Bolivia
IFAD, paying special attention to the needs of disadvantaged groups such as women, youth and indigenous peoples, focuses on strengthening the capacities of rural organizations to assist smallholder farmers in developing profitable rural businesses and tools and strategies to help cope with the challenges posed by climate change.
To achieve this goal, IFAD, in partnership with the Government of Bolivia, designs programmes to develop the technical and business skills of rural organizations, introducing technological innovations to add value to agricultural products by improving their quality and helping smallholder producers to be more competitive.
Furthermore, IFAD-funded operations facilitate the development of public-private joint ventures that help smallholder producers to gain access to markets and value chains.
ASAP The Gambia Factsheet
Work at IFAD: Make a difference
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. IFAD provides low-interest loans and grants to developing countries to finance innovative agricultural and rural development programmes and projects.
IFAD was established in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. World leaders agreed that “an International Fund for Agricultural Development should be established immediately to finance agricultural development projects…”. The conference was organized in the wake of the great droughts and famines that struck many parts of Africa in the early 1970s. IFAD is now among the top multilateral institutions working in agriculture in Africa.
Remittance flow infographic
African Postal Financial Services Initiative
Compendium of rural women’s technologies and innovations
Toolkit: Reducing rural women’s domestic workload through labour-saving technologies and practices
Lessons learned: Reducing women’s domestic workload through water investments
There is a recognized need in the water sector for more accurate data on access to water in terms of the distance travelled and the time needed to collect water to meet all household needs, and who or what combination of people are involved in water collection.
How to do note: Reducing rural women’s domestic workload through labour-saving technologies and practices
This How To Do Note looks at the opportunities provided by labour-saving technologies and practices for rural women in the domestic sphere. The purpose is to inform IFAD country programme managers, project teams and partners of proven labour-saving methods available to reduce the domestic workload and how they can best be selected and implemented – to help promote equitable workloads between men and women and contribute to poverty eradication.
ASAP Tanzania factsheet
The programme will focus on the development of the sugarcane industry
in Bagamoyo, while also building the local populations resilience to climate change.
ASAP Madagascar factsheet
markets and other economic opportunities.
The Traditional Knowledge Advantage: Indigenous peoples’ knowledge in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies
Higher temperatures, wildlife extinction, rising sea levels, droughts, floods, heat-related diseases and economic losses are among the consequences of climate change. Climate change disproportionally affects the poorest and most marginalized communities living in vulnerable regions, among them indigenous peoples, whose livelihoods depend on natural resources.
Territorial approaches, rural-urban linkages and inclusive rural transformation
They can help coordinate and concentrate efforts to address the spatial concentration of poverty and food insecurity in some less developed areas, reflecting vast spatial inequalities.
Ghana: Making value chains work for rural people
Senegal: the road to opportunity
When the seasonal rains came to some regions of south-eastern Senegal, the flooding used to cut off the inhabitants from the rest of the country. But that has changed with the IFAD-supported project known as PADAER – Projet d’Appui au Développement Agricole et à l’Entreprenariat Rural. Thanks to the projects’ work on rebuilding roads, rural people have new possibilities to make a living, they can access health services and education, and bring their products to markets.
A new lifeline; a new way of life.
For poor rural people, lack of infrastructure often translates into lack of options and alternatives. The project is changing that.
Lessons learned: Pastoralism land rights and tenure
Research Series Issue 3 - Fostering inclusive outcomes in African agriculture: improving agricultural productivity and expanding agribusiness opportunities
ASAP Bangladesh factsheet
change-related shift towards pre-monsoon rainfall is coinciding with the paddy rice pre-harvest period. This severely affects food output in the Haor, which provides up to 16 per cent of national rice production.
Financing Facility for Remittances: a migration and development programme
In 2016, around 200 million migrants worldwide sent home an estimated US$ 445 billion to their families in developing countries. These remittances provide for basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter that are essential to lifting millions of people out of poverty. The truly transformative potential of these funds, however, lies in their investment in education, healthcare and asset building. To meet these needs, the us$36 million multi-donor Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) has been working since 2006 with the goal of increasing the development impact of remittances and enabling poor households to advance on the road to financial independence and rural transformation. The FFR is administered by IFAD, a specialized agency of the United Nations with the mandate to invest in rural people to eradicate poverty in developing countries.
Toolkit: Digital financial services for smallholder households
10 points for a strategic approach to partnering with the private sector
How to do note: Public-private-producer partnerships (4Ps) in Agricultural Value Chains
This HTDN provides guidance for project design teams on how to design a 4P component and how to support the implementation of 4Ps within IFAD-funded projects.
It builds on findings and lessons learned from previous IFAD-supported projects, as summarized in the 2013 report, IFAD and Public-Private Partnerships: Selected Project Experiences, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS)/IFAD publication, Brokering Development: Enabling Factors for Public-Private-Producer Partnerships in Agricultural Value Chains.
This HTDN begins by defining the 4P and related concepts and then analyses the basic elements that need to be considered when designing and establishing a 4P followed by recommendations for the implementation of 4Ps.
GEF Ethiopia factsheet
The Community-based Integrated Natural Resources Management Project is located in the Lake Tana Watershed within Amhara National Regional State. The project covers 21 Woredas (districts) comprising 347 kebeles.
Project operations will consist of two components, namely: (i) Community-Based Integrated Watershed Management; and (ii) Institutional, Legal and Policy Analysis and Reform.
GEF Swaziland factsheet
How to do note: Digital financial services for smallholder households
can especially benefit from mobile phone platforms, which offer immediate, safe access to government subsidies, cash transfers and remittances. The messaging features of mobile phones can complement digital financial services (DFSs) by offering timely information on weather conditions, farming tips, market
prices and potential buyers, which can help increase farming yields and profitability.
Lessons learned: Digital financial services for smallholder households
provide a platform for credit and insurance, without smallholders having to visit a bank branch. Mobile phones can also bridge information asymmetries by offering weather forecasts and real-time market prices, which can improve the ability of farmers to prepare and respond to inclement weather and price fluctuations.
Research Series Issue 2 - Migration and Transformative Pathways
IFAD-Japan: A partnership for inclusive rural development
The origins of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) stretch back to the food crisis of the early 1970s, which sparked the World Food Conference of 1974. Three years later, with support from donors, including Japan, IFAD was created as both a specialized agency of the United Nations and an international financial institution.
Since 1978, IFAD has empowered about 453 million people to grow more food, manage their land and other natural resources more productively, learn new skills, start businesses, build strong organizations and gain a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
The price of development and the cost of inaction (2015)
Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) initiative
IFAD and Farmers' Organizations - Partnership in progress: 2014-2015
Insights from Participatory Impact Evaluations in Ghana and Vietnam
This paper by Adinda Van Hemelrijck and Irene Guijt explores how impact evaluation can live up to standards broader than statistical rigour in ways that address challenges of complexity and enable stakeholders to engage meaningfully. A Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning.
Approach (PIALA) was piloted to assess and debate the impacts on rural poverty of two government programmes in Vietnam and Ghana funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
GFRD2015 Official Report
FAO's and IFAD's Engagement in Pastoral Development
Country-Level Policy Engagement - a review of experience
IFAD’s Junior Professional Officer Programme
Farmers’ Africa: Complementary actions for the benefit of African producers
Farmers’ Africa is a capacity-building programme that aims to improve the livelihoods and food security of rural producers in Africa. It works with farmers’ organizations (FOs) to help them evolve into more stable, performing and accountable organizations that effectively represent their members and advise them on farming enterprises.
The programme supports the main functions of FOs, promotes their engagement in policy processes and contributes to their professionalization. It also supports the efforts of FOs to provide economic services to their members.
African Postal Financial Services Initiative
The African Postal Financial Services initiative is a joint regional programme launched by IFAD and the European Commission in collaboration with the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) – a specialized United Nations agency for the postal sector, the World Savings Banks Institute/European Savings Banks Group (WSBI/ESBG) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
This uniquely broad-based partnership seeks to enhance competition in the African remittance market by promoting and enabling post offices in Africa to offer remittances and financial services. Post offices are ideally placed to deliver remittances in rural areas, but they often lack the business model, technology and expertise to process real-time payments such as remittances in an efficient and safe manner. The goal of this initiative is to promote, support and scale up key postal networks in Africa in the integration of remittance services.
Methodological Reflections following the second PIALA Pilot in Ghana
IFAD has to report to its Members States on the total number of rural people lifted out of poverty1. The government programmes it funds, however, are implemented in complex ways and environments that challenge mainstream evaluation practice. The challenge for IFAD and its co- implementing and co-funding partners, moreover, is not just to rigorously assess impact but also to understand the processes generating impact in order to realize its ambitious targets (IFAD, 2011). Albeit a strong emphasis on quantitative measurement, there is a need for impact evaluation that fosters learning and responsibility.