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IFAD Research Series 92: Climate Change Mitigation in the East and Southern Africa Region: An Economic Case for the Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use Sector
This report is a guide to shape investments by IFAD and other international donors in climate change mitigation actions in the East and Southern Africa region.
IFAD Research Series - Issue 91: Addressing overweight and obesity in LMICs in the realm of rural development and food systems
This paper presents the findings of a literature review of the main drivers of overweight and obesity, described using a food systems framework and illustrated with examples from five countries.
IFAD Research Series No. 90: Rural Transformation, Income Growth and Poverty Reduction by Province in China in the Past Four Decades
China has experienced rapid rural transformation in the past four decades, accompanied by a rise in rural household income and a fall in rural poverty. This paper examines provincial rural transformation and its major outcomes.
IFAD Research Series No. 89: Incorporating the Impact of Climate and Weather Variables in Impact Assessments: An Application to an IFAD Climate Change Adaptation Project in Viet Nam
This paper discusses which climate variables to collect, and from which sources, when incorporating them into an impact assessment.
IFAD Research Series No. 88: The Impact of Climate Change on Livestock Production in Mozambique
This paper focuses on activities targeting improved pasture management, supplemental feed sources and livestock value chain development.
Research Series 87: Incorporating the Impact of Climate and Weather Variables in Impact Assessments
This paper outlines a methodological strategy for incorporating weather and long-term climate conditions into impact assessments, based on an IFAD-supported project that invested in grain storage in Chad.
Research Series 86: Incorporating the Impact of Climate and Weather Variables into Impact Assessments
This paper applies a methodological framework for incorporating current period weather and long-term climate conditions into impact assessments.
IFAD11 Impact Assessment Report
IFAD measures the impact of its investments by systematically conducting impact assessments on a sample of projects closing during each replenishment period.
Research Series 85: Financing climate adaptation and resilient agricultural livelihoods
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.
Research Series 84: Farmed animal production in tropical circular food systems
In this review, the role of farmed animals in circular food systems in the tropics is presented in four case studies.
Research Series 83: The future of farming: who will produce our food?
In this report, we highlight past trends and explore possible future trajectories of smallholder farming to predict who the farmers of the future are.
Research Series 82: Contributions of information and communication technologies to food systems transformation
Using a food systems approach, this paper reviews existing evidence and discusses the conditions, rural population segments, and timelines needed to achieve desired outcomes.
Research Series 81: Food and water systems in semi-arid regions – case study: Egypt
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.
Research Series 80: How can different types of smallholder commodity farmers be supported to achieve a living income?
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.
Research Series 79: The position of export crops banana and cocoa in food systems analysis with special reference to the role of certification schemes
In this paper, the certification requirements and schemes of two export commodities—banana and cocoa—are discussed using food system analysis.
Research Series 78: The Small and Medium Enterprises’ quiet revolution in the hidden middle of food systems in developing regions
This paper explores the rise of SMEs in transforming food systems—from traditional, to transitional, to modern.
Research Series 77: The role of trade and policies in improving food security
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.
Research Series Issue 76: Upscaling of traditional fermented foods to build value chains and to promote women entrepreneurship
This paper explores how traditional processing of fermented foods can be scaled up while enhancing functional food properties and strengthening local value chains.
Research Series Issue 75: Reverse thinking: taking a healthy diet perspective towards food systems transformations
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.
Research Series 74: Women’s empowerment, food systems, and nutrition
This background paper examines the linkages and interactions between women’s empowerment, food systems, and nutrition.
Research Series 73: Food systems and rural wellbeing: challenges and opportunities
This paper provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change.
Research Series 72: Climate change and food system activities - a review of emission trends, climate impacts and the effects of dietary change
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.
Research Series 71: Urbanizing food systems: exploring opportunities for rural transformation
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.
Research Series 70: Do not transform food systems on the backs of the rural poor
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.
Research Series 69: Structural and rural transformation and food systems: a quantitative synthesis for LMICs
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.
Research Series 68: Exploring a food system index for understanding food system transformation processes
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.
Research Series 67: Towards food systems transformation – five paradigm shifts for healthy, inclusive and sustainable food systems
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.
Reinforcing Pacific Food Systems for COVID-19 recovery – key impacts, responses and opportunities to build back better
This report offers a consolidated analysis of pre-COVID food security and nutrition challenges across the Pacific Islands and outlines key actions needed to respond to the current impacts, inform medium- to long-term recovery planning, and better prepare for future crises.
Climate adaptation and mitigation measures for nutrition co-benefits in IFAD investments in Ghana
This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD project on Livelihood and Productivity Enhancement of Smallholder Farmers (PROSPER) in Ghana.
Food-system interventions with climate change and nutrition co-benefits: a literature review
This literature review report explores the conceptual linkages between climate change and nutrition using a food system approach.
Climate adaptation and mitigation measures for nutrition co-benefits in IFAD investments in Zimbabwe
This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project (SACP) in Zimbabwe.
Climate adaptation and mitigation measures for nutrition co-benefits in IFAD investments in Lesotho
This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD project on Restoration of Landscapes and Livelihoods (ROLL P) in Lesotho.
Research Series Issue 65: Impacts of agricultural value chain development in a mountainous region: Evidence from Nepal
This analysis investigates the potential mechanism and the practical significance of the impacts of agricultural value chain development in a geographically challenging rural area of a developing country.
Innovation Catalogue
The Innovation Catalogue showcases a set of 23 solutions to challenges faced by small-scale producers in East and Southern Africa.
Managing agricultural risk through remittances: the case of Senegal
Research Series Issue 64: How the adoption of drought-tolerant rice varieties impacts households in a non-drought year: Evidence from Nepal
Stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) are bred to be high yielding and tolerant to climate shocks such as drought.
Digital gender inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean
Impact Assessment: Strengthening Local Development in the Highlands and High Rainforest Areas Project (PSSA)
Research Series Issue 63: The adoption of improved agricultural technologies - A meta-analysis for Africa
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020
Transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets.
Research Series Issue 62: The spillover effects of seed producer groups on non-member farmers in mid-hill communities of Nepal
Impact Assessment: Gente de Valor – Rural Communities Development Project in the Poorest Areas of the State of Bahia
The Rural Communities Development in the Poorest Areas of the State of Bahia (Project Gente de Valor) was designed to strengthen the capacity of rural communities to thrive in the drought-prone environment of Brazil's north-east region through improved access to water, increased productive capacity, and empowerment of participating communities.
Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa 2019
Research Series Issue 61: The narrative on rural youth and economic opportunities in Africa: facts, myths and gaps
This paper reviews the narrative on rural youth and economic opportunities in Africa, using a set of policy documents from various African countries and regional and international organizations.
Research Series Issue 60: Investing in rural youth in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia
This study reviews the opportunities and challenges facing rural youth in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia region.
Research Series Issue 59: The rural youth situation in Latin America and the Caribbean
This study offers a general picture of the situation of rural youth in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Research Series Issue 58: Investing in rural youth in the Asia and the Pacific region
This study characterizes the structural and rural transformation of the Asia and the Pacific region.
Research Series Issue 57: Unlocking the potential of rural youth: the role of policies and institutions
This study presents a framework to analyse the political economy of rural youth policy and institutions’ opportunity space with a quadrant that measures the extent to which rural youth are a priority in policies and institutions versus the extent that governments have to effectively implement rural youth policies.
Research Series Issue 56: The impact of migrants’ remittances and investment on rural youth
This study analyses how migrants positively contribute to the sustainable economic development of rural youth in their countries of origin.
Research Series Issue 55: Rural youth: determinants of migration throughout the world
This study takes a unique look at the determinants of youth migration across seven different countries using recently collected data.
Research Series Issue 54: Rural youth in the context of fragility and conflict
While conflicts are often defined as “development in reverse”, there is a general lack of research focusing specifically on young people living in rural areas.
Research Series Issue 53: Youth access to land, migration and employment opportunities: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa
This study examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities in various African countries.
Research Series Issue 52: Information and communication technologies and rural youth
This analysis reviews existing research on the impact of digital initiatives on youth in the education, agriculture, financial and employment sectors.
Research Series Issue 51: Inclusive finance and rural youth
This study analyses inclusive finance and rural youth through cutting-age research with new insights and approaches that have emerged over the years in the field.
Research Series Issue 50: Rural transformation and the double burden of malnutrition among rural youth in developing countries
In this study, we show that rural transformation processes are associated with improvements in rural youth nutrition – malnutrition and underweight – in nearly all regions, although the pace of change varies considerably across countries.
Research Series Issue 49: Climate and jobs for rural young people
Climate change matters for all young people, especially for those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. This study shows that adaptation to climate change is feasible and options increase as new technologies and management approaches come on-stream.
Research Series Issue 48: Rural youth, today and tomorrow
Research on rural youth aspirations suggests that many young people are not averse to agriculture as such, but to agriculture’s current neglected condition
Research Series Issue 47: Landscapes of rural youth opportunity
This study is motivated by the consistent portrayal of agriculture and the broader rural economy in Africa as domains of opportunity for rural youth.
Research Series Issue 46: Economic participation of rural youth: what matters?
A key lesson is that lack of technical skills does not seem to be the biggest obstacle youth face in entering the labour force. Evidence on agricultural extension programmes suggests that peer-to-peer learning works best.
Research Series Issue 45: Rural youth inclusion, empowerment and participation
This exploratory study focuses on participation in decision-making processes and how rural youth could benefit from its findings in development projects and initiatives.
Research Series Issue 44: Gender, rural youth and structural transformation: evidence to inform innovative youth programming
This study analyses sex-disaggregated data from various countries to characterize rural youths’ transition to adulthood by gender.
Research Series Issue 43: Youth agrifood system employment in developing countries: a gender-differentiated spatial approach
Little is known about the economic activities of rural youth. This study provides empirical evidence on this gap in literature.
Research Series Issue 42: What drives rural youth welfare? The role of spatial, economic, and household factors
This study uses the concept of the Rural Opportunity Space from economic geography literature to shed light on these questions.
Research Series Issue 41: The demography of rural youth in developing countries
Building on United Nations data, this study analyses how past growth of the youth population was dramatic in Asia and the Pacific, while projections suggest a sharp rise in the youth population of sub-Saharan Africa until 2050.
IFAD10 Impact Assessment: An Overview
To hold itself accountable on progress made in achieving this goal and these three strategic objectives, IFAD has adopted a unique approach to reporting impact at the corporate level, building on rigorous project-level evaluations. This report provides the results of these efforts to assess the corporate impact of IFAD investments for the Tenth Replenishment of IFAD’s Resources (IFAD10) period of 2016-2018.
Research Series Issue 40: Local-economy impacts of cash crop promotion
Research Series Issue 39: Smallholder farming, growth linkages, structural transformation and poverty reduction
Impact assessment: The Coastal Community Development (CCDP)
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019
Research Series Issue 38: Meta-evidence review on the impacts of investments in agricultural and rural development on Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2
Soy papa no papá: Historias de cambios destacables y resultados del proyecto FIDA-CIP Andes
Research Series Issue 37: Determinants of cofinancing in IFAD-funded projects - A call to rethink development interventions
Impact assessment: PAPAFPA and PAPAC
Research Series Issue 36: Who works in agriculture?
Impact assessment: Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP)
Impact assessment: Plan VIDA-PEEP to Eradicate Extreme Poverty – Phase I
Research Series Issue 35: Climate change mitigation potential of agricultural practices supported by IFAD investments An ex ante analysis
This study estimates the mitigation potential of agricultural practices supported by IFAD’s current investments in order to provide guidance for the design of future investments.
Research Series Issue 34: Farm size and productivity - Lessons from recent literature
IFAD Results Series Issue 3
Impact assessment: Agricultural Sector Development Programme–Livestock (ASDP-L) and Agriculture Service Support Programme (ASSP)
Research Series Issue 33 - The impact of the adoption of CGIAR's improved varieties on poverty and welfare outcomes: A systematic review
Impact assessment: Guangxi Integrated Agricultural Development Project
Impact assessment: Rural Development Support Programme in Guéra
Impact assessment: Project for Rural Income through Exports in Rwanda
Impact assessment: Irrigated Rice Production Enhancement Project
Impact assessment: High-Value Agriculture Project in Hill and Mountain Areas
Impact Assessment: Community-based Forestry Development Project in Southern States (DECOFOS)
Impact Assessment: Livestock and Pasture Development Project
Impact assessment: Participatory Small-Scale Irrigation Development Programme
Impact assessment: Agricultural Value Chains Support Project (PAFA)
Research Series Issue 32 - Developing country-wide farming system typologies: An analysis of Ethiopian smallholders’ income and food security
Collection and analysis of bilateral or tripartite work collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2012-2017
Research Series Issue 31 - Impact of modern irrigation on household production and welfare outcomes
Research Series Issue 30 - Nutrition-sensitive value chains from a smallholder perspective: A framework for project design
Research Series Issue 29 - Empowering through collective action
This paper explores the conditions for collective action to generate inclusion when agriculture transforms.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018
Research Series Issue 28 - Understanding the dynamics of adoption decisions and their poverty impacts. The case of improved maize seeds in Uganda
Effective rural development: IFAD’s evidence-based approach to managing for results
This report reflects IFAD’s ongoing efforts to generate evidence to inform decision-making at the corporate and project level.
Research Series Issue 27 - Asia’s rural-urban disparity in the context of growing inequality
Research Series Issue 26 - Exploration of a methodology for assessing the impact of policy engagement. What impact and how to assess it?
Research Series Issue 25 - Structural transformation and poverty in Malawi. Decomposing the effects of occupational and spatial mobility
Research Series Issue 24 - Influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of smallholder farming households in East and Southern Africa
This paper aims to explore the influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of the beneficiaries of IFAD-funded projects.
Journal of Law and Rural Development - Issue 2: Renewable Energy and Rural Development
The Journal of Law and Rural Development provides a forum where the link between law and rural development can be explored.
Research Series Issue 23 - The Effect of the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth on Rural and Urban Poverty
Research Series Issue 22 - Poverty reduction during the rural-urban transformation
Research Series Issue 21 - Does relative deprivation induce migration? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa
Developing nutrition-sensitive value chains in Indonesia
Mapeo Participativo - Diálogos y acuerdos entre actores
Research Series Issue 20 - Transformation and Diversification of the Rural Economy in Asia
Research Series Issue 19 - Measuring Women's Empowerment in Agriculture: A Streamlined Approach
The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) can be a useful tool to measure the empowerment, agency and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector. However, computing the WEAI in its current form involves large data requirements, resulting in lengthy surveys with several questions on various dimensions and indicators within each dimension. This paper proposes a reduced version of the WEAI, or the R-WEAI, and examines two possible approaches to reduce the data requirements while ensuring comparability to the full WEAI.
The Marine Advantage: Empowering coastal communities, safeguarding marine ecosystems
Agriculture and fisheries, the backbone of food security and nutrition for coastal communities and globally, are under threat.
Research Series Issue 18 - Do agricultural support and cash transfer programmes improve nutritional status?
Cash transfer and agricultural support programmes are both used to improve nutrition outcomes in developing countries. This paper examines previous reviews of the impact of these programmes and compares the evidence between the two. The paper finds that, although there are about the same number of programmes of each type, many more papers have been written about the cash transfer programmes than the agricultural programmes. While evidence suggests that both programme types improved the quality of food consumption, the paper concludes that both types show weak evidence of improvements in anthropometric outcomes.
Impact Assessment: Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP)
The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) aimed to foster market-driven development of the informal dairy sector in Kenya.
Research Series Issue 17 - Population age structure and sex composition in sub-Saharan Africa: A rural-urban perspective
This study describes the shifting age and sex patterns of populations across rural and urban sectors in sub‑Saharan Africa from 1980 to 2015. It examines the relationship between the slowdown in urbanization and rural and urban age structure gaps, sex composition and dependency ratios. Findings show that rural-urban migration of young adults plays a key role in explaining dependency ratios and sex compositional gaps in rural and urban areas. Results also highlight the value of taking into account local age and sex structures to better prepare for the demographic dividend and other consequences of demographic shifts in sub-Saharan Africa.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017
This year’s edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World marks the beginning of a new era in monitoring the progress made towards achieving a world without hunger and malnutrition, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the report will henceforth monitor progress towards both the targets of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition.
It will also include thematic analyses of how food security and nutrition are related to progress on other SDG targets. Given the broadened scope to include a focus on nutrition, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined the traditional partnership of FAO, IFAD and WFP in preparing this annual report.
We hope our expanded partnership will result in a more comprehensive and integral understanding of what it will take to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition, and in more-integrated actions to achieve this critical goal.
IFAD Results Series Issue 2
This issue presents and analyses experiences from the following IFAD-funded projects and programmes:
Ethiopia: Pastoral Community Development Project; Nepal: Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme; Palestine: Participatory Natural Resource Management Programme; Peru: Project for Strengthening Assets, Markets and Rural Development in the Northern Highlands (Sierra Norte); Sierra Leone: Rehabilitation and Community-based Poverty Reduction Project
Research Series Issue 16 - Getting the most out of impact evaluation for learning, reporting and influence
Research Series Issue 15 - Remittances, growth and poverty reduction in Asia
Remittances have increased in low-income and lower- middle-income countries in recent years, playing an important role as a stable source of finance at the macro-level, and in poverty reduction at the micro-level.
Drawing on a critical review of the literature and econometric analyses based on cross-country panel data, this study examines the relationships among remittances, growth and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific and highlights policy implications to be considered by governments and policy-makers.
Research Series Issue 14 - Disbursement performance of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
This paper investigates the trends and the influencing factors of IFAD’s project disbursement performance over the past 20 years. Based on data from 577 projects in 111 countries, the study finds that disbursement of funds are often delayed and time-consuming.
Using econometric analysis, the study assesses the internal and external factors affecting the amount and timeliness of disbursements, and provides important lessons on how international financial institutions such as IFAD can better monitor and manage this important aspect of their development effectiveness.
Research Series Issue 13 - Graduation models for rural financial inclusion
Graduation out of chronic poverty has recently been receiving considerable attention by the global development community for its potential synergies with social protection, microfinance and livelihoods development approaches to poverty reduction.
This paper examines the evidence regarding the effectiveness of graduation strategies in reducing extreme poverty, with a focus on rural households, and proposes a new analytical framework to support future work on graduation as a learning and adaptation process in development practice.
Research Series Issue 12 - An evidence-based assessment of IFAD’s end-of-project reporting
Project Completion Reports (PCRs) are a critical tool for development organizations, both for accountability purposes, and as a means of learning from project experience to inform the design of future operations. This paper analyses a sample of PCRs from IFAD to assess the extent to which evidence is used to determine a project's effectiveness in bringing about development.
The report finds that most claims on results are not supported by evidence, and discusses implications for the objective measurement of development effectiveness.
Research Series Issue 11 - Food safety, trade, standards and the integration of smallholders into value chains
This paper analyses how food safety challenges and requirements affect smallholder farmers' access to markets. High food safety standards in destination countries force governments of developing countries to make strategic choices about establishing domestic standards and upgrading the infrastructure and knowledge base of smallholder farmers.
The paper suggests mechanisms that can be used to respond to these challenges, to enable smallholder inclusion in different markets.
IFAD Results Series Issue 1
This issue presents and analyses experiences from the following IFAD-funded projects and programmes:
Brazil: Sustainable Development Project for Agrarian Reform; Settlements in the Semi-arid North-east (Dom Hélder Câmara Project);
China: South Gansu Poverty Reduction Programme;
Ghana: Rural Enterprises Programme; Morocco: Rural Development Project in the Mountain Zones of Al-Haouz Province;
Uganda: Vegetable Oil Development Project.
Journal of Law and Rural Development - Issue 1: Land governance
Research Series Issue 10 - Inclusive finance and inclusive rural transformation
This paper provides an overview of concepts, issues and research on the relationship between financial inclusion and inclusive rural transformation.
It demonstrates how changing demand for financial services, innovations in rural finance, and different investment strategies affect the interplay of supply and demand.
Research Series Issue 9 - Social protection and inclusive rural transformation
This paper analyses how different types of social protection interventions affect rural livelihoods. It examines how these interventions can help rural transformation by increasing productivity and asks how they can influence inclusiveness.
Using country-level evidence, it suggests that the effectiveness of social protection depends upon specific contexts and combinations of interventions, and asks what this means for building policy.
Research Series Issue 8 - Fostering inclusive rural transformation in fragile states and situations
structural and rural transformation? (ii) In three selected case studies of diverse fragile situations (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Haiti and the Republic of the Sudan – drawing on IFAD financed programme and country experience), what have been the key elements of structural and rural transformation and to what extent has rural transformation been inclusive? (iii) In these cases, how does fragility affect the inclusiveness of rural transformation? Which policies and approaches can successfully promote inclusive rural transformation in
fragile situations?
Research Series Issue 7 - Measuring IFAD's Impact
This paper examines the impact of IFAD-supported projects so as to learn lessons for future projects. It analyses the different methods used by IFAD to measure a project's impact, finds that IFAD is improving the well-being of rural people, and recommends that impact assessments be built into future projects from their inception.
Research Series Issue 6 - Why food and nutrition security matters for inclusive structural and rural transformation
This paper challenges current thinking on the connection between rural transformation and food security & nutrition. It advocates that improving rural and structural transformation has a positive cyclical effect upon communities by improving food availability, access, supplies and utilization which in turn improves the health and education of communities.
Using evidence from across the developing world, the paper creates a policy agenda to maximise potential for smallholder farming to transform local economies.
Rural Development Report 2016: Fostering inclusive rural transformation
The 2016 Rural Development Report focuses on inclusive rural transformation as a central element of the global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable societies for all. It analyses global, regional and national pathways of rural transformation, and suggests four categories into which most countries and regions fall, each with distinct objectives for rural development strategies to promote inclusive rural transformation: to adapt, to amplify, to accelerate, and a combination of them.
Data on trends in structural transformation, rural transformation and rural poverty
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.
Research Series Issue 4 - The effects of smallholder agricultural involvement on household food consumption and dietary diversity: Evidence from Malawi
Research Series Issue 3 - Fostering inclusive outcomes in African agriculture: improving agricultural productivity and expanding agribusiness opportunities
Research Series Issue 2 - Migration and Transformative Pathways
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).
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.
Research Series Issue 1 - Agricultural and rural development reconsidered
Changing lives through IFAD water investments: a gender perspective
Executive summary, final report on the participatory impact evaluation of the Root & Tuber Improvement & Marketing Programme in Ghana
Strengthening Country-Level Agricultural Advisory Services in the target countries of Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda
Enabling rural transformation and grassroots institutional building for sustainable land management and increased incomes and food security
Development of innovative site-specific integrated animal health packages
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
Zipping up the Evidence - Dealing with non-counterfactuals in Viet Nam and Ghana
Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA)
An Innovative, Scalable, Pro-poor Home Cooking-based Charcoal Production Value Chain For Women
Smart ICT for Weather and Water Information and Advice to Smallholders in Africa
Enabling Land Management, Resilient Pastoral Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction in Africa
The World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP) is a global knowledge and advocacy network that promotes understanding of sustainable pastoral development for both poverty reduction and sustainable environmental management. WISP was executed by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).
The Programme built the capacity of pastoral institutions to engage in advocacy based on state-of-the-art global learning on sustainable pastoralism, enabling pastoralist institutions around the world to network and shared experiences and opportunities, and ensured that the voice of pastoralists remained central to policy discourse and learning.