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In the Kingdom of Tonga, fai fatongia rules the day. Under this principle, which translates to “fulfilling one’s responsibility,” Tongans traditionally put the collective good first and their individual needs second.

If investments to help rural small-scale farmers adapt to climate change do not substantially increase, we risk widespread hunger and global instability, warned Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, ahead of next week’s Climate Adaptation Summit.

According to UN reports, the Asia Pacific region is the most disaster-prone region in the world. Nearly 45 per cent of the world’s natural disasters occur in the region.

As we approach the first anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s an important moment to take stock on the impact of the pandemic, and to reflect on what we have learned, and what we can do better going forward.

In 2009, I travelled by road to Timbuktu, Mali on a short field trip. As we made our way down the dusty roads, I remember wondering what could possibly pull this arid, sparsely populated land into relative prosperity.

In a move to sustainably address rising hunger and poverty, exacerbated by COVID-19, climate change and biodiversity loss, French President Emmanuel Macron called on global leaders to step up their commitments in support of long-term agricultural development.

A new investment programme is planned to support Sahelian governments through a partnership between the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and IFAD in order to boost climate finance for these rural populations.

The best way to make the desert bloom is to dig a hole. Not a well, but a shallow pit in the sandy soil about as wide as the length of your forearm. Then add some dung, plant your seeds, and wait for the rains.

The Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) of IFAD is pleased to announce the 2020 National Calls for Proposals: Supporting Remittances in Times of Crisis in Africa.

A lot has happened over the last year – besides a global pandemic. See how much you were paying attention by taking our end of year quiz!

2020 has been a tumultuous year. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone across the world – and meanwhile, the other challenges faced by rural people across the globe haven’t gone away.

In this episode, we say goodbye to a year that’s been full of uncertainty and change, but also adaptation, innovation and improvement.

This holiday season, some of the world’s poorest families in Somalia and Malawi look set to access water through innovative solar energy products financed through a crowdfunding project set up by IFAD.

To celebrate with all our readers and supporters and wish you Happy Holidays, we asked our Recipes for Change chefs to share some festive recipes to enjoy during the holiday season.

Our Recipes for Change chefs Ska Moteane, Lance Seeto, Bela Gil, Pierre Thiam and Mariah Gladstone shared with us their festive wishes for the Recipes for Change community and IFAD in the holiday season.

Our current food systems are not sustainable. Hunger has been on the rise for several years, with an estimated 811 million people worldwide going hungry in 2020 – and with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 132 million more people are expected to join this number soon.

Benguerdane is a small town in the desert plain of El Ouara, a region in the extreme south-east of Tunisia, just a few kilometres away from the Libyan border. The climate there is forbiddingly arid, and the main source of livelihood is raising livestock like sheep and goats.

Despite the economic consequences of COVID-19, a growing number of countries around the world today stepped up their investments in long-term development, signalling a greater awareness of the links between hunger, inequality and instability which often spark humanitarian crises.

For countries like Bhutan – nestled in the high Himalayas, historically isolated and topographically challenging – ensuring food security is vital.

IFAD is joining with FAO and WFP - as well as the G5 Sahel and the Green Climate Fund to revitalize economic activities and food systems in the Group of Five Sahel countries and in the Republic of Senegal.

Les députés français, Marion Lenne et Jean François Mbaye, membres de la commission des Affaires étrangères du parlement, en visite au Sénégal cette semaine, ont plaidé pour que le gouvernement français augmente sa contribution de manière significative à la douzième reconstitution des ressources du FIDA, qui se conclura en février 2021.

Poor rural people are among the hardest hit by climate change while contributing little to its causes. They deserve a fair share of climate finance to improve their resilience, and a seat at the table for the global climate talks.

The Government of Mozambique and IFAD have officially launched the Inclusive Agri-Food Value Chain Development Programme (PROCAVA) to improve rural livelihoods, food security and resilience – are all critical needs in view of pandemic and climate change impacts for the country’s most vulnerable people.

At a time when hunger and poverty are increasing due to conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the world’s poorest countries are the first to pledge funds to the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support its work to ensure that the most vulnerable rural people can sustainably access nutritious food and decent incomes.

In the face of a looming food crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany has committed funds to IFAD to help ensure small-scale farmers can continue growing food in some of the poorest regions of the world.

Today is World Soil Day, so let’s dwell a little on this amazing world of earthworms, mites, fungi and microbes.

The adoption of General Assembly resolution 72/279 in May 2018, triggered a consortium of UN organizations to come together and rethink how the United Nations Development System can deliver more coherent, accountable and effective support to help countries achieve the 2030 Agenda.

A new United Nations report shows the territorial inequality of malnutrition in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

La vice Ministra degli Esteri Emanuela Del Re ed esperti italiani e internazionali ne discutono in un seminario online aperto ai giornalisti.

Digital technologies have become our constant companions over the last few decades. Devices like smartphones and laptops have become even more relevant after the COVID-19 outbreak, helping us stay in touch even in times of physical distance.

After a decade of conflict, local tourists are slowly starting to return to the pristine mountainsides just a short drive outside Latakia, Syria. Visitors to the village of Zaghreen, in particular, are greeted by the aroma of Issam Mohammad Hamoody’s freshly-baked pastries.

On December 2, the United Nations will present the new edition of the report Panorama of food and nutritional security in Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, focused on the territories that suffer the highest rates of malnutrition, stunring and overweight.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reinvention of the agricultural sector is indispensable today. In fact, it is already beginning to take place with young people at the heart of it.

Conflict has paralyzed much of Syria’s rural economy over the past decade. People throughout the countryside often repeat what has become a common quote: “No sound is louder than the sound of gunshots.” But at least one woman in rural Syria is listening to a different tune.

Each year, to raise public awareness of gender-based violence across the world, the United Nations recognizes 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Violence against women is far more than a violation of human rights. It undermines women’s physical and mental health, as well as their ability to be happy and productive members of their societies.

IFAD and FAO have joined forces to foster inclusive and sustainable family farming as the central cornerstone for a vibrant, productive and profitable agriculture across the Near East and North Africa.

In the 25 years since Clayton Christensen coined the term “disruptive innovation,” much has been written about the benefits of shaking up established business practices.

Determination and perseverance are what make an entrepreneur successful. That’s doubly true in a country like Syria, where ongoing conflict has disrupted people’s lives for the past decade.

This month’s programme is all about innovations in agriculture. We’re travelling around the world to hear about new technologies designed to ensure food security.

As the world becomes more and more urbanized, many have suggested that cities hold the key to an efficient, sustainable future.

The prospect of eradicating hunger and poverty received a boost today as IFAD obtained its second strong public credit rating, facilitating its access to private funds to invest in increasing rural prosperity and development in the world’s poorest countries.  

Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD was invited to hold a hearing to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Parliament on 18 November.

Moldova’s agriculture sector is increasingly developing and modernizing. This is due both to an increased presence in lucrative markets like the European Union and to the efforts deployed by IFAD and the Government of Moldova to help restructure the sector, largely through sustained investments and financial support to small-scale farmers, to accompany this modernization.

Apple season in Lebanon is much like apple season in many other parts of the world. But in Lebanon, apple growers – along with small-scale farmers of all kinds – face a number of constraints on their ability to efficiently grow and sell their crops.

As more people spiral into hunger and poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Netherlands has stepped up its funding to IFAD to help avert a rural food crisis.

In an effort to tackle the devastating impact of climate change on rural hunger and poverty, the French Development Agency (AFD), today signed a €300 million loan to IFAD to help small-scale farmers in high-risk countries build their resilience to shocks and increase their productivity.

Only 1.7 per cent of climate finance – a fraction of what is needed - goes to small-scale farmers in developing countries despite their disproportionate vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, according to a report released by the IFAD and Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) today.

For the first time in history, today 13 Public Development Banks (PDBs) made a joint commitment to strengthen investments in food and agriculture in the context of a global pandemic and a changing climate.

Risk and uncertainty intensify in the agriculture sector – especially throughout Africa.

In many parts of the world, full participation in society – including the ability to earn an income – is still dependent on owning (or having the rights to) land.

Agriculture has periodically been shaken up by various technological revolutions. The latest? The advent of digital technologies.

Four years ago, back-to-back misfortunes upended Hafeeza Begum’s life. She knew it fell to her to get her young family back on their feet.

Rural young people are increasingly concerned about the environment. Many of them work in sectors that are threatened by climate change, and they’re well aware that their industry and food systems will need to become more resilient and sustainable than ever before.

In this month’s programme, we have the latest on COVID-19 from IFAD’s Associate Vice-President Donal Brown; news on nutrition from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic; and a report on getting youth issues right in development activities.

A unique opportunity for China to advance its agricultural and rural transformation agenda.

For rural people, especially low-income rural people, land and livelihood are one and the same.

Ten African Heads of State have issued a strong call to other world leaders to increase their funding to IFAD or risk jeopardizing Sustainable Development Goal targets for eradicating poverty and hunger, particularly in Africa.

Ten African Heads of State have issued a strong call to other world leaders to increase their funding to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) or risk jeopardizing Sustainable Development Goal targets for eradicating poverty and hunger, particularly in Africa.

Today, World Food Day marks the 75th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Born on the wake of catastrophe - World War II, three-quarters of a century later, FAO's mission to end hunger and nourish the world has been made more relevant because of another global scourge - the COVID-19 pandemic, said QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General.

For Idris Elba, returning to Sierra Leone late last year was about two things: reconnecting with his roots and learning about the challenges facing the country where his father was born, so that he could become a better advocate for its people

All across Latin America, rural women are taking charge of their communities’ food production – and their own economic and personal development.

Simon Chottu works hard and plays hard. An events manager by trade, he’s spent the last few years hosting hip-hop parties and organizing music events and competitions across the South Pacific.

Our food supply is at risk if we don’t start prioritizing rural women during this pandemic, said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD in a strong call to governments to increase their investments in rural women.

IFAD is currently updating its Social, Environmental and Climate Assessment Procedures (SECAP) which was introduced in 2015 and last updated in 2017. This ongoing update of SECAP is not intended to be a comprehensive revision of the Procedures.

In times of crisis, rural women are the key that holds families and rural communities together – and in times like these, they need our support more than ever.

Meike van Ginneneken joins IFAD today as the new Associate Vice President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department.

On a dusty side street in Auki, a seaside market town on the island of Malaita, Arania Enterprises is bustling.

Life in the countryside isn’t always easy – especially for rural women, whose contributions and successes have only recently begun to receive the attention they deserve.

The return of spring to Santiaogou, a tiny village nestled high in China’s remote, mountainous Qinghai province, should have been idyllic.

One billion people – 15 per cent of the world’s population – currently have a disability, and 80 per cent of them live in developing countries. People with disabilities, despite being “the world’s largest minority,” are often overlooked.

Against the backdrop of the global impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, the Government of Ethiopia and IFAD have launched a new US$305.7 million programme to help the most vulnerable farmers increase their resilience.

Le FIDA organisera aujourd’hui une concertation en ligne avec les représentants de pays arabes pour examiner les moyens de mettre fin à la montée de l’insécurité alimentaire et de la pauvreté dans la région.

There is good news today for the world’s most vulnerable and marginalised rural communities, as IFAD receives its first public credit rating. This sets the stage for increased investments in food security, employment, and rural economic growth, and is an important step towards the achievement of the SDGs.

All too often, the path to sustainable development is blocked by outdated policies and legislation.