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In this episode, we speak to three young YouTubers and TikTokers in Latin America who are bringing their rural lives to the world via our screens – and encouraging young rural people to build a future at home.

In this episode, we explore why we must pursue zero hunger and zero waste as joint goals. In particular, we look at how these efforts are crucial for children, who depend on nutritious diets for healthy development.

IFAD President Alvaro Lario will be visiting Algeria next week in his first official visit to the country since he was elected head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development in 2022.

Young people are crucial contributors to prosperous rural communities. Meet two entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka who are working hard to make a difference.

For countless people in IFAD-supported projects, 2023 was a year in which their lives changed. Here are some of the stories we told over the past 12 months.  

All over the world university graduates are trading in cities for rural areas. IFAD is helping to create employment opportunities so that young people can earn a living and stay connected to the land.

Rural people in Kiribati are leading the way in sustainable farming, making nutritious foods available and creating a foundation for better health in the years to come.

In Nigeria, aquaculture brings new opportunities to rural youth and helps to reduce the country’s unemployment rate.

Climate change is having a huge impact on Indigenous Peoples all over the world. We sat down with three indigenous youth to talk about how erratic weather patterns are affecting their communities and how they are drawing on tradition and technology to cope with it.

The Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia is a dynamic region faced with many challenges. We caught up with Regional Director Dina Saleh to find out how rural people are coping with the realities of conflict and climate change and to understand why the right investments now can make all the difference later.

West and Central Africa is as intricate as it is vast. We sat down with Regional Director, Bernard Mwinyel Hien, to better understand the region’s strengths and challenges.

Cerca de 4 000 jóvenes de áreas rurales y periurbanas en Bolivia, Colombia y Honduras han mejorado sus medios de vida tras su participación en un proyecto de desarrollo rural para jóvenes financiado y promovido por el FIDA, junto a su socio estratégico ICCO Cooperación.

Con el objetivo de revalorizar la ruralidad desde el protagonismo juvenil, el FIDA premió hoy en su sede en Roma a los jóvenes ganadores del Concurso de YouTubers y TikTokers Rurales, provenientes de Bolivia, Colombia y Honduras.

Poverty is both a symptom and a driver of conflict. That’s why IFAD supports the poorest and most marginalized people as they contribute to a more peaceful world where everyone can access dignified work that fosters shared economic prosperity.

The future of farming belongs to rural youth. In this episode, we explore how to enhance productivity and empower young farmers.

Young people in rural areas are struggling to find work and earn an income. Here’s how the green transition is changing that in Africa.

Indigenous youth not only embody many generations of tradition, but they are also the guardians of our future. By playing critical roles in today's society, they are shaping a better world.

Despite their gruelling work, rural people all over the world aren’t getting a fair return. Find out how IFAD is empowering small-scale farmers to earn and produce more, while improving their working conditions.

In an age of multiple intersecting crises, only a holistic approach to both humanitarian and development assistance can disrupt the cycle.

To transform rural lives we must build a strong understanding of the countries we operate in. Find out how IFAD is doing just that in South Sudan.

Miska, palabra quechua que significa “siembra temprana”, es el nombre simbólico de la primera escuela móvil de cocina que ofrecerá una formación integral en gastronomía y habilidades digitales a cientos de jóvenes emprendedores en su recorrido por zonas rurales de Bolivia.

Find out what happens behind the scenes of an IFAD project as we answer our followers’ top questions.

Con el objetivo de revalorizar la ruralidad desde el protagonismo juvenil, el FIDA presentó hoy en La Paz la segunda edición de la iniciativa “YouTubers y Tiktokers Rurales”, un ciclo de talleres de capacitación y un concurso de talentos para promover la creación de empleo juvenil y la mejora de los niveles de nutrición de casi 5 000 jóvenes de entre 16 y 35 años de zonas rurales y periurbanas de Bolivia, Colombia y Honduras.

Young people in rural areas of West Africa are leaving unemployment behind and setting up successful agri-businesses.

Young people the world over know that conserving our biodiversity is key to eradicating hunger and achieving a healthy and sustainable food system. Here’s how they’re fixing our broken planet.

Le FIDA et le gouvernement malien ont procédé, hier, à la signature d’un accord de prêt d’un montant de 38 665 000 Euro qui financera la création de richesses et la réduction de la pauvreté pour les jeunes ruraux du Mali.

Le FIDA et le Conseil national de concertation et de coopération des ruraux (CNCR) du Sénégal, viennent de signer un Accord de don pour améliorer les revenus des femmes et des jeunes entrepreneurs avicoles villageois ayant subi les conséquences des mesures restrictives prises pour faire face à la pandémie de Covid19.

In Ethiopia, community driven development puts small-scale farmers in charge of identifying what they need to prosper and how development funding should be used.

As today’s young people grow into tomorrow’s adults, the impacts of climate change are simultaneously growing and worsening. Rural youth are valuable contributors to climate action. At COP27, we showcased the lives and ambitions of young innovators and activists. Find out what they had to say.

Discover hidden gems in rural Bangladesh with two IFAD colleagues as they visit a community-led eco-tourism project that has transformed the area.

With limited access to schools, markets and jobs, many young people leave Bangladesh’s Haor wetland region in search of more stable opportunities. Meet three young people IFAD is helping to upskill so they can generate an income while staying in the region.

Rural youth around the world face a dilemma: their roots are in their rural homes, but it’s often hard to build a future there. Meet some of the young people IFAD is helping to devise solutions to the challenges they see around them and build more resilient futures.

IFAD and the Government of the Dominican Republic signed a financing agreement yesterday that will support the implementation of the Productive Inclusion and Resilience of Poor Rural Youth Project (PRORURAL Joven). This rural development operation aims to improve opportunities for rural youth to access jobs and establish businesses, and to build resilience among them and their families to climate, social and economic shocks and stresses.

The Vice President of IFAD, Dominik Ziller, will meet with Edouard Ngirente, Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda, as well as other high-level government officials during a visit starting 9 May.

We know a thing or two about connecting youth with the financial services they need to start a business – but there’s always more to learn. Here, we reflect on some of our “lessons learned” as part of a recent grant programme in East Africa.

The IFAD-funded Rural Adelante Project in El Salvador helps rural youth stay in their communities and make a living from agriculture, instead of migrating to cities or abroad.

Cet appel à propositions vise à sélectionner un bénéficiaire ou un consortium de bénéficiaires pour recevoir un financement sous forme de don du FIDA sur quatre ans pour mettre en œuvre le projet : Opportunités d'emploi pour les jeunes ruraux - Appui à l'initiative des pôles agro-industriels intégrés

Youth who grew up in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey have traditionally moved to the big cities to pursue their careers. But recently, thanks to an IFAD-supported project, the region’s farmers have begun growing strawberries. Highland strawberries are proving quite popular, driving the growth of a new regional value chain – and bringing the region’s youth back to the countryside to take part.

Young people are the future of the world’s food systems, and they should therefore have a say in how the food systems of tomorrow should be configured. In China, youth have long been leading efforts to promote organic farming and sustainable consumption – and now, they’re beginning to act for change.

Wazo Jema is one of many youth-led small businesses that got a boost through the IFAD-funded Vijabiz programme. Although they’re on more solid ground than they were before, they’ve continued to face some challenges – and these difficulties highlight ways that future initiatives can be improved.

Pastoralists and young rural entrepreneurs from six different Asian and African countries will be at COP26 in person to share their experiences in managing their ecosystems and to advocate for investments to stimulate green jobs and climate adaptation.

Two of the most significant challenges Grenada faces are common ones for small island developing states: high levels of youth unemployment, currently over 40 per cent, and vulnerability of agricultural production to climate change and climate shocks.

The Gilani Umoja Youth Group was founded in 2017 as a way to create jobs for local youth and ensure a steady supply of cereals and other staple crops. Despite some struggles at first, their business is now a source of livelihoods for themselves and others in their community.

Milk processing is normally a profitable venture in Kenya’s Nakuru County, but the Lare Milk Dealers Youth Group struggled to enter the market at first. Thanks to trainings hosted by an IFAD-supported project and some innovative additions to their business model, they’re now thriving.

The Greenthumb Youth Group hadn’t had much luck with traditional farming. But thanks to a grant to set up an aquaponics venture – combining crop farming and fish farming – their success is making waves all along the value chain.

IFAD believes in the tremendous innovative capacity of rural youth – and we take seriously our responsibility to support young people in their constant search for change and innovation. That’s why this year’s Rural Youth Innovation Award in Latin America and the Caribbean, a project financed by the China-IFAD SSTC Facility, focused on initiatives led by young people fighting the pandemic.

IFAD’s Annual Report provides a concise, compelling and interactive discussion of how we addressed the challenges of the last year.

Meet Ingobor, a group of 20 former bus drivers and conductors who pooled their resources and established a successful dairy business.

This call for proposals seeks to select a recipient, or consortium of recipients, to receive a four-year IFAD grant, for a total amount of up to US$4.8 million, to implement the project Rural youth employment opportunities: Support to integrated agribusiness hubs initiative.

Nigel Brett, Director of IFAD’s Asia and the Pacific Division, interviews Dr Shakuntala Thilsted, Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at WorldFish.

El objetivo del concurso es identificar y premiar iniciativas innovadoras impulsadas por jóvenes que contribuyan a superar los desafíos de la pandemia de COVID-19 en las áreas rurales de la región.

In this month’s episode, we’re focusing on youth and indigenous peoples as agents of change in the developing world.

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.

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.

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.

From climate action groups to political institutions, youth are taking on leading roles and bringing new perspectives into the table – showing they are not only the future, but also the present.

Ranjana Chaudhary’s story sounds like the stories of many thousands, if not millions, of young people in Nepal.

As a result of the pandemic, the equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs have already been lost worldwide, and a further 71 million to 100 million people could consequently be pushed into extreme poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to re-examine everything: their priorities, their jobs, even their roles in society.

Rossana Polastri, Director of the Latin America and the Caribbean Division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has announced the winners of the Rural Youth Innovation Award. This prize has been created by IFAD to strengthen and build the capacities of young people and to promote opportunities being created by young people who are already changing the rural landscape of the region.

IFAD is helping young people in agriculture evaluate the COVID-19 crisis and build their resilience for the future. In this episode, we hear from nine different voices on this important topic.

Small-scale farmers face multiple challenges in Cambodia - with limited access to credit and vulnerability to climate change.

It’s not often that we have the opportunity to see how rural people see themselves. International organizations like ours tell their stories armed with cameras, notebooks and laptops – and, of course, our own point of view, which is important to compare with theirs.

Tom Mwangi Anyonge, lead technical specialist at IFAD , talks about youth, rural development and institutions.

Without initially knowing it, last year more than 13,000 young women in Colombia began to prepare for the current economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, we brought you the story of the Mukurwe-ini Technical Training Institute, a school in Kenya’s Nyeri county whose new roof water harvesting system was improving the lives of the students, staff and nearby residents. In recent days, with Kenya now affected by COVID-19, we reached out to Patrick Muchemi, principal of the Institute.

In IFAD's Podcast Episode 5, we’re focusing on indigenous peoples and the challenges they face when it comes to agriculture.

Rural women are key agents in the effort to achieve the economic, environmental and social transformations required for sustainable development. Ensuring their empowerment is crucial not only to their own well-being, but that of their families and communities.

El FIDA ha lanzado el Premio a la Innovación Juvenil Rural el cual busca impulsar y fortalecer las capacidades de los jóvenes rurales de América Latina y el Caribe y promover las oportunidades generadas por jóvenes que ya están cambiando el mundo rural en la región.

In IFAD's Podcast Episode 4, we gear up for International Women’s Day and look at how women are powering the farming future.

Heads of state, ministers, development leaders, and celebrities today called for greater investment in rural areas to accelerate progress to achieve a world free from poverty and hunger in the next 10 years.

In this month’s programme we look at one of the most pressing issues facing farming today – that of youth and what’s being done to offer interesting and viable options for life on the farm for young people in developing countries.

Tajikistan is a mountainous country nestled in Central Asia. Over five million people live a rural life, the majority of them depending on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Deep in the mountainous region of northern Pakistan sits the picturesque village of Minimarg. Almost 200 kilometres from Gilgit, the region’s capital, Minimarg can only be accessed via the 4,000-meter Burzil Pass.

Development projects that integrate investments in rural indigenous peoples, youth and women with measures to adapt to climate change are more likely to be successful in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a new report launched today by IFAD.