Stories

Investing in women's digital empowerment can foster prosperity not just for them, but for entire communities. These three remarkable rural women revitalizing their villages in rural China are living proof of this.

Rural communities need energy to develop, but in a rapidly heating world, a green transition is crucial. Renewable sources, like solar power and biogas, are allowing them to prosper without relying on polluting fossil and wood fuels.

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.

Since its founding in 1977, IFAD has worked to enable rural people all over the world to overcome immense challenges and thrive. We take a look at some of our biggest successes over the years.

IFAD applies the latest tools and technologies to support small-scale farmers. Here are six examples of innovations proven to work for rural communities all over the world.

Many rural women are excluded from digital services. What is causing the digital divide and what can we do to end it?

In Peru, IFAD-funded project helps small-scale farmers connect to new markets and access technical assistance online.

Climate finance is complicated, and we get a lot of questions about everything it entails. We’ve put together some answers to the ones we receive most often.

Discover how IFAD uses Geographic Information Systems to better understand where and how climate change is affecting smallholder farming, and what is needed to mitigate its effects.  

Healthy ecosystems are diverse ecosystems. And at IFAD, we believe that small-scale farmers are amongst the greatest stewards and beneficiaries of biodiversity.

At the heart of this year’s session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is “free, prior and informed consent.” Quite a mouthful! But what does it really mean? And why does it matter?

Making the right decisions about managing natural resources isn’t always easy. That’s especially true for watersheds, where the local ecosystem depends on the health of multiple waterways. Now, GIS technology is helping communities in rural Nepal monitor and preserve the forests fed by local watersheds.

Two years ago, COVID-19 closures forced us all apart – but the creative use of technology helped keep us together. Today, with tech giants promising to take all of us into the metaverse, IFAD is exploring how cutting-edge technology can help us see the world through each other’s eyes.

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.

The end of COP26 is fast approaching, and we’re still waiting for a final agreement. However, based on the draft texts that have been released, it’s clear there’s still a risk of gaps between long-term targets and short-term action.

In recent years, saline intrusion – the encroachment of seawater into fresh water sources – has become a serious threat to small-scale farmers in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta. Thanks to a public-private partnership, a local technology company was able to collaborate with an IFAD-supported project to create a lasting solution.

Agriculture is the main source of income and livelihood in rural Lao. But Lao crops are highly climate-sensitive, leaving farmers with little room for error when it comes to climate adaptation.

“Nature-based solutions” (NbS) might sound like a buzzword, but these techniques are some of the most effective tools in our arsenal against the effects of climate change.

The IPCC report released in summer 2021 leaves no more room for ambiguity: the climate is changing, and it’s because of human activity. Here, we answer some of your questions about the report, why it’s important, and what its findings mean for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

We believe nature-based solutions (NbS) are the key to helping the most vulnerable people adapt to the effects of climate change. But just what are NbS, and why do we think they’re so great?

It’s official: human-induced climate change is happening. Some of its effects are already being felt, and further impacts are inevitable. Alongside mitigating our greenhouse gas emissions, we need to help those already feeling the worst effects – particularly small-scale agricultural producers – adapt.

Our food systems are failing us. From the climate, to the environment, to nutrition, to human health and well-being, they are not delivering the outcomes we all need. IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2021 describes the systemic issues that have led to the situation we are in, identifies priorities for transforming our food systems, and provides recommended actions to achieve meaningful change.

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.

Sri Lanka has been a global supplier of tea since the plant was first imported to the island about a hundred and fifty years ago. Since then, tea estates have often been passed down from generation to generation, weathering good times and bad. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.