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How smallholder farmers in Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Eswatini endured the coronavirus pandemic
When covid-19 brought the world to a standstill, IFAD helped farmers’ organizations adopt new ways of operating amid a global pandemic.
2022: Resilience in the face of adversity
As we near the end of 2022, IFAD looks back on some of the themes that defined a year of dramatic change.
Rural people in crisis: The latest news from IFAD
Rural people are still paying the highest price for the rise in food, fertilizer and fuel costs. The Crisis Response Initiative was set up as part of IFAD's ongoing efforts to build rural people's resilience to these shocks. Here are selected highlights on the crisis from our teams in the field.
In Sierra Leone, social inclusion that leaves no one behind
In Sierra Leone, IFAD helps persons with disabilities overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic through farming.
Funding resilience in The Gambia
In The Gambia, the second phase of IFAD’s Rural Poor Stimulus Facility helps vulnerable communities get back on their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic.
An old crop for a new crisis: how cassava helped Samoans through the pandemic
Faced with the prospect of food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Samoans turned to an ancient staple to feed their families and communities.
Solving a data dilemma in the Solomon Islands
When the Solomon Islands began seeing its first cases of COVID-19 in early 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock activated emergency food relief efforts. But after years of neglecting data collection, how do you find and feed people without addresses, street names or house numbers?
How IFAD worked with governments in Asia to build rural resilience during COVID-19
The pandemic pushed up to 80 million people in Asia into extreme poverty. Governments across the region had to respond quickly as incomes fell and food security was threatened. IFAD worked with them to ensure vulnerable rural people got the support they needed.
After the tsunami, home gardens provide fresh food and renewed hope in Tonga
When a massive tsunami devastated low-lying coastal areas in Tonga, local people had to rebuild their lives from scratch. For many, home gardens provided much needed fresh produce, as well as renewed hope for the future.
How over one million small-scale farmers in Pakistan got the information they needed to withstand the COVID crisis
COVID-19 presented new challenges for poor rural farmers in Pakistan. An IFAD-supported project shared personalized advice to farmers via their mobile phones to help overcome the challenges of the pandemic.
In The Gambia, targeted COVID-19 support helps small businesses flourish
Back in early 2020, when the first waves of COVID-19 were spreading around the world, IFAD launched the RPSF as a multi-donor initiative to sustain rural people around the world during the pandemic. With the RPSF’s help, many were able to start small businesses – and today, those businesses are sustaining local economies and building resilience.
From virtual reality to virtual field visits: How IFAD used technology to stay connected to the people we serve during COVID
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.
On the banks of the São Francisco, where fishing, tourism and social inclusion converge
Brazil’s São Francisco river is a place of convergences. The river delta, and the stunning tropical forest surrounding it, is home to many different ethnic groups who settled there in search of a fresh start. Plans for a new ecotourism route that would allow visitors to experience the area’s rich culture and traditions were well under way – and then the pandemic struck. Nevertheless, one IFAD-funded project managed to support the region’s artisans and fishers.
Responding to the challenges of a year like no other: IFAD’s 2020 Annual Report
IFAD’s Annual Report provides a concise, compelling and interactive discussion of how we addressed the challenges of the last year.
Digital information service helps small-scale farmers respond to COVID-19
The Kenya National Farmers’ Federation is implementing a mobile information platform to serve its members and other Kenyan farmers.
Countries worldwide are stepping up to support rural farmers living in poverty
Unless we urgently rethink agriculture, more diseases will jump species
A year in review: Nurturing resilient rural communities in a time of change
Idris and Sabrina Elba call for investments in rural agriculture to fight rising hunger
“Cashroots” movement builds community resilience in the Solomon Islands
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.
Rural women: The key to building back better in a post-COVID world
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.
Keeping food on the table and preventing food loss when business is not as usual
Holding on: IFAD-supported programme sustains assets – and rural livelihoods
The restrictions put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Pakistan were designed to keep the population safe and healthy, but have spelled severe losses for many rural businesses.
Shining the development spotlight on youth
Indigenous youth in agriculture during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to re-examine everything: their priorities, their jobs, even their roles in society.
Smartphones keep track of IFAD projects’ achievements and challenges in Brazil during COVID-19
For all the chaos they bring, crises also have a way of giving birth to unexpected opportunities. One way they do this is by urging people to develop new tools to help them resist disaster.
Social media helps young rural Kenyan entrepreneurs battle the COVID-19 shutdown
Until COVID-19 hit in March, the G-Star Youth Group’s banana processing factory was buzzing with activity.
Indigenous knowledge – and resilience – in a COVID-19 world
Looking inward: I-Kiribati fight a double health crisis
Keeping exports flowing: Saving development gains in Rwanda
Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on small-scale agriculture in The Gambia
Planting seeds in the new normal: Rural women in Pakistan amid COVID-19
In rural Pakistan, women are important partners in agricultural development. They perform a variety of crucial tasks, including weeding and tilling land, planting seeds, collecting farmyard manure and harvesting. They are also responsible for cleaning, drying and storing grains.
Bees, biodiversity and COVID-19 - World Bee Day
Fast and flexible: IFAD’s first successful project restructuring protects smallholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted agricultural and food systems around the world, along with the livelihoods and food security of the poorest rural communities – precisely the groups of people whom IFAD concentrates its efforts on.
Stay at home! Savings, contingencies and electronic wallet use
No ordinary solution: Afro-Colombian ingenuity in the fight against COVID-19
The story of the Afro-Colombian community has always been one of resilience. Historically, this group has faced the country’s highest rates of poverty and food insecurity, and has lacked access to many basic services.
Before and during COVID-19, an e-voucher initiative makes a difference for Kenyan farmers
Chef Bela Gil’s pesto-millet balls: A lockdown-friendly recipe
We’ve been asking our Recipes for Change chefs to tell us how they are adapting to life during the coronavirus pandemic – and to share a delicious recipe that can be made with basic cupboard ingredients.
Empowering and protecting rural women in the time of coronavirus
The April morning sun beats down on Kontagora, a lively market town in central Nigeria. Generators hum as milling machines husk the brown bran from rice grains, revealing glistening white kernels. COVID-19 is on everybody’s mind. But the thriving Tudun Wada South Rice Processors women’s cooperative is open for business.
Recipes for Change: Chef Lance Seeto’s homemade chicken, ginger and greens soup
#IFADatwork: our mission in the time of COVID-19
IFAD-funded water system helps Kenyan students stay safe
Recipes for Change: Chef Pierre Thiam shares a lockdown-friendly vegan chilli recipe
IFAD’s Recipes for Change chefs are carrying on with life under lockdown by sharing some excellent recipes that you can make with ingredients you’ve already got in your home cupboard. Senegalese Chef Pierre Thiam joins us from his home in New York State with a delicious recipe for vegan chilli.
Solidarity and flexibility: IFAD-supported artisans produce masks and hairnets to fight coronavirus in Brazil
Recipes For Change: Chef Bowerman’s take on cooking from home under lockdown
As the world adjusts to life with COVID-19, we’re asking our Recipes for Change chefs to share some world-class recipes that you can make with ingredients you’ve already got in your home cupboard. Michelin-starred Chef Cristina Bowerman shares two simple and nutritious recipes involving chickpeas.