Stories

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.

In Kenya’s Nyeri county, sustainable water system technologies have substantially improved the lives of students, staff and surrounding communities and have opened up a brighter future for many.

Climate change is contributing to increasing temperatures and droughts in Nepal, where corn and tomatoes are a staple food.

Development approaches must address structural barriers and power imbalances for women and other marginalized groups to adapt to climate change. 

They guide women through all the steps of caring for a child – from conception and pregnancy to birth and the critical first years of a child’s life. Although this description might call to mind doctors, nurses or specialised health workers, it also includes another category of care provider that must not be overlooked – mother counsellors.

We often think of elephants as gentle giants. Beloved by nature enthusiasts the world over, they are an iconic presence in the forests and grasslands of Africa and Asia. They are also a keystone species, indispensable for maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they live.

Forty-seven-year-old Rwandan farmer Pierre Kanyarwanda is enthusiastic. For the last five months, he has brought additional money home by applying his newly acquired skills in sericulture (silkworm rearing).

Esther Wandia is an avocado convert. Two years ago, the single mother of four decided to set up a tree nursery on her farm in Makomboki, in a hilly area north of Nairobi known for its tea production.

Once considered the world’s largest cacao exporter, Sao Tome and Principe had significantly scaled back its operations after gaining independence in 1975. But with IFAD's assistance, cacao – the key ingredient in chocolate, and a major cash crop – is making a comeback.

Agriculture is the foundation of Bhutan’s economy, employing more than 70 per cent of the population. Bhutan has made huge progress overall in recent years in improving its people’s standards of living, though poverty rates remain high in the eastern part of the country.

Working together makes it easier for small-scale farmers to access resources and reach larger markets – and when farmers thrive, other players in the food system benefit too.

Around the world today, women make up over half the people working in agriculture – as smallholders, market gardeners, wage labourers, unpaid workers on family farms – and that figure is on the rise.

With an estimated 30 million hectares throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia and the Americas, bamboo can provide a significant contribution to combatting climate change in the developing world, particularly in rural communities.

Grassroots and international farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations play an invaluable role as representatives of the farming community.

Guatemala has the largest economy in Central America but it also has the worst rates of poverty and malnutrition. This is especially the case in rural areas and for indigenous communities.

In the community of Larguero, in the Chaco Salteño, a group of indigenous beekeepers are raising the profile of a unique wild honey

We asked colleagues for their favourite podcasts on topics related to development, food, agriculture and climate. If you are looking to learn something new check out our suggestions.

Climate change is affecting global food systems in such a way that those who already suffer from hunger and undernutrition are also the most vulnerable to the added threats from climate change.  

Current food systems are at a crossroads. There is a strong need for transforming food production and consumption patterns in a sustainable way. One where farmers adapt and build resilience to the increasing challenges from climate change and where nutritious food is available for all. Agroecology provides one solution towards this transformation.

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.