Stories

In western Madagascar, IFAD-supported projects have been helping people in rural areas gain legal rights to their land – a key tactic in the fight against poverty.

In rural communities in northern Laos, an IFAD supported programme is using a television soap opera to help tackle extreme poverty and malnutrition.

Family farmers in the West Bank are growing high value crops such as almonds and apricots on once-barren hillsides, seeing their incomes rise by 80 per cent or more. About 36,000 people have taken part in an IFAD-funded natural resource management programme, which prioritized terracing, fencing, irrigation, rock removal and other techniques to reclaim and rehabilitate land.

An IFAD-supported programme in Nigeria is helping to reduce dependence on imported rice and strengthening the access of smallholder farmers to local markets.

Wild and local fruits, such as umbu (Spondias tuberosa), passionfruit and guava, are fuelling the growth of a prosperous cooperative led by women in a remote area of north-eastern Brazil.

Piyola Oli is a farmer in western Nepal. One of her main challenges is access to quality seeds. Through the IFAD-supported High-Value Agriculture Project in Hill and Mountain Areas project, Oli has learned how to produce good quality onion seeds from her own produce and her income has increased considerably. 

Conference will explore how development can be assisted by information and communication technologies for evaluation evaluation.

During 2017, IFAD Member States have been meeting regularly in Rome for Consultations on the Eleventh Replenishment of the Fund's resources (IFAD11).

The Sustainable Land Management in the Semi-Arid Sertão Project was designed as a complement to the IFAD-financed Dom Helder Câmara Project (DHCP), which ran from 1998 to 2007 in various areas of the semi-arid northeastern Brazil. The Sertão Project aimed to address pressing environmental and land degradation issues, and to build resilience to climate change. The project focused on the caatinga — a uniquely Brazilian scrub forest covering approximately 10 per cent of the total area of the country. The caatinga is one of Brazil's most threatened natural landscapes.

Farmers in Laos are rediscovering the value of a traditional crop – the bark of the bong tree. Because the once-abundant bong trees are now on the endangered species list, smallholders are establishing profitable plantations to meet the growing demand for the aromatic bark.

The potential powerhouse of energy and creativity of the world’s 1.2 billion young people was highlighted by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD during the annual spring meetings of the World Bank Group (Bank) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that are currently underway.The event brings together central bankers, ministers of finance and development sector executives, among others, to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.

Their house collapsed. And with it, all of their belongings and memories were lost. Fortunately, Manuel Reyes and his family survived. But not everyone was so lucky. 

Gilbert F. Houngbo became the sixth President of IFAD on 1 April 2017. In the days leading up to this, the new President took a moment to answer some questions about his life growing up in rural Togo, the importance of building rural economies that offer hope to young people, the social injustices that compel him to believe in the power of development and the challenges ahead for IFAD.

Knowledge is at the centre of global development and an essential element for the achievement of Agenda 2030. Development organizations are increasingly recognizing the role of knowledge and learning to increase development impact and effectively contribute to the SDGs.

Women from more than 246,000 households have taken steps to change their lives by becoming part of the IFAD-supported Tejaswini Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. 

Rekha Pandram, 34, is a Gond woman who has transformed the lives of more than 7,500 women and their families across 40 villages in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

The UN’s three Rome-based agencies demonstrated the power of working together yesterday when staff from the Madagascar interagency country team were recognized for their work to promote rural resilience and boost food security on the island nation off the east coast of Africa.

In an example of how the UN's three Rome-based food agencies are stronger working as one, staff from the Madagascar interagency country team were today recognized for their work to promote rural resilience and boost food security in the African island nation.

Rénilde Buhembe, 54, is a mother of three (two girls and a boy) who lives in the village of Rwingiri in Gitega province in central Burundi. She was widowed at age 18 and when in 1993, civil war broke out, she took in three more little boys who had lost their parents in the conflict. 

IFAD is joining forces with the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Brookings Institution and the University of Warwick to host an international conference in Rome.

 

Moldova has agriculture as its key economic sector. At the same time, the national economy and rural livelihoods are inherently highly vulnerable to climate change related events.

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.

Try the Recipe at home: Pollo Pibil - Mexico

An IFAD-supported project is encouraging Malawian farmers to eat the food they produce - instead of over relying on maize and other food products that they are forced to buy.