Videos

IFAD Recipes for Change chef Sophie Grigson travelled to Malawi to meet local small-scale farmers who are fighting back against climate change by diversifying their crops.

IFAD’s Crisis Response Initiative is helping pastoralists in Herat build resilience against crises by training pastoralists in animal husbandry practices, providing veterinary units with equipment and supplying high quality feed during winter months.

Hayet has a university degree but, like one third of young rural women in Tunisia, she could not find a job and had no means of earning an income.

Amina Sana had very little income and not enough to eat. But her life has been transformed after receiving livestock and training from the IFAD-supported FORMAPROD project

There is no solution to climate change without rural women. It’s time to invest in them. It’s time to let them lead the way.

Global hunger and food insufficiency are increasing, reflecting increased inequalities arising from unequal economic recovery and persisting income losses following the pandemic. Satu Santala, Associate Vice-President of the External Relations and Governance Department at IFAD, tells us more about Fund’s approach to tackling these global challenges through SSTC.

Brazil’s north-eastern semi-arid region, known as sertão, is a land rich in culture and enchanting landscapes, but the harsh climate and lack of water make it difficult to earn a living here. However, over recent decades, modern ingenuity has combined with traditional mutual aid systems to help communities make the most of the region’s natural resources.

Don Lolo has been growing coffee on the slopes of El Playón in Honduras for over fifty years. Now, thanks to support from IFAD’s Rural Poor Stimulus Facility, he's using an online banking app to apply for loans, manage savings, and reach new buyers.

Carlo Cracco, one of Italy’s most famous chefs, is helping IFAD promote jackfruit as a way to adapt to climate change in rural Sri Lanka.

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.

COVID-19 lockdowns meant Juana could no longer go to her job in rural Guatemala. But thanks to a loan from her local rural savings bank and IFAD’s Rural Poor Stimulus Facility, Juana started her own business at home.

Thanks to driving lessons provided by the Haor Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project - Climate Adapation and Livelihood Protection (HILIP/CALIP), a group of young rural women in Northern Bangladesh now have careers as drivers—a typically male-dominated profession.

Brejo Dois Irmãos is a tiny and isolated community of 200 families in north-east Brazil. It hides a precious treasure: the burití, or “tree of life” in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language.

For another year, millions of small-scale farmers have been bearing the brunt of climate change and COVID-19. We were there to support them every step of the way.

This year’s COVID-19 lockdowns cut off Djibouti’s fishing community from their markets. But with no way to store fish in the searing heat, many fishers were forced to throw their catch away. Now, thanks to some solar-powered fridges, they’re back on their feet and trading with new customers.

"Before, these women were just waiting at home. Now, we are more educated. We are empowered to be more independent," says Ruperta Gagarin, a businesswoman from the Philippines.

The FIDA-MERESE project has helped farmers in the Jequetepeque and Cañete river basins become stewards of the ecosystems on which they depend. 

As changing climates affect farming conditions across the world, how can geospatial and remote sensing tools help IFAD and others decide on where adaptation investments are best needed and what impact these interventions will have?

One after another, women who received support from the NICAVIDA project, repeat like a mantra: “I’m a protagonist”.

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.

Marianne Ndong and her colleagues make a living from raising and selling oysters in the village of Dassilamé Sérère, in Senegal’s Saloum Delta. Mangroves don’t just support marine life, like the oysters Marianne raises. They also form a protective barrier between land and sea.

Discover the specificities of food systems in the Pacific region, why they are particularly fragile, and the role of the island communities in protecting them.

The video presents the main results of using the Agroecological Logbook methodology in projects supported by IFAD in Brazil.

All businesses, irrespective of their size, location, products, and services, depend on weather and climate. Finding and sharing solutions to climate-related challenges is at the centre of South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

Gladys Ndagile has been a poultry farmer for many years, but it was only when she connected with a local egg processing business that she finally made a profit from her eggs.

It’s six o’clock in Mojkova, in Montenegro and a long working day starts for Sladan Minic. It is an early wintry morning, and Sladan starts to collect milk from the local dairy farmers driving around mountainous roads.

Brazil has always been rich in biodiversity. But in the country's semi-arid north-eastern region, extensive ranching, slash-and-burn agriculture, and uncontrolled demand for firewood have led to widespread environmental degradation of the Caatinga biome.

Small-scale farmers are responsible for up to 80 per cent of food production in Latin American and Caribbean countries, but they are at the frontline of the fight against climate change and social injustice.

Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of malnutrition in the world where over 50 per cent of children under five are stunted. Many children do not get enough nutritious food, and often came to school hungry.

Take some young entrepreneurs, add some modern equipment and training supported by IFAD and the Kenyan Government, spread the word using digital marketing, and you have all the ingredients for a successful banana processing factory.

To accelerate rural poverty alleviation, enhance rural productivity, and advance rural transformation through South-South and Triangular Cooperation, the China-IFAD SSTC Facility was established in 2018, becoming the first Facility in IFAD dedicated to SSTC.

Through South-South Cooperation, IFAD is tapping into existing expertise, skills, capacities, and solutions to address the effects of COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges on rural populations.

Our Recipes for Change chefs Ska Moteane, Lance Seeto, Bela Gil, Pierre Thiam and Mariah Gladstone shared with us their festive wishes for the Recipes for Change community and IFAD in the holiday season.

Ten African Heads of State have issued a strong call to other world leaders to increase their funding to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) or risk jeopardizing Sustainable Development Goal targets for eradicating poverty and hunger, particularly in Africa. 

On 1 October 2020, the UN marks 25 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – a blueprint to advance women’s rights. But according to the Gender Equality report there’s still a long way to go.

Water is a vital ingredient for growing many crops around the globe, but while the world has enough water, it’s often not in the right places, at the right time.

Chocolate comes in many different forms and varieties, but it always needs one vital ingredient: cocoa. But a decade ago, it was predicted that, by 2020, the world would have a cocoa shortfall of one million tonnes a year.

"Tejaswini" means “a woman who is radiant”. And the one million Indian women who are part of the Tejaswini Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme, are indeed radiant.

The IFAD-supported Artisanal Fisheries Promotion Project (ProPESCA) was implemented to improve the livelihoods of artisanal fishers and their communities living along Mozambique’s coastline.

In 2014, the people of Sierra Leone faced a seemingly unstoppable virus and a catastrophic outbreak, leading to strict precautionary measures, quarantine and fear.

Zainab Semgalawe, lead regional technical specialist, talks about rural institutions

Sauli Hurri, senior regional technical specialist, talks about rural finance, markets and value chains

Michael Hamp, lead technical specialist talks about rural finance, markets and value chains

Oliver Page, regional specialist, talks about climate change and environment

Marie-Aude Even, senior regional technical specialist in agronomy at IFAD, talks about crops development.

Mattia Prayer Galletti, lead technical specialist at IFAD , talks about indigenous peoples.

Putso Nyathi, senior regional technical specialist in agronomy at IFAD for the east and southern Africa region, talks about agronomy.

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

Jonathan Agwe, lead regional technical specialist talks about rural finance, markets and enterprises

Colombia is a country rich in natural resources and diverse communities. But in small towns and across the countryside, many families remain poor. 

To improve its contribution to the 2030 SDGs Agenda of eradicating poverty in all its forms and in line with the Leave No One Behind framework, IFAD has committed to improve its targeting performance.

Djenalib Ba and Daba Diom are Persons with a Disability. Training received from IFAD-supported projects in rural areas of Senegal made them able to feed their families and send their children to school.

Increasing violence in the Sahel region is causing a rise in the number of internally displaced persons. Fleeing Boko Haram through the desert, there is an urgent need for shelter and basic resources, like water.

Step into the real world of Mariamo Fermino Bilasse as she builds her business in Mozambique

Have you ever found yourself looking outside the window, wondering if it will be raining soon? Perhaps you never thought of asking the ants.

Innovative and forward-looking, the IFAD-funded project in Guinea-Bissau will transform rural economic networks for a sustainable agriculture of the future.

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.

In this episode of Recipes for Change, Italian celebrity chef Rubio is in Sri Lanka to learn about moringa, a drought-resilient superfood that is helping rural households cope with the effects of climate change, increase their incomes, and improve their nutrition.

In this episode of Recipes for Change, Italian celebrity chef, Carlo Cracco, is in Bhutan to find out how farmers are rediscovering traditional crops that can help them mitigate the impact that climate change is having on their staple cultivations.

IFAD is the only IFI with the specific mandate to eradicate poverty and hunger by investing in poor rural people through financial and technical assistance to agriculture and rural development projects in developing member states.

Sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse is unacceptable and has no place in IFAD, including its operations and financed activities.

IFAD reaffirms its no tolerance policy.

Thabo Lefatle owns and runs a small vegetable farm in Lesotho’s Mafeteng district, south of the capital Maseru. He is one of 55,000 smallholder farmers in Lesotho who applied for and won public grants.

Nearly 1 billion of the world’s 1.2 billion youth aged 15-24 reside in developing countries. Their numbers are growing far more rapidly in lower income countries than in higher income countries, particularly in rural areas. 

Mewira Chitima, water and infrastructure specialist at IFAD, talks about availability and access to water and rural infrastructure for resilience, market access and economic growth.

Massimo Giovanola, risk management specialist at IFAD, talks about IFAD's innovative and holistic approach to agricultural risk management.

Harold Liversage, land tenure specialist at IFAD, talks about land and secured land rights for rural communities.

Antonio Rota, livestock specialist at IFAD, talks about how livestock is important to marginalised people living in rural areas.

Pedro de Vasconcelos, remittances specialist at IFAD, talks about remittances and their impact on people living in rural areas.

Joyce Njoro, nutrition specialist at IFAD, talks about the chronic impact of malnutrition and undernutrition.

Paxina Chileshe, climate change specialist at IFAD, talks about climate adaptation and smallholder farmers.

There are more than 7.5 million smallholder farmers in Kenya, accounting for about 75 per cent of the country's total agricultural output.

A group of courageous Guatemalan women set off in 2010 to form their own farming cooperative, "4Pinos" after facing discrimination in the men's cooperative. 

Farmers in Rwanda can lose around 30 per cent of  their harvests before they even reach the market, due to a lack of adequate means to dry, store and transport the crops.

With traditional crops abandoned for lucrative cash crops, malnutrition rates can quickly rise.

Through the power of a women’s farming co-operative in Rwanda, Claudine is using new techniques and seeds for better cassava harvests.