IFAD first worked in Seychelles in 1991, when it began financing the Employment Generation Project, which was completed six years later. More recently, stakeholders from Seychelles have participated in activities funded by an ongoing IFAD grant, which supports the Regional Initiative for Smallholder Agriculture Adaptation to Climate Change in the Indian Ocean Islands. This initiative is creating a regional knowledge-management platform on adaptation strategies for small-scale farmers. The platform actively disseminates information on conservation agriculture practices such as farming with low or zero tillage, as well as composting, integrating livestock and farming activities, and other environmentally sustainable measures.

IFAD is committed to maintaining and strengthening its presence in South Sudan, working with the government and other development partners. Agriculture is a crucial area for coordinated interventions, given its economic potential as an alternative to oil production, as a job creation vehicle for youth in a post-conflict environment, and its proven capacity to reduce poverty and increase food security.

Los pueblos indígenas poseen grandes y antiguos patrimonios culturales y consideran que hay una profunda interdependencia entre sus sistemas sociales, económicos ambientales y espirituales. Sus conocimientos tradicionales y su comprensión del manejo de los ecosistemas son contribuciones valiosas para el acervo mundial. A pesar de ello, los pueblos indígenas figuran al mismo tiempo entre los grupos más vulnerables, marginados y desfavorecidos del mundo. Es nuestro deber lograr que se escuchen sus voces, se respeten sus derechos y se mejore su bienestar.

In parts of Kenya, local communities have been empowered to take control of their own development. The success of the project rests on community involvement and mobilization of local financial, natural and human resources.

Strong links to markets for poor rural producers are essential to increasing agricultural production, generating economic growth in rural areas and reducing hunger and poverty. Improving these links creates a virtuous circle by boosting productivity, increasing incomes and strengthening food security.

Agriculture is a thirsty business, with irrigation alone accounting for about 70 per cent of freshwater withdrawals. Meeting demand from a world population expected to top 9 billion people by 2050 will require a 10 per cent increase in water for agricultural use. Enormous efforts will be needed to reduce water demand and improve water use efficiency.

IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), have entered into a partnership to implement the „Land and Natural Resources Learning Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)‟. The initiative aims to improve knowledge management strategies and approaches towards pro-poor and gender-sensitive land and natural resource tenure rights in selected East and Southern African countries.

IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), have entered into a partnership to implement the ‘Land and Natural Resources Learning Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)’. The initiative aims to improve knowledge management strategies and approaches towards pro-poor and gender-sensitive land and natural resource tenure rights in selected East and Southern African countries.

IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), have entered into a partnership to implement the „Land and Natural Resources Learning Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)‟. The initiative aims to improve knowledge management strategies and approaches towards pro-poor and gender-sensitive land and natural resource tenure rights in selected East and Southern African countries.

Rural people generally need both secure individual rights to farm plots and secure collective rights to common pool resources on which whole villages depend. IFAD-supported projects and programmes have supported the recognition and documenting of group rights, focusing on range/grazing lands, forests and artisanal fishing communities.

IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), have entered into a partnership to implement the ‘Land and Natural Resources Learning Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)’. The initiative aims to improve knowledge management strategies and approaches towards pro-poor and gender-sensitive land and natural resource tenure rights in selected East and Southern African countries

This report provides an overview of the achievements and learning from the Phase 1 of the Tenure Security Learning Initiative - East & Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA) Project. It also looks ahead to strategies for scaling up initiatives, and to the second phase of the TSLI-ESA project.

Participatory mapping uses a range of tools including data collection tools, such as mental mapping, ground mapping, participatory sketch mapping, transect mapping and participatory 3-dimensional modelling. Recently participatory mapping initiatives have begun to use more technically advanced geographic information technologies, including Global Positioning Systems (GPS), aerial photos and use of remote-sensing images, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other digital computer-based technologies. IFAD supported projects and programmes are increasingly making use of these technologies for mapping land and natural resource rights, use and management.

El Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA) apoya las iniciativas de reducción de la pobreza rural y desarrollo agrícola en Guatemala desde 1986. El FIDA, durante su primer decenio en el país, orientó su labor a apoyar al Gobierno en la consolidación del proceso de paz y la reconstrucción del tejido social del país en las zonas que se vieron afectadas por el conflicto armado, que se prolongó durante 36 años. También se concentró en la construcción de una plataforma económica e institucional para el desarrollo de las comunidades rurales e indígenas marginadas.

En los últimos treinta años, el FIDA así como sucesivos gobiernos peruanos han desarrollado programas en la sierra, donde los niveles de pobreza son severos. Esto se construye sobre modelos de desarrollo comunal, lecciones aprendidas sistemáticamente y ampliando tanto las áreas cubiertas como el alcance de las intervenciones. Los proyectos FEAS, MARENASS, CORREDOR y SIERRA alcanzaron 120,000 hogares en más de 1,600 comunidades pobres en la sierra sur. Estos proyectos han sacado de la pobreza extrema al 30 por ciento de los hogares objetivos, y 35 por ciento salieron completamente de la pobreza. Estos proyectos secuenciales representan el sendero de un proceso de escalonamiento complejo, pero exitoso.

En los últimos cinco años el mundo ha sufrido una serie de crisis económicas, financieras y alimentarias que han desacelerado, y en ocasiones invalidado, los esfuerzos mundiales por reducir la pobreza y el hambre. Al día de hoy, la volatilidad de los precios y una serie de catástrofes climáticas, como la devastadora sequía que arrasó recientemente el Cuerno de África, siguen desbaratando esos esfuerzos. En este contexto, la promoción de la capacidad de recuperación de los medios de vida y de la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional ha pasado a ocupar un lugar destacado en los programas de políticas de los gobiernos. Los pequeños agricultores deben ocupar el centro mismo de estos programas y ejercer funciones directivas en las actividades de inversión necesarias para ejecutarlos.

For over 30 years, IFAD has been strongly committed to rural poverty reduction in Uganda. Since 1982, the organization has contributed approximately US$300 million in highly concessional terms to finance 14 projects and programmes with the objective of empowering poor people in the country’s rural areas. It has also made six country grants totalling US$4.2 million. IFAD is currently providing financing and technical assistance for five ongoing projects and programmes.

IFAD has funded nine programmes and projects in Burundi for a total investment of US$141 million. IFAD’s experience in the country confirms that even under adverse circumstances programmes and projects conceived and designed on the basis of adequate consultations with incentives to rural communities can help improve household food security. During more than a decade of open conflict in Burundi, IFAD continued to implement programme and project activities. In keeping with its mandate for rural and agricultural development, the organization supported participation in social development and the cohesion of rural communities that were directly or indirectly affected by massacres and combat. By continuing activities in the face of insecurity and within the constraints of an international embargo on Burundi, IFAD helped communities maintain a sense of normalcy.  

IFAD is currently one of the two largest donors supporting Yemen’s rural agricultural sector. IFAD has worked in Yemen since the Fund’s creation, and has acquired a wealth of experience and knowledge of the economy and society, and developed a wide network of partners in the country. IFAD’s goal in Yemen is to achieve improved, diversified and sustainable livelihoods for poor rural women, men and young people, especially those who depend on rainfed agriculture and livestock production systems in the poorest areas. IFAD has three main strategic objectives in Yemen: • empowering rural communities by strengthening partnerships with civil society organizations and using community-driven approaches so that poor rural people can manage local community development activities; • promoting sustainable rural financial services and pro-poor rural enterprises by developing savings and credit associations for disadvantaged groups in remote rural areas and developing rural enterprises that provide jobs for the unemployed, especially young people and women; • enhancing food security for poor households by restoring the productive agricultural base and improving productivity so that poor households can produce enough for household needs and a surplus that can be sold.

Los préstamos y donaciones del FIDA han apoyado las inversiones gubernamentales en programas de reducción de la pobreza desde 1979. Antes de 1998, cuando el huracán Mitch devastó el país, el FIDA era una de las únicas instituciones internacionales que invertía en el desarrollo rural y el alivio de la pobreza en Honduras. El FIDA también diseñó uno de los primeros proyectos que se ejecutaron tras el desastroso huracán: el Proyecto del Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Rural Sostenible (FONADERS).