Investigación

This report is a guide to shape investments by IFAD and other international donors in climate change mitigation actions in the East and Southern Africa region.

Este documento presenta las conclusiones de una revisión bibliográfica de los principales factores que impulsan el sobrepeso y la obesidad, descritos mediante un marco de sistemas alimentarios e ilustrados con ejemplos de cinco países.

China ha experimentado una rápida transformación rural en los últimos 40 años, que ha ido acompañada del aumento de los ingresos de los hogares rurales y la reducción de la pobreza rural. En este documento se examinan la transformación rural de las provincias del país y sus principales logros.

En este documento se examina qué variables climáticas deben recopilarse, y de qué fuentes, para su incorporación a las evaluaciones del impacto.

El artículo se centra en las actividades destinadas a mejorar la gestión de los pastizales, las fuentes suplementarias de alimentos para el ganado y la creación de cadenas de valor ganaderas. 

Este documento describe una estrategia metodológica para incorporar las condiciones meteorológicas y climáticas a largo plazo en las evaluaciones del impacto, sobre la base de un proyecto respaldado por el FIDA en el Chad, en el que se invirtió en el almacenamiento de cereales.

Esta publicación aplica un marco metodológico para incorporar las condiciones meteorológicas actuales y las tendencias climáticas a largo plazo en las evaluaciones del impacto.

IFAD measures the impact of its investments by systematically conducting impact assessments on a sample of projects closing during each replenishment period.

El principal desafío afrontado por los esfuerzos de adaptación al cambio climático y aumento de la resiliencia radica en la transición a un proceso que contribuya a mejorar los medios de vida, en lugar de amenazarlos.

En este artículo, se describe la función de los animales de abasto en los sistemas alimentarios circulares de los trópicos en cuatro estudios de caso.

En este informe se destacan las tendencias del pasado y se analizan las posibles trayectorias futuras en lo referente a la agricultura en pequeña escala, a fin de predecir quiénes serán los productores del futuro.

A través de un enfoque basado en los sistemas alimentarios, este documento examina las pruebas existentes y analiza las condiciones, los segmentos de la población rural y los plazos necesarios para lograr los resultados deseados.

En este artículo se examina la función del agua en el sistema alimentario de Egipto, así como el dilema que afronta el país: aumentar la autosuficiencia alimentaria destinando los recursos de agua dulce del Nilo a la producción de alimentos, o depender de las importaciones de alimentos procedentes de otras regiones del mundo que cuentan con abundante agua.

El documento concluye que las intervenciones a corto y medio plazo son las más eficaces para mejorar los medios de vida de los campesinos pobres, incluidos la seguridad alimentaria y la salud, el empleo fuera del sector agrícola y la asistencia social.

En este artículo, se examinan los requisitos y mecanismos de certificación de dos productos básicos de exportación —a saber, la banana y el cacao— sobre la base del análisis de los sistemas alimentarios.

En este documento se examina la creciente importancia de las pymes en la transformación de los sistemas alimentarios; su paso de tradicionales a transicionales, primero, y su posterior modernización.

Para crear cadenas de valor alimentarias que sean competitivas e inclusivas es necesario aplicar políticas macroeconómicas a nivel nacional que tengan por objeto mejorar el entorno empresarial del sector agrícola y crear oportunidades externas. Asimismo, es preciso adoptar medidas específicas para ese sector que promuevan la participación de los pequeños productores en cadenas de valor competitivas gracias a la reducción de los costos de acceso a los mercados.

Este documento analiza la manera en que se podría ampliar la escala de la elaboración tradicional de alimentos fermentados y, al mismo tiempo, impulsar las propiedades funcionales de los alimentos y reforzar las cadenas de valor locales.

En este documento se sostiene que la transformación de los sistemas alimentarios debería incorporar una perspectiva nutricional basada en la información y las tendencias alimentarias, la motivación de los consumidores y las características del entorno alimentario.

En este documento de antecedentes se examinan los vínculos y las relaciones entre el empoderamiento de las mujeres, los sistemas alimentarios y la nutrición.

En este documento se brinda un marco para evaluar las dinámicas del bienestar rural y la transformación de los sistemas alimentarios.

En este estudio se examina la manera en que las actividades relativas a los sistemas alimentarios contribuyen al cambio climático, así como la medida en que los cambios en la alimentación influyen en dichos sistemas.

Este documento muestra que, si bien los aumentos previstos en la demanda de alimentos para 2050 pueden satisfacerse en su mayor parte a nivel regional, el posible incremento de los rendimientos o la diversificación no contribuirá de manera automática a la transformación rural inclusiva. En cambio, la urbanización podría llegar a aumentar la desigualdad y la pobreza en las zonas rurales.

 

A pesar de que la inclusión cada vez está cobrando más importancia en la transformación de los sistemas alimentarios, en este artículo se sostiene que los estudios y argumentos recientes sobre la materia resultan insuficientes, y que se precisan medidas específicas para garantizar que dicha transformación no perjudique a las poblaciones rurales.

Sobre la base de los datos recabados a nivel nacional en 85 países de ingreso mediano bajo, en este documento se expone la creación de un índice en materia de sistemas alimentarios, y se analizan los vínculos entre dichos sistemas y las transformaciones a nivel estructural y rural, así como la distribución demográfica.

En este documento se analizan las perspectivas de crear un índice en materia de sistemas alimentarios que plasme algunos de los principales componentes que marcan la diferencia en lo que respecta a los resultados de los sistemas alimentarios a nivel de los países.

El estudio se centra en los desafíos afrontados para aumentar las ambiciones de naturaleza política, armonizar los objetivos de producción con los de consumo, reforzar la capacidad de respuesta de los sistemas alimentarios y consolidar la gobernanza inclusiva y participativa de estos sistemas.

Este informe ofrece un análisis consolidado de los problemas de seguridad alimentaria y nutrición previos a la COVID y describe las acciones principales necesarias para responder a los efectos actuales, informar la planificación de la recuperación a medio y largo plazo, y prepararse mejor para futuras crisis.

This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD project on Livelihood and Productivity Enhancement of Smallholder Farmers (PROSPER) in Ghana.

This literature review report explores the conceptual linkages between climate change and nutrition using a food system approach.

This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project (SACP) in Zimbabwe.

This report describes the findings of the country study carried out for the design of IFAD project on Restoration of Landscapes and Livelihoods (ROLL P) in Lesotho.

Este análisis investiga el mecanismo potencial y la importancia práctica de los impactos del desarrollo de la cadena de valor agrícola en una zona rural geográficamente difícil de un país en desarrollo.

El Catálogo de Innovaciones recoge un conjunto de 23 soluciones a los retos a los que se enfrentan los pequeños productores de África Oriental y Meridional.

This feasibility study explains the role of remittances in agricultural risk management.

Stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) are bred to be high yielding and tolerant to climate shocks such as drought. 

La revolución tecnológica ha hecho posible que la conectividad digital también llegue a zonas rurales. 

PSSA aimed to unlock rural development and poverty reduction in Peru by supporting the design and implementation of business plans created by Producer Associations, targeting two of the country’s poorest regions.

 In this paper, particular attention is given to the identification and promotion of productivity and resilience enhancing agricultural practices. 

Transformación de los sistemas alimentarios para que promuevan dietas asequibles y saludables.

Rice farmers in the mid-hills region of Nepal are vulnerable to drought, which can drastically reduce yields. Stress-tolerant rice varieties can mitigate this vulnerability, as can having a high seed replacement rate and using best management practices in rice cultivation.

The Rural Communities Development in the Poorest Areas of the State of Bahia (Project Gente de Valor) was designed to strengthen the capacity of rural communities to thrive in the drought-prone environment of Brazil's north-east region through improved access to water, increased productive capacity, and empowerment of participating communities. 

This report explores food systems in the Arab States and the policies that support them. 

En este documento se examinan la situación de los jóvenes de las zonas rurales y las oportunidades económicas de África, utilizando un conjunto de documentos de políticas de varios países africanos y organizaciones regionales e internacionales.

Los países de la región del Cercano Oriente, África del Norte, Europa y Asia Central, se enfrentan a un sin número de problemas sociales, económicos y políticos que han paralizado sus procesos de transformación estructural y rural. 

Este estudio ofrece una idea general de la situación que los jóvenes rurales viven en América Latina y el Caribe.

This study characterizes the structural and rural transformation of the Asia and the Pacific region.

This study presents a framework to analyse the political economy of rural youth policy and institutions’ opportunity space with a quadrant that measures the extent to which rural youth are a priority in policies and institutions versus the extent that governments have to effectively implement rural youth policies.

This study analyses how migrants positively contribute to the sustainable economic development of rural youth in their countries of origin.

This study takes a unique look at the determinants of youth migration across seven different countries using recently collected data.

Si bien los conflictos suelen definirse como "lo opuesto al desarrollo", generalmente hay una falta de información que se centre solo en los jóvenes que viven en las zonas rurales.

This study examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities in various African countries.

This analysis reviews existing research on the impact of digital initiatives on youth in the education, agriculture, financial and employment sectors.

En este estudio se analiza la financiación inclusiva y a la juventud rural mediante una investigación de vanguardia con nuevas ideas y enfoques que han surgido a lo largo de los años en este campo.

In this study, we show that rural transformation processes are associated with improvements in rural youth nutrition – malnutrition and underweight – in nearly all regions, although the pace of change varies considerably across countries.

El cambio climático es importante para todos los jóvenes. Es particularmente importante para aquellos cuyos medios de vida dependen de la agricultura.  Este estudio demuestra que la adaptación al cambio climático es factible y que las opciones aumentan a medida que aparecen nuevas tecnologías y enfoques de gestión.

Research on rural youth aspirations suggests that many young people are not averse to agriculture as such, but to agriculture’s current neglected condition

This study is motivated by the consistent portrayal of agriculture and the broader rural economy in Africa as domains of opportunity for rural youth. 

A key lesson is that lack of technical skills does not seem to be the biggest obstacle youth face in entering the labour force. Evidence on agricultural extension programmes suggests that peer-to-peer learning works best.

Este estudio se centra en la participación en los procesos de toma de decisiones y en cómo se podrían beneficiar los jóvenes del medio rural de sus conclusiones en proyectos e iniciativas de desarrollo.

This study analyses sex-disaggregated data from various countries to characterize rural youths’ transition to adulthood by gender. 

Little is known about the economic activities of rural youth. This study provides empirical evidence on this gap in literature. 

This study uses the concept of the Rural Opportunity Space from economic geography literature to shed light on these questions. 

Building on United Nations data, this study analyses how past growth of the youth population was dramatic in Asia and the Pacific, while projections suggest a sharp rise in the youth population of sub-Saharan Africa until 2050.  

Este informe ofrece los resultados de estos esfuerzos para evaluar el impacto corporativo de las inversiones del FIDA para el período de la Décima Reposición de Recursos del FIDA (FIDA10) de 2016 a 2018.

This is the first study to quantify the general equilibrium impacts of introducing a new cash crop into a poor isolated economy, including impacts on environmentally sensitive fishing activities.

There are different views around the future of smallholder agriculture and its potential to contribute to the needed transformations of agriculture and rural economies. 

The Coastal Community Development Project (CCDP), implemented between 2013 and 2017, was designed to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth in 12 coastal districts of Indonesia.

En el informe de este año se presentan evidencias de que la cifra absoluta de personas que padecen hambre sigue aumentando lentamente. El informe también destaca que la inseguridad alimentaria es algo más que solamente hambre.

Agriculture and rural development research will play a critical role in meeting the ambitious targets under SDGs 1 and 2. 

La historia de Gaby Quispe es la historia de lo que buscaba el proyecto FIDA-CIP-Andes. Su historia de cambio fue calificada entre sus pares de la organización de productores y por los socios y aliados del proyecto como la que mejor representa lo que buscaba la intervención. 

This study is an analysis of what drives cofinancing in IFAD-supported programmes/projects, covering 20 years of data from 559 projects in 109 countries.

The Participatory Smallholder Agriculture and Artisanal Fisheries Development Programme (PAPAFPA) and the Smallholder Commercial Agriculture Project (PAPAC) are complementary projects designed to improve the livelihoods of smallholders in Sao Tomé and Príncipe. PAPAFPA, which has now closed, created farmers’ cooperatives to improve the development of organic cacao, coffee, and pepper value chains through increased commercialization in domestic and niche export markets.

This analysis examines the dynamics of youth employment in agriculture and the agri-food system in Tanzania and Malawi.

Farmers in southwestern Bangladesh, an area prone to natural disasters, are sometimes unable to reach community markets in the monsoon season. 

From 2011 to 2016, the Plan VIDA project in Bolivia was implemented to address extreme poverty in rural areas by increasing the incomes and assets of rural people in the departments of Potosí and Cochabamba of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

En este estudio se estima el potencial de mitigación de las prácticas agrícolas apoyadas por las inversiones actuales del FIDA con el fin de orientar el diseño de futuras inversiones.

This paper considers the relationship between farm size and productivity patterns across countries and within countries. 

Dentro de los resultados de esta investigación se encuentra la presentación y el análisis de las experiencias de los siguientes proyectos y programas financiados por el FIDA...

Despite decades of research and development of technologies and innovations which improve farming practices and productivity, small farmers in Tanzania continue to use technologies and practices which do not favour high yields and economic returns. 

Este estudio examina el impacto de la investigación agrícola sobre la pobreza y el nivel de vida, mediante una revisión sistemática de evaluaciones de impacto experimentales y cuasi experimentales de variedades mejoradas difundidas por el CGIAR entre 2007 y 2015.

The Guangxi Integrated Agricultural Development Project (GIADP) was implemented in 623 Administrative Villages in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China to increase income of smallholder farmers by developing community infrastructures

The Rural Development Support Programme in Guéra (PADER-G) was implemented to improve the food security and livelihoods of farmers living in remote areas of Guéra, a drought-prone and conflict-ridden region of Chad. 

The Project for Rural Income through Exports in Rwanda, known by its acronym PRICE, aims to increase returns to farmers through the development of export-driven value chains for coffee, tea, sericulture and horticulture.

The Irrigated Rice Production Enhancement Project (IRPEP) was implemented between 2010 and 2015 to improve the rice productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers who cultivate on Communal Irrigation Schemes in three regions (Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao) of the Philippines. 

The High-Value Agriculture Project in Hill and Mountain Areas (HVAP) integrated farmers living in the remote hill and mountain areas of Mid-Western Nepal into the local economy of goats and high-valued crops such as apples and Sichuan pepper (timur). 

Deforestation and unsustainable management practices have had a significant impact on the livelihoods of poor rural communities in the forest areas of Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca states in Mexico. 

In Khatlon Oblast, the poorest region of Tajikistan, decades of overgrazing has degraded pastoral land leading to low milk and meat  production, food insecurity and malnutrition in rural areas.

Rural people in the Ethiopian highlands depend mainly on rain-fed subsistence farming for their livelihoods.

The Agricultural Value Chains Support Project (PAFA) aimed to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Senegal’s Groundnut Basin. 

Este trabajo busca comprender mejor el contexto en el que operan las pequeñas explotaciones agrícolas.

FAO, IFAD and WFP have developed joint actions in the Latin American and Caribbean region with the common goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Investments in irrigation systems have been shown to substantially improve farmers’ productivity, and thus alleviate poverty. This study provides an example of such an investment: the Participatory Small-Scale Irrigation Development Programme. 

This paper addresses an important gap regarding the systematic knowledge and evidence on how value chains can contribute to nutrition, while remaining financially viable and inclusive of smallholder farmers. 

This paper explores the conditions for collective action to generate inclusion when agriculture transforms. 

El estado de la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición en el mundo es una publicación anual realizada por la FAO, el FIDA, la OMS, el PMA y UNICEF. 

This study estimates the impact of agricultural research, specifically improved maize seeds varieties, on agricultural productivity and welfare in Uganda using a three-wave panel survey. 

Este informe refleja los esfuerzos constantes del FIDA por generar datos que sirvan de base para la toma de decisiones a nivel institucional y de proyectos.

This paper uses the available cross-country data to analyse the causes for the increase in the disparity between rural and urban areas in Asia. 

Policy engagement is a difficult activity to accurately monitor and evaluate, particularly when development agencies are interested in attributing impact to their efforts. 

This paper aims to identify the main drivers of poverty reduction in Malawi. Using an augmented poverty decomposition methodology, it explores in what way the different farm and non-farm economic activities contribute to poverty reduction and income growth. 

This paper aims to explore the influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of the beneficiaries of IFAD-funded projects.

The Journal of Law and Rural Development provides a forum where the link between law and rural development can be explored.

This paper analyses the channels through which growth reduces poverty by evaluating the relationship between the sectoral composition of economic growth and the rural-urban composition of poverty. 

This paper analyses the relation between urbanization and poverty reduction, by exploring the role of secondary towns, mega cities and rural non-agricultural sector in relation to poverty reduction.

This paper challenges the traditional view that portrays income maximization as the main driver of migration and tests whether relative deprivation and social inequality lead to migration in sub-Saharan Africa. Examining data from the Living Standards Measurements Study – Integrated Surveys in Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, the paper finds that a household’s migration decision is based not only on its well-being status, but also on the position of the household relative to the wealth distribution in the local community. Results indicate that relative deprivation of wealth was positively associated with migration, implying a need to renew the discussion of relative deprivation and social inequality as a cause of migration in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Indonesia’s eastern Maluku and North Maluku provinces, malnutrition levels are high. Nutrition challenges include monotonous diets with inadequate levels of energy, micronutrients and protein. Studies commissioned by IFAD suggest that strengthened value chains for foods such as bananas, cassava, maize, spinach, sweet potatoes and fish could make business sense for smallholders and lay the foundations for a strong local food system that sustainably delivers nutritious foods for healthy diets.

​Este trabajo surge de la sistematización de cuatro experiencias de resolución pacífica de conflictos territoriales por la tierra, el agua y otros recursos naturales usando el mapeo participativo. La metodología aplicada incluye la identificación del problema y luego el mapeo participativo como iniciador del diálogo, la incidencia pública y la generación de acuerdos.

This paper examines the transformation and diversification of the rural economy in Asia, focusing on the role and importance of the rural non-farm economy and employment in economic transformation and related diversification of employment and income opportunities for rural communities.

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) can be a useful tool to measure the empowerment, agency and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector. However, computing the WEAI in its current form involves large data requirements, resulting in lengthy surveys with several questions on various dimensions and indicators within each dimension. This paper proposes a reduced version of the WEAI, or the R-WEAI, and examines two possible approaches to reduce the data requirements while ensuring comparability to the full WEAI.

Agriculture and fisheries, the backbone of food security and nutrition for coastal communities and globally, are under threat. 

Cash transfer and agricultural support programmes are both used to improve nutrition outcomes in developing countries. This paper examines previous reviews of the impact of these programmes and compares the evidence between the two. The paper finds that, although there are about the same number of programmes of each type, many more papers have been written about the cash transfer programmes than the agricultural programmes. While evidence suggests that both programme types improved the quality of food consumption, the paper concludes that both types show weak evidence of improvements in anthropometric outcomes.

The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) aimed to foster market-driven development of the informal dairy sector in Kenya. 

This study describes the shifting age and sex patterns of populations across rural and urban sectors in sub‑Saharan Africa from 1980 to 2015. It examines the relationship between the slowdown in urbanization and rural and urban age structure gaps, sex composition and dependency ratios. Findings show that rural-urban migration of young adults plays a key role in explaining dependency ratios and sex compositional gaps in rural and urban areas. Results also highlight the value of taking into account local age and sex structures to better prepare for the demographic dividend and other consequences of demographic shifts in sub-Saharan Africa.

La edición de este año de El estado de la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición en el mundo marca el inicio de una nueva era en el seguimiento de los progresos relacionados con la consecución de un mundo sin hambre ni malnutrición, en el marco de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS). En concreto, en el presente informe se hace un seguimiento de los avances logrados en la erradicación del hambre y la malnutrición en todas sus formas.

En el documento se incluye también un análisis temático de la forma en que la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición se relacionan con los avances en la consecución de otras metas de los ODS. Ampliar la cobertura temática para incluir la nutrición ha supuesto que en la edición de este año el Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia (UNICEF) y la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) se incorporen a la colaboración que la FAO, el FIDA y el PMA vienen manteniendo desde hace años para elaborar este informe anual.

Esperamos que la ampliación de la colaboración resulte en una comprensión más detallada y completa de lo que será necesario hacer para terminar con el hambre y todas las formas de malnutrición, y en medidas más integradas para lograr este objetivo fundamental. 

This issue presents and analyses experiences from the following IFAD-funded projects and programmes:
Ethiopia: Pastoral Community Development Project; Nepal: Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme; Palestine: Participatory Natural Resource Management Programme; Peru: Project for Strengthening Assets, Markets and Rural Development in the Northern Highlands (Sierra Norte); Sierra Leone: Rehabilitation and Community-based Poverty Reduction Project

This paper describes the Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA) which was developed and piloted by IFAD. The approach aims to produce rigorous qualitative and quantitative evidence that can be used not only to identify and assess the impacts of development projects, but also to promote learning and improved understanding of the associated processes and pathways of socio-economic change. Illustrated with cases from Viet Nam and Ghana, the paper assesses the value of the approach for collaborative learning and reporting for IFAD’s country programming and global policy engagement, as well as for the wider development community.

Remittances have increased in low-income and lower- middle-income countries in recent years, playing an important role as a stable source of finance at the macro-level, and in poverty reduction at the micro-level. 

Drawing on a critical review of the literature and econometric analyses based on cross-country panel data, this study examines the relationships among remittances, growth and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific and highlights policy implications to be considered by governments and policy-makers.

This paper investigates the trends and the influencing factors of IFAD’s project disbursement performance over the past 20 years. Based on data from 577 projects in 111 countries, the study finds that disbursement of funds are often delayed and time-consuming.

Using econometric analysis, the study assesses the internal and external factors affecting the amount and timeliness of disbursements, and provides important lessons on how international financial institutions such as IFAD can better monitor and manage this important aspect of their development effectiveness. 

Graduation out of chronic poverty has recently been receiving considerable attention by the global development community for its potential synergies with social protection, microfinance and livelihoods development approaches to poverty reduction. 

This paper examines the evidence regarding the effectiveness of graduation strategies in reducing extreme poverty, with a focus on rural households, and proposes a new analytical framework to support future work on graduation as a learning and adaptation process in development practice.

Project Completion Reports (PCRs) are a critical tool for development organizations, both for accountability purposes, and as a means of learning from project experience to inform the design of future operations. This paper analyses a sample of PCRs from IFAD to assess the extent to which evidence is used to determine a project's effectiveness in bringing about development. 

The report finds that most claims on results are not supported by evidence, and discusses implications for the objective measurement of development effectiveness.

This paper analyses how food safety challenges and requirements affect smallholder farmers' access to markets. High food safety standards in destination countries force governments of developing countries to make strategic choices about establishing domestic standards and upgrading the infrastructure and knowledge base of smallholder farmers.

The paper suggests mechanisms that can be used to respond to these challenges, to enable smallholder inclusion in different markets.

This issue presents and analyses experiences from the following IFAD-funded projects and programmes:

Brazil: Sustainable Development Project for Agrarian Reform; Settlements in the Semi-arid North-east (Dom Hélder Câmara Project);

China: South Gansu Poverty Reduction Programme;

Ghana: Rural Enterprises Programme; Morocco: Rural Development Project in the Mountain Zones of Al-Haouz Province; 

Uganda: Vegetable Oil Development Project.

This is the first issue of the Journal of Law and Rural Development, published by IFAD. IFAD’s mandate to address rural poverty and promote rural development is unique among international organizations. For many years IFAD limited its activities to financing projects and programmes implemented by its Member States, but over the last decade it has begun to transform itself into a knowledge centre and a key participant in the international policy dialogue around rural development issues. The launch of this journal is another step forward in this transformation.

This paper provides an overview of concepts, issues and research on the relationship between financial inclusion and inclusive rural transformation.

It demonstrates how changing demand for financial services, innovations in rural finance, and different investment strategies affect the interplay of supply and demand.

This paper analyses how different types of social protection interventions affect rural livelihoods. It examines how these interventions can help rural transformation by increasing productivity and asks how they can influence inclusiveness.

Using country-level evidence, it suggests that the effectiveness of social protection depends upon specific contexts and combinations of interventions, and asks what this means for building policy. 

This paper seeks to answer three main questions: (i) What are fragile states and situations and how do they relate to issues of inclusive
structural and rural transformation? (ii) In three selected case studies of diverse fragile situations (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Haiti and the Republic of the Sudan – drawing on IFAD financed programme and country experience), what have been the key elements of structural and rural transformation and to what extent has rural transformation been inclusive? (iii) In these cases, how does fragility affect the inclusiveness of rural transformation? Which policies and approaches can successfully promote inclusive rural transformation in
fragile situations?

This paper examines the impact of IFAD-supported projects so as to learn lessons for future projects. It analyses the different methods used by IFAD to measure a project's impact, finds that IFAD is improving the well-being of rural people, and recommends that impact assessments be built into future projects from their inception.

This paper challenges current thinking on the connection between rural transformation and food security & nutrition. It advocates that improving rural and structural transformation has a positive cyclical effect upon communities by improving food availability, access, supplies and utilization which in turn improves the health and education of communities. 

Using evidence from across the developing world, the paper creates a policy agenda to maximise potential for smallholder farming to transform local economies.

The 2016 Rural Development Report focuses on inclusive rural transformation as a central element of the global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable societies for all. It analyses global, regional and national pathways of rural transformation, and suggests four categories into which most countries and regions fall, each with distinct objectives for rural development strategies to promote inclusive rural transformation: to adapt, to amplify, to accelerate, and a combination of them.

The data table shows the key variables used in the 2016 Rural Development Report (RDR). The data covers the period 1990-2014.

This paper examines the role of rural-urban linkages in fostering inclusive and sustainable food systems and how these contribute to rural transformation and,  more broadly, to sustainable and inclusive development. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the paper analyses the interdependencies between rural and urban areas and points to the key roles played by rural-based populations and producers, particularly smallholders, in promoting inclusive, mutually beneficial and sustainable urbanization. 

This paper investigates how household agricultural involvement affects food consumption and dietary diversity in rural Malawi. It analyses the relationship between on-farm income shares and the caloric consumption levels and shares across food groups. It finds that while food consumption and dietary diversity increase with agricultural involvement, the quality of diets does not improve. It highlights the importance of income diversification to dietary diversity and the need for investments in nutrition-sensitive agricultural value chains, nutrition education and crop diversification programmes. 

This paper looks at the role of agriculture in fostering inclusive and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses how improving agricultural productivity, smallholder access to markets and expanding agribusiness opportunities can accelerate transformation, investment and industrialization. The paper presents key investment and policy elements to be considered and points to the centrality of smallholders for the rural transformation process to be inclusive.

This paper analyses the role of migration in promoting rural livelihoods and discusses how migration interacts with transformative economic processes. Focusing on migration out of rural areas, it examines the impacts of migration on rural livelihoods and challenges the perspective that sees rural outmigration as a failure of rural development. 

This paper by Adinda Van Hemelrijck and Irene Guijt explores how impact evaluation can live up to standards broader  than statistical rigour in ways that address challenges of complexity and enable stakeholders to engage  meaningfully. A Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning.

Approach (PIALA) was piloted to assess and debate the impacts on rural poverty of two government programmes  in Vietnam and Ghana funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

IFAD has to report to its Members States on the total number of rural people lifted out of poverty1. The government programmes it funds, however, are implemented in complex ways and environments that challenge mainstream evaluation practice. The challenge for IFAD and its co- implementing and co-funding partners, moreover, is not just to rigorously assess impact but also to understand the processes generating impact in order to realize its ambitious targets (IFAD, 2011). Albeit a strong emphasis on quantitative measurement, there is a need for impact evaluation that fosters learning and responsibility.

This paper is a guide to current debates about agricultural development. It analyses the changes in development approaches and thinking in recent decades and explores today's critical issues in agricultural and rural development policy. With the main focus on Africa, the paper also includes insights from Asia and Latin America.

The following study was designed by IFAD in order to contribute to the knowledge about the relationship between gender, water investment and time saving. It is also intended to contribute to gender mainstreaming in IFAD’s water projects. The focus of the study is to see how much time women and men gain when they have improved access to sources of water and to establish what individuals, particularly women, do with the time they save by not having to walk long distances in search of water. The study further aims to discover to what extent the projects/investments contribute to reducing drudgery and to achieving equitable workloads between men and women. The survey targeted ongoing projects from the five regions in which IFAD operates that were either in their second phase or a mature stage of operation. In each project, one community was covered and 24 households were targeted. The survey successfully covered seven communities and 140 households and was mainly conducted through project officers facilitated by country programme managers or country programme officers.

This document presents the findings from the impact evaluation of the Root & Tuber Improvement and Marketing Program (RTIMP) in Ghana. The program was executed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Government of Ghana (GoG) from 2007 until end of 2014, and co-financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for a total amount of US$ 18.83 million.

The African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) goal is to increase use of improved knowledge and technologies by agricultural value chain actors through efficient, effective and synergistic linkages and partnerships between Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) of member Countries to improve the delivery of these services to farmers.

The enabling rural transformation and grassroots institutional building for sustainable land management and increased incomes and food security, referred to as the Strengthening Rural Institutions (SRI) project was undertaken by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Eastern and Southern Africa Region since 2011.

Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of roughly 70 per cent of the world’s poor, supporting farmers, consumers, traders and laborers throughout the developing world. The increasing demand for livestock products for the growing populations of developing countries, particularly in Africa, offers new market opportunities for poor farmers in rural areas.

Success in raising small-farmer productivity leads to improvements in household food security, nutrition and income, leading to poverty reduction. However, in vast areas of sub-Saharan Africa, increased and sustained animal production by small farmers is greatly hampered by livestock diseases. Animal diseases severely constrain livestock enterprises of smallholder livestock keepers in sub-Saharan Africa but are not given the attention they deserve by the global community

Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA)

 

With a small grant, INBAR has innovated Household Charcoal (HHC) production from cooking with firewood into a new livelihood opportunity and sustainable value chain for the economic empowerment of poor rural women. Women from poor rural households in Ethiopia, India and Tanzania were trained to put out fires when they had finished cooking to prevent smouldering, collect household charcoal through the clusters and process it into briquettes. INBAR has also developed the NCPP Social Enterprise Model which is an Innovative & Inclusive Institutional system to strengthen the rural development ecosystem and enable safe investment opportunities for rural women.

The primary objective of the project was to promote innovative approaches and ICT-based technologies for timely transfer of weather, water-and crop related information and advice to relevant end users in Africa for informed decision-making and enhanced negotiation capacity with water and farm-related service providers.

The World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP) is a global knowledge and advocacy network that promotes understanding of sustainable pastoral development for both poverty reduction and sustainable environmental management. WISP was executed by the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).

The Programme built the capacity of pastoral institutions to engage in advocacy based on state-of-the-art global learning on sustainable pastoralism, enabling pastoralist institutions around the world to network and shared experiences and opportunities, and ensured that the voice of pastoralists remained central to policy discourse and learning.

The objective of the IFAD Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF) is to strengthen indigenous peoples’ communities and their organizations by financing small projects that foster their self-driven development in the framework of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to generate lessons learned and approaches for replication and up-scaling.

Under the 9th  Replenishment, IFAD committed to moving 80 million rural people out of poverty cumulative from 2010 onwards to 2015, and conducting 30 rigorous impact assessments. Hence the urgent need for appropriate methodologies for impact assessment. To respond to this need, a few piloting initiatives have been launched, one of which is the Improved Learning Initiative (ILI) 2. This  initiative  aims  to  develop  a  potentially  scalable  Participatory  Impact  Assessment  and Learning Approach (PIALA) that can help IFAD and its partners collaboratively assess, explain and debate its contributions to rural poverty impact. The PIALA design and piloting is funded by IFAD’s DFID-financed Innovation Mainstreaming Initiative (IMI) and BMGF’s Measurement, Learning and Evaluation Unit in the Agricultural Development Program; and with important contributions from IFAD’s Country Program Offices and partners in the pilot countries (Vietnam and Ghana), and its Strategy & Knowledge Management and Program Management Departments.

Improved Learning Initiative for the design of a Participatory Impact Assessment & Learning Approach (PIALA) in Viet Nam.

This book examines the growing divergence between subsistence and business oriented small farms, and discusses how this divergence has been impacted by population growth, trends in farm size distribution, urbanization, off-farm income diversification, and the globalization of agricultural value chains.

In June 2006, the World Bank and IFAD agreed to transfer the World Bank’s Grants Facility for Indigenous Peoples to IFAD. In September, the transfer was approved by IFAD’s Executive Board. This marked the beginning of the IFAD Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF), which issues public calls for proposals and makes small grants to support indigenous and tribal peoples throughout the world.  Development projects financed through IPAF aim to improve indigenous peoples’ access to key decision-making processes, empower indigenous peoples to find solutions to the challenges they face, and respond to indigenous peoples’ holistic perspectives. The projects build on indigenous culture, identity, knowledge, natural resources, intellectual property and human rights.

This report, prepared by an independent consultant, provides an overview of the performance of 53 small IPAF-funded projects in delivering results and improving the lives of their target groups. About 45,000 people directly benefited from these projects, and more than half of them were women. Project services reached about 1,200 communities. Primary project activities were training and individual capacity-building in such topics as security of tenure, natural resource management, agricultural technologies, traditional medicine, indigenous peoples’ rights, community programming, literacy and HIV/AIDS prevention.

“Hoy en día el problema es que no importa lo duro que trabajes, nunca es suficiente para alimentar a la familia…”. “Lleva sin llover aproximadamente un año, quizás más. Por eso la gente sufre…”. “Sin estudios una persona no puede hacer nada…”. “Los hombres se han ido a trabajar fuera del pueblo. La principal mano de obra aquí son las mujeres…”.

Lo anterior son testimonios de primera mano de algunos de los hombres, mujeres y jóvenes que fueron entrevistados para este informe. Sus historias nos ofrecen una percepción profunda de lo que es vivir la realidad en constante cambio de la pobreza rural en nuestro tiempo. Si queremos comprender esa realidad, es fundamental escuchar sus experiencias y aprender de ellas. Y es el primer paso en la búsqueda de soluciones adecuadas y eficaces para conseguir que las zonas rurales pasen de estar estancadas a ser lugares donde los jóvenes de hoy puedan encontrar oportunidades de trabajo que les permitan salir de la pobreza, y donde deseen vivir y criar a sus propios hijos. Necesitamos comprender claramente qué rostro tiene la pobreza hoy en día, disponer de una cesta de soluciones prácticas a los múltiples retos a los que nos enfrentamos y contar con un enfoque coherente para hacer frente a los desafíos que se puedan ir presentando en el futuro. En este informe se presentan estos tres aspectos.

La publicación del FIDA Informe sobre la pobreza rural 2011 – Nuevas realidades, nuevos desafíos: nuevas oportunidades para la generación del mañana, es un estudio exhaustivo de la pobreza rural. Las conclusiones del informe se derivan de la colaboración entre docenas de expertos en la esfera de la reducción de la pobreza, tanto dentro como fuera del FIDA, algunos de ellos también procedentes de la propia población rural pobre.