Blogs

Artificial Intelligence is not just a buzzword for IFAD – it is a powerful new technology that delivers better development results and increases impact.

IFAD’s Country Director for Haiti, Paolo Silveri, shares his insights on the current crisis – and explains why IFAD is committed to continuing operations.

All too often, value chain development harms the planet by emitting carbon and degrading environments. That’s why to build truly prosperous rural areas, we must make value chains not just strong, but sustainable.

Water stress is growing around the world. To effectively tackle it, a new approach assesses not only whether water infrastructure is available and working, but also whether it is meeting the needs of the people who rely on it. 

Why has the UN declared this year the International Year of Camelids? IFAD’s Country Director for Bolivia, Daniel Anavitarte, explains why you should care about these extraordinary mammals – and why they’re key to sustainable rural development in South America and beyond.

When climate and natural disasters strike, it’s rural people who are worst affected. Investing in their resilience ensures that they not only endure times of crisis, but emerge stronger. Associate Vice-President of Programmes Donal Brown explains how rural communities can change the world for the better.

Follow IFAD's journey at COP28, as we showcase efforts towards sustainable agriculture, climate resilience and food security, and raise the voices of rural people all over the world.

The Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia is a dynamic region faced with many challenges. We caught up with Regional Director Dina Saleh to find out how rural people are coping with the realities of conflict and climate change and to understand why the right investments now can make all the difference later.

West and Central Africa is as intricate as it is vast. We sat down with Regional Director, Bernard Mwinyel Hien, to better understand the region’s strengths and challenges.

Rural people in Nigeria face unimaginable challenges. Find out how farmer-focused social enterprise Babban Gona and IFAD have joined forces to support those who are most in need.

El Niño is back, and its effects are expected to have dire consequences for rural people. Oliver Page explains why we must do more to create a resilient, sustainable future in the face of this devastating climate phenomenon.

IFAD’s Regional Director for the NEN region, Dina Saleh, reacts to the disastrous events that have occurred in the region this week.

Roads may sometimes be taken for granted. But for remote rural communities, they can be life changing. Find out how integrating roads and water management can lead to sustainable economic growth.

The Asia Pacific region is one of dizzying contrasts and incredible scale. We caught up with Regional Director, Reehana Rifat Raza, to find out the challenges faced by rural people in this dynamic region and how investment can make all the difference for their futures.

East and Southern Africa is home to a diversity of landscapes, people and challenges. We sat down with Regional Director Sara Mbago-Bhunu to talk about rural life and the importance of investment.

It’s time countries step up their investments and secure a climate-resilient future for small-scale farmers in Africa. Here’s how.

The line between getting by and going under is often all too thin. Disasters can immediately upend lives and reverse decades of progress and rural development. That’s why rural people also need their community, their country and their planet to be resilient.

Few storytelling mediums are more powerful than film. Find out how IFAD is using virtual reality and 360° video technology to ensure that rural people’s voices are heard.

Farmers in Mozambique face unimaginable challenges. We must continue to support them if we want to see rural communities lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. Norway's Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, shares her reflections on her recent visit to Mozambique.

Remittances are a lifeline for rural communities all over the world, here’s why we should continue to invest in digital transfers.

Despite its name, Cabo Verde is arid and water starved. IFAD AVP, Jo Puri, visited the archipelago to discuss its future with the country’s leadership and hear from the rural people IFAD supports about how we can improve their lives.

In southern Türkiye countless farming communities are suffering after losing their homes and livelihoods to the devastating earthquake that struck the country.

As the world welcomes the historic UN agreement to legally protect high seas, we must also ensure that small-scale fishers continue to be protected.

Meet IFAD’s new Disability Inclusion Champion as she works towards amplifying the voice and potential of persons with disabilities.

In today’s multi-crisis context, one disaster quickly follows another. With crisis fatigue setting in, the time is now to invest in solutions with lasting impact, including food systems and small-scale farmers.

IFAD’s updated Policy on Engagement with Indigenous Peoples enshrines the value of their traditions and supports the crucial role they play in the world. We spoke with three experts to get an insight into the policy.

An IFAD-FAO study from Lesotho provides valuable insight on how to mitigate against climate change while sustainably producing enough healthy food for everyone.

IFAD helps rural small-scale farmers reduce emissions while adapting to climate change. Find out how rearing insects as human food and livestock feed can achieve these goals.

Following a recent visit to Tanzania and Kenya, IFAD AVP, Satu Santala, shares what she learned about sustainable development from the farmers themselves.

As today’s young people grow into tomorrow’s adults, the impacts of climate change are simultaneously growing and worsening. Rural youth are valuable contributors to climate action. At COP27, we showcased the lives and ambitions of young innovators and activists. Find out what they had to say.

Meteorologist Clare Nasir travels to Nepal where she shares a homecooked meal with a local family and discovers how rural farming communities are adapting to the threat of climate change.

To respond to the impacts of climate change that are already happening around us every day, we urgently need to invest in climate adaptation. UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report identifies the gap between where we are and where we need to be. Jo Puri shares her impressions on what this year’s report reveals.

Ahead of this year’s COP, President Lario shares three big wins for the planet that can mitigate climate change and help the world’s poorest rural people adapt to its inevitable impacts.

Small-scale farmers hold the key to feeding the world, its important for them to trust and invest in different types of irrigation systems.

As the world faces a myriad of crises, experts fear that the progress rural women and girls have worked so hard for may be reversed. Here is how IFAD is working to prevent this.

Faced with the impacts of climate change, small-scale producers in Guatemala urgently need to manage risk using tools like insurance. Read how INSURED promotes the use of agricultural insurance to build resilience and strengthen livelihoods.

On his first day in office, IFAD President, Alvaro Lario, shares his thoughts on how IFAD can address the challenges of today to ensure sustainable global food systems and transform the lives of the world’s poorest rural people.

Reducing food losses makes food systems more sustainable. Although the exact causes are different for every crop and in every country, there are plenty of avenues to prevent, detect, and reverse these losses.

Marking ten years in Cuba, IFAD’s Country Director met small-scale farmers and partners to discuss progress made and what is yet to be done.

Discover hidden gems in rural Bangladesh with two IFAD colleagues as they visit a community-led eco-tourism project that has transformed the area.

The trending topic at UNGA this year was the escalation of the war in Ukraine. But the topic IFAD’s Alberto Trillo Barca heard discussed most in the halls and lifts of UN HQ in New York was food security and the global food crisis.

Kenyan farmers and their crops face a tiny but destructive threat: the fall armyworm. With climate change causing more infestations, push-pull technologies are a sustainable and affordable way of naturally controlling pest numbers. Find out how this simple but effective technology works.

The impacts of the war in Ukraine, coupled with the pandemic and climate change, are threatening the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the world over. Finance is a critical lifeline, but can rural agri-SMEs access it?

Following months of incessant rain, nearly one third of Pakistan is underwater. Millions of people are affected, thousands have died, and agriculture is at risk. IFAD’s Country Director in Pakistan reflects on what is happening on the ground.

On a recent trip to Guatemala and Honduras with the US Ambassador to the UN agencies based in Rome, IFAD Country Director, René Castro, explains how smallholder farmers are transforming rural communities despite the challenges of climate change.

As the world experiences new and complex crises at an ever-increasing pace, we must back up decision-making with rigorous research and data. Here are three principles to bridge the divide between research and policy.

The latest SOFI report shows that rather than moving towards zero hunger, evermore people are hungry. On the back of these disheartening results, three IFAD experts give their reactions to the report.

At IFAD, we take a community-driven, bottom-up approach to project design. This creates a sense of ownership for rural communities and governments alike. A recent example from Ethiopia shows how government and communities came together to design investments in building resilience.

Chef Anahita Dhondy is a passionate advocate for Parsi food – the rich cuisine of India’s Zoroastrian community to which she belongs – as well as for the use of local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients. We recently caught up with her to hear more about her work in and out of the kitchen.

Chef Thomas Zacharias is a big fan of storytelling as a way to get people interested in fixing our food systems. We caught up with him to learn more about what drives him to tell the stories of the farmers he’s met and to champion local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients.

IFAD and China are celebrating 40 years of cooperation. Over the last four decades, IFAD has supported China’s development and China has been a key supporter and champion of our work. Here, we look back on 40 years of achievement and look forward to where the next few decades will take us.

Conventional wisdom has long held that giving grants to small-scale farmers produces temporary gains at best. But recently, our research into a grants-based intervention employed by PRICE, an IFAD-funded initiative in Rwanda, found benefits that have lasted for five years and counting.

Journalist and documentary maker Qasa Alom recently visited Bangladesh with IFAD. He reflects on how climate change is affecting its people and what IFAD is doing to support them.

These days, it feels like the vulnerability of the world’s food systems is on full display. As I watch the current situation unfold, I’ve been reflecting on the need for multilateralism and donor coordination to help the world overcome this emergency.

We sat down with Chef Joseph Yoon to learn more about edible insects: their health benefits, their potential as a method for fighting climate change, and even – for those who are tempted – how to start incorporating them into your cooking.

The war in Ukraine is testing the resilience of the people of Moldova, including its small-scale farmers. Our support is essential for helping them respond to the crisis – but opportunities to help are slipping through our fingers.  

We know a thing or two about connecting youth with the financial services they need to start a business – but there’s always more to learn. Here, we reflect on some of our “lessons learned” as part of a recent grant programme in East Africa.

In many countries, we have the opportunity to partner with public policies and programmes to deliver the services our project participants need. Although effective inter-institutional coordination is never simple, it is doable – and entirely worth the effort.

We used GIS to assess the impact of IFAD-supported projects on the likelihood of conflict in fragile contexts. Our results suggest that the presence of IFAD interventions may prevent conflicts from arising and reduce the overall number of conflicts.

Learn more about food sovereignty and what it means for indigenous peoples with Dr Elifuraha Laltaika, a professor of law and expert on indigenous peoples’ rights. 

There is much interest in promoting workplace diversity recently. Not only is this long overdue, but it also makes financial sense.

Just as the shadow of COVID-19 was lifting from many parts of the world, new crises have arisen – and they’re a particularly difficult challenge for poor rural people in developing countries.

All too often, small family farms operate in isolation. By themselves, they often lack the resources and skills they need to thrive. IFAD is now bringing small-scale farmers and other stakeholders into clusters to work together for their common interests. We caught up with one of our technical specialists to learn more.

“At the end of the day, restaurants are a luxury, but having food is a right. Everyone should have access to food.”

Groundwater depletion continues to be a challenge for small-scale farmers in the NENA region, despite the existence of water-saving technologies. Now, a new study is shedding light on ways farmers can improve their water efficiency – and where they can turn for help.

If groundwater is used carefully, it can be used by small-scale farmers to grow the crops they need to feed their families and build livelihoods in areas that are strongly affected by climate change.

This International Women’s Day, we sat down with Steven Jonckheere, IFAD’s Senior Technical Specialist on Gender and Social Inclusion, for a conversation on why women’s land rights matter – and what IFAD is doing about it.

Last year, the World Economic Forum revised its estimates for closing the gender gap. Shockingly, rather than reaching equality sooner, the gap has increased a generation. At IFAD, we work to achieve a more equitable rural world, one where women’s participation in decision-making is no longer an exception.

More and more of IFAD’s development projects are focusing on nutrition as a way to optimize their impact. Our work in Ethiopia exemplifies this.

Last year, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake caused more than 2,200 deaths and US$2 billion worth of damage in southern Haiti. In February 2022, a Donors' Conference was held to seek financial and political support for the reconstruction and relaunch of the region.

Jeong Kwan is a Zen Buddhist nun. She’s also a chef famous for both her sustainable vegan recipes and her pure and sincere approach towards cooking. Our conversation touched upon everything from traditional Korean temple food to what we need to do to rebalance our food systems.

For our people and planet to flourish, we need agrobiodiversity: agricultural systems that enhance our wealth of ecosystems and living beings instead of diminishing it. Our work has long recognized the importance of agrobiodiversity for sustainable food systems, and now we’re taking this commitment even further.

To make sure we’re investing in what works and achieving maximum impact, we evaluated 17 of our project Impact Assessments to look for broader trends. The results have implications for everyone who works in rural development – from those on the ground to the donors who make this work possible.

It might seem counter-intuitive to suggest that agriculture should become more nutrition-sensitive – but many small-scale producers worldwide are at risk of food and nutrition insecurity. We’re committing to more ambitious goals for integrating nutrition into our investments and project activities.

Young people are the future of the world’s food systems, and they should therefore have a say in how the food systems of tomorrow should be configured. In China, youth have long been leading efforts to promote organic farming and sustainable consumption – and now, they’re beginning to act for change.