Cameroon’s economy is mainly agriculture-based, with almost three quarters of the economically active population in rural areas employed in agricultural pursuits.

The overall goal of the grant funding was to strengthen the capacity of development practitioners in developing countries to identify, design and implement more effective interventions aimed at increasing access to rural and agricultural finance.

The goal of the project was to increase the income of rural smallholder vegetable producers through the improved safety and quality of vegetables in the supply chain for domestic markets.

The United Kingdom and IFAD are working closely together to meet Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2: ending poverty and hunger by 2030. They have made a special commitment to boost inclusive and sustainable economic paths and create jobs in the poorest rural areas of the world, especially in Africa, where 10 to 12 million young people enter the labour market every year.

Sur les 450 milliards d’USD de fonds que les travailleurs migrants envoient chaque année chez eux, dans les pays en développement, entre 30% et 40% sont destinés aux zones rurales. Au départ de la chaîne migratoire, les personnes quittent le milieu rural pour aller chercher ailleurs le travail qu’elles ne trouvent pas près de chez elles. Les institutions de microfinancement (IMF) sont particulièrement à même de répondre aux besoins des destinataires des envois de fonds, et de réinvestir les fonds excédentaires de façon à offrir de meilleures perspectives à la communauté locale.

The MilkIT research for development project set out to improve dairy-centred livelihoods in India and Tanzania through intensification of smallholder production focused on enhancement of feeds and feeding using innovation platforms and value chain approaches. The project worked in the state of Uttarakhand in India and in Morogoro and Tanga regions in Tanzania. In both countries dairy has considerable potential to improve the livelihoods and nutrition of poor farming families but this potential has been underexploited. MilkIT focused on improving milk productivity through multistakeholder engagement to increase milk marketing and dairy cow feeding.

Over the past 25 years, the Dominican Republic has enjoyed one of the strongest growth rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing and tourism.

Brazil is a major agricultural and industrial power, has the strongest economy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and is the seventh-largest economy in the world. It is the fourth-largest agricultural producing country, the main producer of coffee, sugarcane and citrus, and the second largest soybean, beef and poultry producer.

Mexico is the second-largest economy in Latin America. Despite being a large, upper-middle-income country, Mexico continues to have high rural poverty levels and wide social and economic disparities. While only about 21 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, they represent roughly two thirds of the extremely poor.

In Argentina, IFAD helps reduce rural poverty by investing in smallholder farmer organisations and indigenous communities to increase their income. The country programme strategy (2016-2021) is based on national priorities and has three strategic objectives focusing on income and strategic opportunities; human and social capital; and institutional development. The strategy emphasizes the central role farmer and community organizations play in rural transformation processes. Key activities include: • bolstering the economic sustainability of families and organizations by improving and diversifying productive activities, building resilience, improving their negotiating power in value chains, and promoting good nutritional practices • strengthening the capacity of poor rural people and organizations by improving their managerial capacity, socio-economic condition, and their ability to engage in dialogue with the public sector • building the capacity of government institutions to support rural development.

Austria and IFAD share a common commitment to reducing poverty, improving food security and achieving more sustainable economic growth for small-scale farmers and other vulnerable rural populations.

Le mandat du FIDA est unique en son genre, comme est incomparable son expérience des interventions dans les zones reculées, où les autres institutions ne vont pas et où la pauvreté est la plus profondément enracinée.

With Fostering Agricultural Revitalization in Myanmar (FARM), the first project it has financed in Myanmar, IFAD is scaling up the best parts of regional and global projects, both its own and those of other organizations. For example, FARM has introduced a new method to complement pre-existing extension services. This is benefiting both farmers and landless microentrepreneurs across the project area. At the heart of FARM’s innovation is the establishment of Knowledge Centres (KCs). Built on the structure and network of public extension services, the KCs are staffed by a ministry extension worker – the KC Manager. The KC Manager brings together farmers and microentrepreneurs in common interest groups, and helps them make the most of newly available extension services.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa experience losses equivalent to 30- 40 per cent of total yields due to pests that attack their crops. They need help to diagnose the problem and identify practical, economic, feasible and environmentally safe measures to deal with them. The goal of this programme was to significantly increase the productivity of key crops and/or improve household incomes for smallholder farmers by establishing plant clinics and training plant doctors.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is often overlooked as a source of water supply. Yet it holds great potential to address the ever-increasing shortages of water globally. The huge potential of RWH for multiple-use services, such as food production, soil and water conservation and water, sanitation and hygiene, has not been adequately recognized, and certainly not implemented, as a solution for water problems on a wider and larger scale. RWH initiatives are still too scattered and the lessons and results not shared. Policies, legal regulations and government budgets often do not include RWH in integrated water resource management and poverty reduction strategies.

Dix années d’engagement du FIDA aux côtés des peuples autochtones Au cours des dix dernières années, de grandes avancées ont été réalisées dans la reconnaissance formelle des droits des peuples autochtones. Nous citerons notamment l’adoption de la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones (UNDRIP), lors de l’Assemblée générale des Nations Unies en 2007. Fort de plus de 30 années de collaboration avec les peuples autochtones, le FIDA dote les communautés des moyens nécessaires pour atteindre leurs propres objectifs et participer pleinement à l’élaboration des stratégies favorables à leur développement. Lors de la dernière décennie, le FIDA a pris des mesures pour soutenir les peuples autochtones à mieux contrôler leurs propres initiatives de développement. Cette publication se penche sur la manière dont le FIDA a fait évoluer son engagement auprès des peuples autochtones, en donnant la parole à ceux et à celles qui ont participé ensemble à ce processus de changement. Dans le droit fil du Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030 (Programme 2030), qui vise à ne laisser personne de côté, le Cadre stratégique du FIDA 2016-2025 réaffirme l’engagement du Fonds en faveur du développement autonome des peuples autochtones. Les citations et les photographies qui figurent dans ce document proviennent de la troisième réunion mondiale du Forum des peuples autochtones au FIDA, du 10 au 13 février 2017.

A recent study by the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC)1 of Mozambique suggests that within ten years the impact of climate change will be increasingly felt within the Limpopo Corridor. The soil moisture content before the onset of the rains is set to decrease and higher temperatures and droughts are expected to increase in the southern region. The goal of PROSUL is to improve the livelihoods and climate resilience of smallholder farmers in selected districts of the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors.

The programme, referred to as the Strengthening Rural Institutions (SRI) project, was implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Eastern and Southern Africa Region from 2011 to 2014. The project aimed to bring about a sustainable rural transformation process by strengthening the “institutional infrastructure” for integrated natural resource management, food security and poverty alleviation in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The project’s main goal was to support grassroots organizations to meaningfully participate in governance processes where their livelihoods and well-being, and the environment, are at stake, with an emphasis on enabling poor rural households to aggregate, mobilize and access rural services.