Fiches d'informations

IFAD and the Government of Mauritius are moving towards a new form of partnership that differs from the standard model for low-income countries, which was followed in Mauritius until 2005. 

IFAD recognizes that the country now has sufficient national resources to address rural poverty, so the focus of interventions has shifted from financing projects towards developing a collaborative approach with the government to reduce the incidence of poverty.

This approach includes policy dialogue, knowledge management and sharing, and partnership-building.

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.

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.

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

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.

IFAD has supported rural poverty reduction and agricultural development initiatives in the Republic of Guatemala since 1986. During its first decade in the country, IFAD’s work was oriented towards supporting the government in consolidating the peace process and rebuilding the social fabric in zones that were affected by Guatemala’s 36-year armed conflict. 

It also focused on constructing an economic and institutional platform for the development of marginalized rural and indigenous communities.
Over the years, IFAD operations have evolved from localized rural development.

À ce jour, le FIDA a financé neuf programmes et projets au Burundi pour un montant total de 141 millions de dollars. Cette expérience dans le pays confirme que, même dans l’adversité, des programmes et projets conçus sur la base de consultations adéquates avec les communautés rurales peuvent améliorer la sécurité alimentaire des ménages.

Pendant les onze années qu’a duré le conflit armé dans le pays, le FIDA n’a jamais interrompu ses programmes et activités. En accomplissant son mandat en faveur du développement rural et agricole, l’organisation a permis de maintenir la cohésion sociale des communautés rurales qui ont été, directement ou indirectement, victimes de massacres et de combats. En restant dans le pays, malgré l’insécurité et les contraintes de l’embargo international à l’encontre du Burundi, le FIDA a également favorisé le maintien d’un sentiment de normalité parmi la population.

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.

IFAD loans and grants have supported the government’s investments in poverty reduction programmes since 1979. Before 1998, when Hurricane Mitch devastated the country,IFAD was almost the only institution investing in rural development and poverty alleviation in Honduras.

IFAD also designed one of the first projects to be implemented after the disastrous hurricane: the National Fund for Sustainable Rural Development Project (FONADERS).

À présent, le défi que le pays doit relever est de créer les conditions de la croissance économique – et le Gouvernement du Togo pense que la meilleure manière de parvenir à une croissance durable est d’augmenter la production et d'améliorer la productivité du secteur agricole.

Pour ces raisons, après être resté à l’écart du pays pendant plus de dix ans, le Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA) collabore étroitement avec la République du Togo afin de mettre en bonne voie le développement agricole et rural.

Nearly 1.4 billion people live on less than US$1.25 a day. Seventy per cent live in rural areas where they depend on agriculture, but where they are also at risk from recurrent natural disasters such as drought and flooding. Natural disasters have a devastating impact on the food security and overall social and economic development of poor rural households. 

According to data from Munich Re’s NatCatSERVICE, natural disasters account for losses, on average, of US$51 billion in developing countries every year. Unless well managed, weather risks in agriculture slow development and hinder poverty reduction, ultimately resulting in humanitarian crises. Poor farmers have few options for coping with significant losses, and in order to reduce their exposure to risk, they often forgo opportunities to increase their productivity. 

IFAD works for and with the poorest people in Viet Nam, including ethnic minorities, small-scale farmers and households headed by women. Strategies to reduce poverty and improve living conditions include building partnerships, strengthening institutional capacity and promoting participation. IFAD works with the government and other partners to empower poor rural people so they can have a role in decisionmaking.

To do this, IFAD finances programmes and projects that focus on developing and testing innovative approaches to poverty reduction that can be replicated and scaled up by the government and other agencies. Interventions are area-based and multisectoral. They target regions where poverty reduction is a priority.

La désertification se produit lorsque l’on supprime le couvert forestier et végétal qui sert de liant au sol. Elle se produit lorsque l’on coupe les arbres et les buissons pour en faire du bois de feu ou de construction, ou pour nettoyer des terres en vue de les mettre en culture. Elle se produit lorsque les
animaux dévorent les herbages et provoquent, avec leurs sabots, l’érosion des terres arables. Elle se produit lorsqu’une exploitation intensive provoque l’épuisement des éléments nutritifs du sol.

L’érosion éolienne et hydrique aggrave les dégâts, emportant la couche superficielle du sol et laissant derrière elle un mélange très peu fertile de poussière et de sable. Ce sont ces facteurs conjugués qui transforment des terres dégradées en désert.

This report was prepared for informing IFAD‘s Country Strategic Opportunities Program (COSOP) 2012 – 2017 for Viet Nam. In preparation of this report a brainstorming workshop was held on 9 May 2011 in Hanoi bringing together key national research institutes working on climate change (CC) and environment related issues, ministries of agriculture and environment and bilateral and multilateral donors.

Dans le monde, on compte 1,4 milliard de personnes en situation
d’extrême pauvreté, qui subsistent avec moins de 1,25 dollar par jour. Près
d’un milliard de ces hommes, femmes et enfants vivent dans les zones
rurales des pays en développement.
Quelque 2 milliards de ruraux vivent avec moins de 2 dollars par jour. La
plupart d’entre eux sont de petits cultivateurs qui, avec leurs familles, ne
subsistent que grâce à l’agriculture.
Aujourd’hui, ils doivent faire face à des changements rapides et sans
précédent. Sous l’effet du changement climatique, de la croissance
démographique mondiale et de la volatilité des prix des denrées
alimentaires et de l’énergie, le nombre de personnes vivant dans l’extrême
pauvreté et souffrant de la faim va croissant.

IFAD works in partnership with the government, other donors, NGOs, local institutions and civil society organizations. It finances initiatives which enable poor rural people in Syria’s agricultural settlement areas to improve their incomes and living conditions.

IFAD is working towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and its interventions endeavour to reduce poverty and promote gender equality and environmental sustainability.

Mobile signal coverage is expanding fast. More and more people own and use mobile phones and some are finding innovative ways to use them to enhance their earning potential. In the Republic of Tanzania, Internet connectivity is evolving rapidly, but few people in rural areas have access to the technology. The use of mobile phones and text messages, or SMS, is still far more widespread than e-mail. Yet the speed of change is dramatic. Communication technologies that allow wireless access within a 30-km radius are being extended throughout Tanzania and tests are verifying the feasibility of using GPRS modems in remote districts.

“It was important that we adapt quickly, looking for ways to ensure that everybody benefits
from these changes,” says Clive Lightfoot, technical advisor of the First Mile Project. “We want
to make certain that groups of people are not left behind and that the revolution is also
directed towards reducing rural poverty.”

The Arab countries account for more than 5 per cent of the world’s population, but less than 1 per cent of global water resources. And as a consequence of the phenomena associated with climate change, the region is facing an even greater water shortage.

For 30 years now, IFAD and its partners in the region have worked to develop effective, replicable solutions to help poor rural communities manage their scarce water resources. More than half of IFAD’s programmes and projects in the region include a focus on water. 

IFAD has approved six loans to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for an approximate total of US$80.0 million. The organization also approved two technical assistance grants in 1991 and 1998 for the Regional Training Programme in Rural Development, implemented by the Foundation for Training and Applied Research in Agrarian Reform (CIARA), which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land.

IFAD’s mandate to reduce poverty by improving the living conditions and incomes of poor rural people faces vigorous challenges and opportunities. IFAD works in partnership with the government and other donors, financing programmes and projects that target the poorest of the poor, particularly small farmers, landless people, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, and rural women in general. CIARA, one of IFAD’s principal partners in recent rural development projects, plays an important role as administrator of decentralized development programmes for the country's Ministry of
Popular Power for Agriculture and Land.

IFAD is currently engaged in over 230 loan operations in 85 countries. About two thirds of that portfolio is related to community-based natural resource management.

Poor rural people and their institutions are at the core of this approach. Water is critical to these men and women pastoralists, fishers, farmers, young and old, part- or full-time, urban or rural, indigenous, tribal or otherwise often marginalized people. It is the key entry point for improving their livelihoods.

Climate change represents an additional challenge to rural people in SSA – and a further reason for investment in water control. Smallholder farmers, pastoralists and artisanal fishers are among the most vulnerable to this threat. 

While projections of changes in annual rainfall vary across Africa, these groups will experience the negative effects of increased temperature and
extreme events. For them, enhanced control of water will become critical in building resilience to increased climate variability.

El trabajo del FIDA en Uruguay se desarrolla en dos niveles distintos aunque complementarios:

• a nivel subregional, en el marco de las instituciones del MERCOSUR, promueve una plataforma de diálogo entre gobiernos y asociaciones de pequeños productores, con el fin de aumentar la relevancia política de la agricultura familiar y la inversión pública en su favor;
• a nivel nacional, proporciona financiación y asistencia técnica al gobierno para la ejecución de programas y proyectos que traduzcan en acciones las políticas públicas definidas en el ámbito de la subregión y adaptadas al contexto del país.

There is a general consensus that rural areas and rural livelihood systems
will bear the brunt of climate change across the globe. More frequent
extreme weather events such as heat waves and intense precipitation are
likely to place the livelihoods of many rural people at risk. Africa is
expected to be the most vulnerable continent to climate change, and will
face a decline in both food security and agricultural activity, particularly
in relation to subsistence farming.

The impact of climate change on agriculture is expected to be
devastating in many parts of the developing world. Especially in the
least developed countries, declining crop productivity and livestock deaths
associated with further global warming pose a serious threat to food
security and national economies.
Nonetheless, vulnerability to climate change can be exacerbated by poverty,
marginality and low adaptive capacity. An integrated approach is
therefore needed to bridge the gap between local development and the
global challenge of climate change.

The main objectives of IFAD’s operations in the country are to improve food security and family nutrition. Since 1980, IFAD has supported agricultural development by investing a total of US$64.3 million in seven programmes and projects to reduce poverty in the country’s rural areas.
Normally, Lesotho is not in a position to grow enough food to feed its growing population. 

Offsetting the effects on poor households of declining agricultural production, IFAD investments support the efforts of small-scale farmers to ensure food security for their families and improve their incomes. Increased productivity is a key to achieving these aims and to reducing poverty in rural areas. IFAD finances programmes and projects that encourage poor people’s participation in the planning and development of income-generating activities, including microenterprises.

Le SARDI est une réponse concertée, à la fois à court et à long termes, aux causes structurelles profondes des crises alimentaires dans la sous-région sahélienne, traduisant un engagement à en finir avec le spectre de la famine et la résurgence des crises.

L’initiative contribuera à réduire la pauvreté des ménages et à prévenir l’insécurité alimentaire conjoncturelle et la malnutrition à travers :
• l’accroissement de la production agricole, de la productivité et l’amélioration de l’accès des producteurs au marché
• l’amélioration des systèmes d’alerte précoce des Etats et le développement de systèmes de gestion des crises

IFAD’s intention is to help poor rural households by creating sustainable jobs, reducing poverty and guaranteeing food security. To meet this goal IFAD places emphasis on intensifying agricultural output and supporting smallholders within irrigation schemes, as well as helping develop small rural businesses. In particular, IFAD works to improve linkages to financial services and markets, to support providers of financial and marketing services and to strengthen the capacity of poor rural communities and their institutions.

The Government of Swaziland, key stakeholders and IFAD are jointly designing a new investment focusing on rural finance and enterprise development.

Le FIDA prend appui sur les communautés et leurs organisations pour développer des activités génératrices d’emploi, agricole ou non, et de revenus. Les cultures vivrières, la production laitière et la recherche de débouchés commerciaux pour ces produits dans les quatre îles de l’archipel feront l’objet d’une attention particulière, ainsi que la conservation et la transformation locale des produits. 

En ce qui concerne les cultures de rente, le FIDA financera sous forme de don la mise en relation des producteurs avec les marchés équitables.

Secure access by rural poor people to both land and water is central to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

Most of these people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

However, international debate continues to address land and water issues separately, and to view the significant use of water in agriculture as problematic.

Au cours des 25 dernières années, au moins 80 guerres ont secoué le monde. Si leurs théâtres varient,
les conflits violents d'aujourd'hui présentent quelques similitudes frappantes: il s’agit presque
toujours de guerres civiles et la plupart des victimes sont des civils et non des combattants.

La plupart de ces conflits internes se sont déroulés dans des pays pauvres, ce qui a entravé

leur développement. En fait, plus de la moitié des pays où opèrent actuellement des organismes
internationaux d’aide au développement sont affectés par la guerre. Regrettablement, la majorité
de ces conflits sont des phénomènes continus et  non des situations d’urgence temporaire. En
moyenne, les conflits contemporains durent environ huit ans, c’est-à-dire deux fois plus qu’avant 1980.
Et beaucoup plus nombreux sont ceux qui meurent de faim et de maladie que par suite des hostilités
proprement dites.

Land degradation – often caused by human activities such as overcultivation of soil, deforestation, overgrazing and population growth – affects more than one billion people and 40 per cent of the Earth’s
surface.When this degradation occurs in the drylands where the earth is particularly fragile, rainfall is minimal and weather is harsh, desertification results.

Desertification directly affects the lives of more than 650 million people in 110 countries. Contrary to popular belief, desertification is a process that can often be reversed.There are many ways of combating desertification, including applying appropriate land-use technologies and water-use strategies. However, one of the most effective methods of combating desertification is by eradicating poverty.

La collaboration du Fonds avec les ONG a débuté peu après la création du Fonds, lorsque celui-ci a appuyé le
Projet de crédit agricole aux petits exploitants au Bangladesh.
En 1976, une ONG a lancé, sous la conduite du professeur Mohammed Yunus de l’Université de Chattagong,
une méthode novatrice de distribution de crédit aux ruraux pauvres, spécialement aux femmes et aux paysans
sans terre, dans un seul village. La constitution et l’éducation de petits groupes par l’intermédiaire desquels les
prêts étaient distribués formaient le pivot de cette initiative. Des agents mobiles de crédit ont mis des services
financiers à la portée des villageois et, grâce à une supervision efficace du recouvrement des prêts, les taux de 

remboursement avoisinaient les 98%.