Savoirs

Une grave crise alimentaire menace actuellement le sud du Soudan. En Afrique de l’Est, où des millions d’individus dépendent déjà de l’aide alimentaire, un fort renchérissement des denrées de base se profile à l’horizon. Ce n’est là qu’un des derniers exemples d’une période agitée qui a débuté il y a
deux ans, lorsque l’escalade mondiale des prix a provoqué des pénuries alimentaires dans de nombreux pays d’Afrique et d’Asie. La flambée des prix alimentaires a plongé dans une misère encore plus noire les pauvres, déjà aux prises avec mille difficultés pour satisfaire leurs besoins les plus élémentaires. Elle a laissé dans son sillage la crise financière mondiale, qui les a à nouveau pénalisés le plus durement. L’agriculture est le principal employeur, créateur d’emplois et exportateur de la plupart des pays en développement. D’un point de vue historique, elle est le moteur économique de nombreux pays, générant une croissance qui s’est avérée au moins deux fois plus efficace que celle d’autres secteurs pour la réduction de la pauvreté. Les investissements dans le développement agricole et rural sont par conséquent essentiels pour la sécurité alimentaire et un développement économique durable.

IFAD’s goal is that rural women and men in developing countries are empowered to achieve higher incomes and improved food security at the household level. In this way it will contribute to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal #1: “The eradication of extreme poverty”. (IFAD, Strategic Framework 2007-2010)

Since IFAD began operations in 1978, it has supported, as part of its mandate to reduce poverty, many rural development programmes in which indigenous peoples have played an important role as stakeholders. 

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in public and private-sector investment in agriculture. Concerns about longer-term food and energy security and expectations of increasing returns from agriculture underpin much recent agricultural investment. Some have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities in lower- and middle-income countries. Others have raised concerns about the possible social impacts, including loss of local rights to land, water and other natural resources; threats to local food security; and, more generally, the risk that large-scale investments may marginalise family farmers. The recent debates about “land grabbing” – the media characterisation of large-scale farmland acquisitions in lower- and middle-income countries – illustrate these trends and positions. 

The objective of IFAD Decision Tools for Rural Finance is to provide decision-making support for the IFAD country programme managers (CPMs), consultants, project staff and technical advisers who develop and implement rural finance projects. Built on the IFAD Rural Finance Policy (RFP) (IFAD 2009), as well as other good practice guides, this knowledge management tool is designed to help identify and answer the questions that arise in each rural finance project, provide background on key issues, define common terms, highlight risks and opportunities, and provide references for further investigation. 

Le risque fait partie intégrante de toute activité agricole. Les agriculteurs sont confrontés à un vaste éventail de risques liés au marché et à la production qui se répercutent sur leurs revenus, les rendant instables et imprévisibles d’une année sur l’autre. 

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.

This Thematic Paper is part of a Toolkit for Project Design (Livestock Thematic Papers: Tools for Project Design) which reflects IFAD’s commitment to developing a sustainable livestock sector in which poor farmers and herders might have higher incomes, and better access to assets, services, technologies and markets.

The paper indents to be a practical tool for development practitioners, project designers and policymakers to define appropriate livestock development interventions. It also provides recommendations on critical issues for rural development and also possible responses and actions to encourage the socio-economic empowerment of poor livestock keepers.

This paper presents the outcomes of the Special Session of the 2010 Farmers’ Forum, Promoting Women’s Leadership in Farmers’ Organizations and Rural Producers’ Organizations,  that was convened on 12 and 13 February in conjunction with the Thirty-third Session of IFAD’s Governing Council. The session was co-organized by IFAD and the non-governmental organization Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources (WOCAN).
In plenary session and working groups, over 60 participants – including 35 women farmer representatives, members of the Farmers’ Forum Steering Committee, observers from NGOs and FAO, and many IFAD staff – had a rich discussion that generated important recommendations. 

IFAD will follow up on those recommendations not only as a matter of equity, given women’s enormous contribution to agriculture, but also because a stronger women’s voice and leadership in agriculture are essential to making smallholder agriculture more productive and sustainable.

Desertification is the process of land degradation that affects dryland areas and is caused by poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change. Drylands lose their productive capacity in a spiral of destruction that twins increased land degradation with increased poverty and food insecurity. Drought and desertification threaten the livelihoods of more than 1.2 billion people in 110 countries. 

The problem is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia Desertification is the process of land degradation that affects dryland areas and is caused by poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change. Drylands lose their productive capacity in a spiral of destruction that twins increased land degradation with increased poverty and food insecurity. Drought and desertification threaten the livelihoods of more than 1.2 billion people in 110 countries. The problem is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.  

In addition to caring for their families, women across the developing world spend considerable proportions of their time and energy using and preserving land for the production of food and fuel and to generate income for their families and communities.

These activities include crop production, growing fruits and vegetables, raising small livestock, tending trees, processing products for food and markets, and managing and collecting water and fuel. Women are usually responsible for the plots in which food crops are grown, while men are responsible for the plots on which cash crops are grown. The latter account for a major part of the threat of soil nutrient depletion and desertification.

The Investigation Section of the Office of Audit and Oversight (OA/IS) has a mandate to investigate alleged irregular practices, namely (i) fraud and corruption, in relation to entities, contractors and non-staff individuals applying for or participating in an IFAD-financed project or headquartersrelated contract; and (ii) staff misconduct, pursuant to the adoption by the Executive Board in December 2005 of the IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption in its Activities and Operations (EB 2005/85/R.5/Rev.1). Implementation of this policy, along with the establishment of a Sanctions Committee, has aligned IFAD with best practices in this area of other United Nations agencies and the main multilateral financial institutions.

Twenty-seven new allegations were received in 2009, compared with 30 in 2008. Fifty-nine per cent were external, mostly involving bidding irregularities and procurement-related fraud. Emphasis has been placed on promoting awareness of the anticorruption policy at every stage of the project cycle, thus putting the anticorruption message in the foreground. 

 Since 1982, IFAD has supported seven projects in Syria with loans totalling US$126.2 million for projects with a total value of US$474 million. The organization has also provided a number of grants, including technical assistance grants to support women’s empowerment.

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.

Le présent rapport se fonde sur les résultats d’une étude commandée par le FIDA et réalisée par Manuel Orozco, d’Inter-American Dialogue.

Factsheet illustrating how IFAD is exploring more innovative ways of working with remittances.

The project will reverse the decline in productivity of Eritrea’s soil resources;
restore vegetative cover and habitat diversity in areas of degraded rangelands,
forests and woodlands; and increase biodiversity within crop, livestock and
forest production landscapes.

The GEF-funded Agricultural and Rural Rehabilitation and Development
Initiative, which will complement the ongoing IFAD-financed Agricultural and
Rural Rehabilitation and Development Initiative Project (ARRDI), will similarly
focus on southern Niger’s Maradi region – home to 20 per cent of the nation’s
population – targeting poor and extremely poor communities vulnerable to
environmental risk, with special emphasis on women and youth.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an annual per capita income of only US$174. Nearly half of the population lives under the poverty line, and more than 12 million people are
chronically or periodically food insecure. Agriculture generates approximately 50 per cent of the GDP and 90 per cent of export earnings. Despite its importance, agricultural performance has improved little over the past 50 years and food security has deteriorated. Low agricultural productivity and chronic food insecurity are direct results of the ongoing degradation of natural resources in the
Ethiopian highlands.

This Decision Tools document is  the final outcome of five years of studies, debates and workshop discussions. These Tools will prove useful to Governments, development practitioners and field technical staff that are financing, designing or implementing CDD projects for rural poverty reduction.

La volatilité des cours constatée dernièrement sur les marchés internationaux fait peser une menace sur la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. Pour les deux milliards de personnes qui vivent et travaillent sur de petites exploitations dans les pays en développement, l’existence est devenue plus précaire.
Cependant, des investissements, des politiques et des programmes de développement adaptés offrent une immense possibilité aux petits agriculteurs qui souhaitent accroître leur production vivrière et améliorer ainsi leurs conditions de vie tout en contribuant à assurer la sécurité alimentaire pour tous.