Savoirs

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.

The goal of this programme was to develop spate irrigation policies and programmes, based on action research and documented practical experiences, that contribute to rural poverty alleviation and accelerated economic growth in marginal areas in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen. 

Specific objectives:  1. Strengthen networks in the four countries. 2. Prepare country policy notes. 3. Implement two innovative action research activities per country that can be scaled up. 4. Further develop knowledge, including in local languages, and open-source knowledge-sharing. 5. Train four international MSc students. 6. Incorporate spate irrigation into programmes of universities and agricultural colleges in the four target countries. 7. Create a global inventory of spate irrigation and flood-based farming systems. 8. Provide technical backstopping to IFAD projects and country programmes.

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.

The goal of this grant was to provide best business case options to producers and consumers to recover nutrients, water and energy from agricultural and domestic wastes for food security and food safety. The project sought to identify innovative market-driven and scalable approaches to enhance the sustainability of agricultural production considering environmental and health requirements of immediate users and end-consumers. 

The development challenges were to: 1. identify and share pathways with relevant stakeholders to make business cases more replicable, scalable and sustainable; 2. strengthen national, regional and local stakeholder platforms (from agricultural and/or sanitation sectors) by extending their interest in knowledge of safe reuse as a business; 3. formulate initiatives from donors, government departments and/or the private sector in order to incorporate project results. 

The programme’s goals were to increase the food security of smallholder farm households in southern Africa and enhance their livelihoods while conserving and improving the natural resources used for agriculture.

The focus of the programme was on developing productive farming systems for smallholder farmers who managed maize-based systems, based on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA): increasing the profitability, sustainability and labour efficiency of agricultural production.

Historically, pastoralists have been marginalized, and policies have been geared towards encouraging, and in some instances forcing, their settlement and sedentarization. Misunderstanding of their livelihoods has also led to abandonment of their customary institutions and practices. However, scientific evidence shows that mobile pastoralism is the most sustainable way of using marginal lands (such as arid, cold and mountain areas). The project goal was “to develop sustainable land management and resilient livelihoods in rangeland environments”. 

The objective of the project was to develop knowledge and build capacity for pastoral advocacy, create opportunity for pastoral advocacy and engage directly in policy dialogue, in order to promote policies and investments for sustainable management of rangeland environments and pastoral livelihoods. A significant aspect of the project was strengthening networking and building a global movement on sustainable pastoralism; this relied on the credibility and recognition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a science-based intergovernmental organization.

This programme set out to empower 35,000 vulnerable women and men in rural value chains directly and another 65,000 indirectly through direct and peer capacity-building and action learning to negotiate a better position in value chains and achieve sustainable and equitable “win-win” collaboration between value chain stakeholders. 

The programme aimed to adapt and integrate participatory action learning methodologies into the policies and practices of at least 10 civil society organizations (CSOs) and to disseminate them through e-forums and capacity- building events then to be taken up by other relevant IFAD and Oxfam projects, in countries such as Ghana, India and Sierra Leone. Knowledge institutes also contributed to participatory planning and gender mainstreaming in value chain research and training.

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. 

During the period covered by the project, the landscape of global microfinance was deeply modified and “the game has changed”. On the one hand, the saturation of the market has led to over-indebtedness of very poor clients, scandals and systemic crises that have swept the whole sector in some prominent countries. On the other hand, it has been difficult for the industry to demonstrate tangible impact and, therefore, show that it has delivered against its promises of lifting hundreds of millions of very poor people out of poverty.

In this challenging context, the project aimed to help unlock the economic potential in sub-Saharan Africa, by promoting the growth of existing financial intermediaries that serve rural areas (rural financial institutions, RFIs) so that local entrepreneurs could take advantage of new opportunities to be more productive and more competitive, and improve their living conditions sustainably.

The goal of the grant was to develop home-based production of charcoal from cooking with firewood into a new livelihood opportunity – and thus create a 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 in order to prevent smouldering, and to collect household charcoal through collection clusters, process it into briquettes and market the output through innovative partnership-based enterprises.

Transparent performance reporting is a key requirement for effective resultsbased management of IFAD rural finance interventions. Better reporting, tracking and management have benefits throughout the entire IFAD project cycle, from design to implementation and learning from performance data, and for actors at different levels: partner financial service providers (FSPs); programme coordination units (PCUs); government policymakers; and IFAD decision makers and managers.

The goal of this initiative was to contribute to establishing an inclusive financial system that meets the needs of the rural poor by supporting the growth of healthy microfinance markets and microfinance service providers. Underpinning this goal is the notion that timely and credible information is critical to the functioning of markets.

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.

The purpose of this study is to map nutrition-sensitive interventions in IFAD-funded projects in the ESA region, and to provide guidance for effective nutrition mainstreaming operations. 

The specific objectives are to: 

(1) map the various interventions used in delivering nutrition-sensitive activities; 

(2) identify pathways for nutrition outcomes; 

(3) evaluate the scale and scope of intervention implementation; 

(4) assess the effect of the project on beneficiaries; 

(5) identify and map areas of opportunities for scaling up; 

and (6) identify challenges, weaknesses and gaps. 

South-South and triangular cooperation has an enormous potential role in agriculture and rural development in developing countries, both in unlocking diverse experiences and lessons and in providing solutions to pressing development challenges.

From the cases that follow, a number of common lessons emerge. First, it is important to create a space for interaction and cross-country learning. In the Scaling up Micro-Irrigation Systems project or with the household mentoring approach, for instance, workshops and ‘writeshops’ gathered people from diverse countries who could then share their own knowledge and experiences. In such spaces, participants could compare how a similar approach or technology required certain adaptations to better fit with local cultural, social and environmental contexts, offering important lessons for future scaling up.

Sometimes individual champions can make a difference. In Madagascar, the project design for a public/private partnership improved drastically when an IFAD consultant with similar experience in another country became involved. In this case, it was also an ‘unexpected outcome’, as the innovation came from a replacement for the regular consultant, who had broken his foot …. So even through small staff changes, knowledge of a complementary innovation from another country can have a big impact.

​Biodiversity is about more than plants, animals, and micro-organisms and their ecosystems – the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992) recognizes that it is also very much about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment. Biodiversity is also essential for the maintenance of ecosystem-based services, such as the provision of water and food for human, animal and plant life. When we make an effort to conserve biodiversity, we are helping to maintain critical global biological resources to meet our needs today as well as those of future generations. Biodiversity conservation is therefore central to achieving recent global commitments for sustainable development under “Agenda 2030”, adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recognizes that losing biodiversity means losing opportunities for coping with future challenges, such as those posed by climate change and food insecurity. 

Ce rapport met l’accent sur les Opérateurs Postaux Nationaux (OPN) africains en tant que canaux de distribution, parmi de nombreux autres, dans le secteur des transferts d’argent et des services financiers. Il entend fournir au lecteur des informations précises sur le positionnement actuel des bureaux de poste sur le marché africain des transferts d’argent et sur leur rôle dans l’inclusion financière, et exposer ce qui peut être fait pour tirer profit des actifs et des ressources du secteur public afin d’améliorer la compétitivité et de faire progresser l’inclusion financière.

La deuxième Conférence Africaine sur les transferts d’argent et les réseaux postaux a été organisée dans le cadre de l’Initiative relative aux services financiers postaux en Afrique (APFSI), un programme régional conjoint mis en œuvre par le Mécanisme de financement pour l’envoi de fonds (MFEF) du Fonds international pour le développement agricole (FIDA), en collaboration avec la Banque mondiale, l’Union postale universelle (UPU), l’Institut mondial des caisses d’épargne / le Groupement européen des caisses d’épargne (IMCE/GECE) et le Fonds d’équipement des Nations Unies (FENU).

Que sont les terres arides et pourquoi sont-elles importantes? Présentes sur tous les continents et couvrant plus de 40% de la surface terrestre, les terres arides se rapportent généralement aux zones arides, semi-arides et subhumides. 

L’appui du FIDA en faveur de l’égalité des sexes et de l’autonomisation des femmes est solidement établi. Son engagement dans ce domaine s’étend sur 25 années, depuis le document de 1992 sur les stratégies du FIDA concernant la promotion économique des femmes rurales pauvres jusqu’au Pland’action 2003-2006 sur l’intégration des questions de parité hommes-femmes dans les opérations du FIDA, l’Évaluation au niveau de l’institution de la performance du FIDA en matière d’égalité des sexes et d’autonomisation des femmes, conduite en 2010 par le Bureau indépendant de l’évaluation, et enfin la politique de 2012 concernant l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation de la femme.

Les programmes et projets du FIDA en République démocratique du Congo mettent l’accent sur une transformation inclusive et durable du monde agricole et rural au sens large.

En 2015, le Bureau de l'audit et de la surveillance (AUO) et sa Section des enquêtes ont contribué significativement aux efforts d’atténuation des risques institutionnels par un examen et/ou une enquête portant sur 57 plaintes d’irrégularités, par le
renforcement des procédures d’enquête et des procédures disciplinaires et par des activités de sensibilisation à la lutte contre la corruption. L’année 2015 a été difficile en raison du nombre élevé et de la complexité des nouvelles plaintes, de l’ampleur
des réformes à mettre en oeuvre et des mouvements de personnel clé en début d’année. Grâce à l’appui supplémentaire important apporté par la direction en termes de budget, AUO a pu recruter des experts extérieurs et mener à terme ses tâches
d’enquête avec toute l’indépendance et la latitude voulues.

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.

Le programme pilote intégré sur la sécurité alimentaire en Afrique subsaharienne cible les systèmes agro-écologiques où vont de pair la nécessité d'améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et les possibilités de générer des avantages environnementaux locaux et mondiaux.

IFAD and the Government of Tajikistan have been investing in building the capacities of village organizations and pasture users unions to participate in and influence processes that are important for the livelihoods of their members. The results have been very positive, as the stories contained here show. Local communities have been empowered in managing local natural resources on which they depend. The community-driven development approach is a very effective way to identify priorities (such as roads, irrigation, drinking water, electricity supply, and low-cost storage and marketing facilities) in rural communities, and has been able to provide the needed investments to improve rural livelihoods. Activities also targeted the needs of female beneficiaries, not only producing significant economic benefits but also strengthening the position of women in communities.

The participation of beneficiaries in all phases of the projects was a key ingredient in ensuring that there would be ownership, commitment and long-term impact. Members of village organizations were involved in setting priorities and decision-making from the outset. Linking community development to training and strengthening local project partners helped to ensure sustainability, so that these communities will continue to thrive in the future.

Since initiating its first project in the country in 1980, IFAD has provided a total of US$116.2 million in financing through eight loans and three grants for programmes and projects with a total cost of US$251.9 million. The investment has benefited 513,500 households. Operations were suspended during the civil war and resumed after it ended in 2002.

At that time, IFAD and the African Development Bank established a joint programme coordination unit to facilitate the management and increase the cost-effectiveness of operations in agriculture and the rural sector.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), now known also as Global Goals, give an inspiring vision of what the world could look like in 2030. This is a vision of a world without poverty and hunger, a world of inclusive growth, environmental sustainability and social justice. IFAD’s own vision of inclusive and sustainable rural transformation fits closely with the ambitions of Agenda 2030. Indeed, the Agenda recognizes the importance of IFAD’s mandate and the validity of its approach.

Going forward, IFAD will be expected by its donors and partners to give a clear, demonstrable contribution to realizing the Global Goals. Moreover, the implementation of the goals will bring new opportunities for IFAD to expand the impact of its activities. IFAD’s new Strategic Framework (2016-2025) affirms Agenda 2030 as the basis for its work for the next decade. The purpose of this note is to unpack Agenda 2030 and to show how IFAD will be a part of making its vision a reality

The 2030 Agenda is a global commitment, made at the highest level, to “leave no one behind” in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Arguably, this is one of the most challenging features of the agenda, and an apt theme for the 2016 session of the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), as the foremost global forum for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda.

Nowhere is the challenge of leaving no one behind more salient than in rural areas. Since the vast majority of people living in poverty are in rural areas, “leaving no one behind” clearly demands a special focus on rural women and men. Rural-urban gaps exist for virtually all development indicators. The 2016 session of the HLPF is an opportunity to consider how to put poor rural people at the centre of national, regional, and global efforts to implement the agenda and to measure progress. 

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. 

Endorsements by the United Nations and international organizations.

It is now beyond a reasonable doubt that the earth’s changing climate is a result of human actions.

The expanding total volume of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is precipitating higher global surface temperatures and sea level rise.

The effects of human-induced climate change threaten the very existence of numerous species across the planet, including our own.

IFAD-funded operations in Paraguay focus on empowering smallholder farmers and indigenous families by creating and strengthening rural organizations - in terms of governance, organizational administration and service capacity - to provide members with the tools they need to manage their own development.

IFAD, paying special attention to the needs of disadvantaged groups such as women, youth and indigenous peoples, focuses on strengthening the capacities of rural organizations to assist smallholder farmers in developing profitable rural businesses and tools and strategies to help cope with the challenges posed by climate change.

To achieve this goal, IFAD, in partnership with the Government of Bolivia, designs programmes to develop the technical and business skills of rural organizations, introducing technological innovations to add value to agricultural products by improving their quality and helping smallholder producers to be more competitive.
Furthermore, IFAD-funded operations facilitate the development of public-private joint ventures that help smallholder producers to gain access to markets and value chains.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. IFAD provides low-interest loans and grants to developing countries to finance innovative agricultural and rural development programmes and projects.

IFAD was established in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. World leaders agreed that “an International Fund for Agricultural Development should be established immediately to finance agricultural development projects…”. The conference was organized in the wake of the great droughts and famines that struck many parts of Africa in the early 1970s. IFAD is now among the top multilateral institutions working in agriculture in Africa.