Savoirs

Climate change is the most compelling challenge facing the world today. It affects rural smallholders across the developing world, with effects that pose a grave threat to their own, and to the world’s food security.

The Latin America and the Caribbean region is a different place than it was 25 years ago. Today, every nation except Haiti is categorized as middle income. The region has reduced poverty by half, and the prevalence of hunger has declined by almost two thirds. More than half the adult population has attended secondary school.

Rural areas are changing too. They are no longer narrowly defined by their food production role, and key issues encompass many non-agricultural topics – including non-farm employment opportunities, especially for young people and women; migration and remittances; social protection; and the role of secondary cities. 

Since its founding, IFAD has focused on enabling smallholder farmers to increase agricultural production and productivity as a means for reducing poverty.

However, experience shows that increased productivity and incomes do not automatically translate into improved nutritional status of poor rural people, especially women, young people and children. 

IFAD has acquired considerable experience during its three decades of partnership with the country. It has contributed directly and indirectly to the mobilization of resources aimed at removing structural obstacles to the development of rural poor people. This has been achieved through the active involvement of, and coordination with, family farmers, indigenous peoples, rural youth organizations, government, international cooperation agencies, civil society and, more recently, the private sector.

IFAD-funded projects mainly support family farmers and entrepreneurs in municipalities in which poverty is prevalent. Activities have also helped to address needs arising after the end of the 12-year internal armed conflict and the 2001 post-earthquake reconstruction process.

Livestock contribute to the livelihoods of roughly 70 per cent of the world’s poor, supporting farmers, consumers, traders and laborers throughout the developing world. The increasing demand for livestock products for the growing populations of developing countries, particularly in Africa, offers new market opportunities for poor farmers in rural areas.

Success in raising small-farmer productivity leads to improvements in household food security, nutrition and income, leading to poverty reduction. However, in vast areas of sub-Saharan Africa, increased and sustained animal production by small farmers is greatly hampered by livestock diseases. Animal diseases severely constrain livestock enterprises of smallholder livestock keepers in sub-Saharan Africa but are not given the attention they deserve by the global community

Like many development partners, IFAD has found that innovative free- standing development projects alone are not an effective vehicle for eradicating poverty at scale: they must be part of a longer-term process that can sustain learning and scaling up. 

Le Programme d’adaptation de l’agriculture paysanne (ASAP) a été lancé en 2012 par le Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA) pour financer les initiatives des petits exploitants dans le domaine du climat et de l’environnement. Guichet de financement multidonateur pluriannuel, l’ASAP offre une nouvelle source de cofinancement visant à reproduire à plus grande échelle l’adaptation au changement climatique, qui sera intégrée dans les nouveaux investissements du FIDA d’un montant approximatif de 1 milliard d’USD par an. Il s’inscrit dans les processus habituels d’investissement du FIDA, avec de rigoureux dispositifs de supervision et de contrôle de la qualité.

Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA)

Cette Note pratique constitue un guide, étape par étape, de la mise en œuvre des méthodologies (ou méthodes) axées sur les ménages. Y sont décrites les activités menées à l’échelle du ménage, les différentes approches suivies pour appliquer ces méthodes, le système des prestataires de services et des facilitateurs, ainsi que le rôle de la communauté et de l’environnement global. Elles indiquent les points principaux à prendre en compte pour inclure ces méthodes au stade de la conception et de l’exécution des projets. 

Les projets relatifs à des filières, qui sont performants et contribuent à réduire la pauvreté, peuvent aussi favoriser l’adaptation au changement climatique, en entraînant une augmentation des ressources des exploitants et en renforçant leurs liens avec les institutions. 

This Progress Review evaluates the status of IFAD’s Adaptation to Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) at programme mid-term, 2.5 years after the first ASAP-investment has been approved by the IFAD Executive Board.

IFAD uses highly concessional loans in an innovative way in the Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Moldova. Low-cost refinancing capital makes rural investments attractive and profitable for formal financial institutions and reduces rural poverty by stimulating economic growth.

In the past seven years, IFAD has successfully used refinancing facilities in economies in transition to stimulate investments on farms and in rural processing companies. The facilities have refinanced projects for a total value of over US$50 million in the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Armenia, with an excellent recovery performance. Refinancing operations have proved to be a viable alternative to established modes of financing rural investments through lines of credit and microfinance. And they have encouraged financial institutions to expand their rural networks and start investing in agro-projects from their own funds. 

Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General

IFAD is unique in the very clear focus of its mandate, and this sharp focus that also gives IFAD great strength, your specialist knowledge of agriculture and rural development will be even more valuable in the years ahead. Speech to IFAD staff, Chief Executives Board for Coordination meeting, May 2014

Marisa Lago, Assistant Secretary for International Markets and Development, United States Department of Treasury

By taking an innovative, community-based approach to investing in smallholder farmers - the most vulnerable members in rural societies – IFAD is an important partner in the global fight against poverty and hunger. I’ve witnessed first-hand the positive impact of IFAD’s work in providing technical training, facilitating access to microfinance, and strengthening farmers’ organizations in countries ranging from Uruguay to Tanzania to Morocco. The United States was a founding member of IFAD and proudly remains a strong supporter.

Water lies at the heart of sustainable development and is essential for economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. It is the basis of human and environmental health, energy security, sustainable urbanization and the ability of rural women and men in developing countries to pursue productive activities. 

But one billion people still lack access to safe water and even more lack access to basic sanitation. Around three quarters of the world’s poorest and hungriest people live in rural areas, often forgotten and bypassed by economic growth and development programmes. The majority of rural people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but face numerous barriers in accessing services and securing vital resources, including water.

Despite strong and sustained economic growth over the past two decades, and a considerable reduction in national poverty rates, poverty in rural LaoPeople’s Democratic Republic (PDR) affects 30 per cent of the population. IFAD’s engagement in Lao PDR is guided by a country strategy that focuses on three primary goals: improved community-based access to, and management of, land and natural resources; improved access to advisory services and inputs for sustainable, adaptive and integrated farming systems; and improved access to markets for selected products.