Savoirs

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 is the first issue of the Journal of Law and Rural Development, published by IFAD. IFAD’s mandate to address rural poverty and promote rural development is unique among international organizations. For many years IFAD limited its activities to financing projects and programmes implemented by its Member States, but over the last decade it has begun to transform itself into a knowledge centre and a key participant in the international policy dialogue around rural development issues. The launch of this journal is another step forward in this transformation.

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. 

This Household Mentoring handbook is a tool to assist household mentors to mentor selected poorer households.