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La gastronomía, herramienta para el desarrollo rural en Bolivia, Perú y Chile

December 12, 2018, 7:31 am
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Alumnos MANQ'A en los huertos de AFLOHPA @Manq'a
La Paz albergó el pasado 4 de diciembre la primera reunión de presentación de resultados del proyecto Back to the roots (Volver a las raíces) impulsado por el Fondo de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), desde su oficina en Bolivia. El proyecto recupera experiencias exitosas de Perú, Chile y Bolivia que han vinculado al pequeño productor rural con nuevos mercados a través de la gastronomía. La conservación del patrimonio alimentario regional entendido como un fenómeno multidimensional capaz de contribuir al desarrollo de los países es el eje vertebrador de Volver a las raíces.


“Es importante visualizar la gastronomía como una herramienta para el desarrollo de los pequeños productores rurales. La gastronomía generará innovación y tendencias que podrán poner en la mesa los productos de la agricultura familiar, impulsando las economías locales y contribuyendo así a la erradicación de la pobreza”, señalaba Arnoud Hameleers, representante del FIDA en Bolivia.


“Este proyecto parte de la premisa que la cocina puede conectar a los pequeños productores con el mercado, siempre y cuando entendamos a la cocina como un hecho social total. En los tres países notamos como experiencias muy distintas entre sí –políticas alimentarias, marcas territoriales, festivales gastronómicos, centros de formación, ferias, restaurantes y cooperativas de productores– lograron la articulación entre el productor campesino y el mercado partiendo de la premisa de que el trabajo de un campesino va mas allá de sembrar y cosechar y de que la cocina no sólo nos nutre sino que sobre todo nos conecta, fortalece las identidades y nos define”, comentaba el gerente del proyecto, el investigador gastronómico peruano Andrés Ugaz.

Ferias Agropecuarias Perú
Volver a las raíces promueve un proceso de reflexión a través de la documentación de esas experiencias que usan la gastronomía para establecer la ligazón entre los pequeños productores y los mercados locales y de exportación. El objetivo final es poder influir en políticas públicas, programas y proyectos de desarrollo rural, proponiendo usar la gastronomía como un elemento de innovación para el desarrollo rural sostenible.


El proyecto sistematizará 11 experiencias que tienen en común ese enfoque de patrimonio alimentario regional e innovación. Entre esas experiencias figuran desde pequeñas asociaciones de productores que exportan papas nativas desde Perú, la vinculación de un importante supermercado que hace un año compra directamente a pequeños productores en Bolivia o  la iniciativa ÑAM en Chile, que a través de un encuentro gastronómico ha logrado vincular a los pequeños productores con mercados urbanos.

Forografia: Proyecto Maqueo Sabores étnicos

Volver a las raíces promueve una alianza entre varios actores que por un lado son la base de los movimientos gastronómicos en cada país y por otro son organizaciones de alcance global con reconocida trayectoria en el mundo del desarrollo rural. Como resultado de esa alianza se ha creado un consorcio entre ICCO Cooperación, Movimiento de Integración Gastronómico Boliviano MIGA, Grupo MASA organizadores del Festival Gastronómico ÑAM (Chile), Centro de Innovación y desarrollo emprendedor de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perúe HIVOS. Nuevos socios estratégicos en Chile, Perú y Bolivia se incorporarán gradualmente al consorcio.
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El FIDA y el desarrollo de los pueblos indígenas en El Salvador

December 19, 2018, 5:56 am
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El  El Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), junto al Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidaspara la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), han sido las agencias de Naciones Unidas que ha contribuido a la elaboración del Plan de Acción Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas de El Salvador (PLANPIES). La implementación del plan, que fue presentado en un acto público celebrado con ocasión del Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, recaerá sobre el Equipo Nacional de Conducción Indígena (ENACI) en coordinación con el Estado salvadoreño.

“Este plan es una herramienta imprescindible para valorar, respetar y reconocer el aporte fundamental del patrimonio cultural de la población indígena a la nación. También busca una participación plena y efectiva de los pueblos indígenas en las decisiones y acciones de protección, conservación, uso colectivo y sostenible de tierras, territorios y recursos, así como en la mejora de sus sistemas productivos”, aseguró el presidente salvadoreño Salvador Sánchez Cerén, luego de recibir el PLANPIES.

La construcción de este documento se realizó en cumplimiento del mandato de la Conferencia Mundial sobre los Pueblos Indígenas celebrada en 2014 en la sede de la ONU en Nueva York, que eligió a El Salvador como uno de los seis países que en todo el mundo realizarían planes de acción nacional, una experiencia piloto que debe servir de ejemplo a otros estados en los que existe población indígena.

Ese mismo año se ratificó la reforma al Artículo 63 de la Constitución salvadoreña que establece la obligación del Estado de crear y ejecutar políticas públicas para fortalecer la identidad étnica y cultural, la cosmovisión, los valores y la espiritualidad de los pueblos indígenas. De este artículo se deriva la necesidad de implementar políticas, programas y servicios con enfoque de desarrollo intercultural.

El plan recopila y sistematiza aportes de un proceso amplio y participativo de consulta realizado a nivel territorial y nacional entre 2015 y 2016. Esta consulta definió las áreas prioritarias, ejes, líneas y acciones estratégicas recogidas en el PLANPIES que da cumplimiento a los compromisos adquiridos por el Estado salvadoreño ante la ONU.

“El Plan de Acción Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas está en sintonía con los esfuerzos globales para el reconocimiento y la realización de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas, tal y como se recogen en la Declaración sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas suscrita en 2007”, dijo el coordinador residente del Sistema de Naciones Unidas en El Salvador, Christian Salazar.

Como parte de las agencias del Sistema de Naciones Unidas que participaron en el proceso de formulación del Plan, Juan Diego Ruíz, jefe de la Oficina del FIDA para Mesoamérica y el Caribe, aseguró: “Quiero felicitar y expresar nuestro reconocimiento a los pueblos indígenas de El Salvador por su esfuerzo y dedicación a la construcción de este importante documento de inclusión social, económica, política, legal y cultural. Una herramienta que contribuirá significativamente a la defensa de sus derechos y a su participación activa en las políticas públicas del país. También queremos reconocer el compromiso del Estado salvadoreño para apoyar la implementación del PLANPIES”.

El FIDA es una agencia especializada de Naciones Unidas dedicada a erradicar la pobreza y el hambre de las zonas rurales de los países en desarrollo. En el Salvador, el Fondo ha invertido un total de USD 156,6 millones en 11 programas y proyectos de desarrollo rural que han beneficiado alrededor de 170.000 familias.

De conformidad con la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible de las Naciones Unidas y, en particular, su promesa de asegurar de "no dejar a nadie atrás", el FIDA respalda el desarrollo autónomo de los pueblos indígenas por medio de proyectos que refuerzan su cultura, su identidad, sus conocimientos, sus recursos naturales, la propiedad intelectual y los derechos humanos.
Betty Pérez, representante del Consejo Coordinador Nacional Indígena de El Salvador (CCNIS), valoró el acompañamiento que hubo para la elaboración del Plan: “Quiero agradecer al Gobierno, al Sistema de Naciones Unidas, al Coordinador Residente, al FIDA y la FAO porque han sido pilares fundamentales para que este Plan pudiera elaborarse e iniciarse”.

El evento contó con la presencia de más de seiscientos representantes de comunidades de pueblos indígenas e invitados especiales, entre ellos el Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y El Caribe (FILAC), representado en esta ocasión por su secretario técnico, Alvaro Pop. La actividad concluyó con la juramentación de la Mesa de Seguimiento del PLANPIES a cargo de la Ministra de Cultura, Silvia Elena Regalado Blanco, que quedó conformada por 10 representantes de instituciones de gobierno y 10 representantes de pueblos indígenas, quienes se comprometieron a buscar los mecanismos necesarios para la implementación del Plan.
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Successful South - South exchange on inclusive land and natural resource management

December 19, 2018, 6:51 am
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By Eva Komba, Kenneth Odary (Kajiado County LR participants), Giulia Barbanente (IFAD) and Mia Madsen (IFAD)

Livestock market: Barbara Massler/PROCASUR/2018









In October this year staff from the IFAD-funded Butana Integrated Rural Development Project (BIRDP) in Sudan hosted a high-level visit of representatives from the Kajiado County in Kenya. The overall purpose of the peer-to-peer Learning Route was to share good practices in land and natural resource management (NRM) implemented by BIRDP. The participants from Kajiado County were particularly eager to identify new strategies to address potential land conflicts and environmental degradation in their own context, through better land and natural resources management, building community resilience in food security, climate adaption, and disaster risk management. The Learning Route was supported by IFAD, PROCASUR, the Government of Sudan, though the BIRDP project, and by the County Government of Kajiado in Kenya. 

The idea of organizing a peer-to peer exchange visit between Kenya and Sudan started during the Africa Land Policy conference in Addis Abeba in 2017, when Kenneth Odary and Eva Komba from Kenya were sensitized to the BIRDP project while presenting a research paper highlighting a similar context to that of Butana. Both the Butana and Kajiado regions face similar challenges, with communities who depend on livestock as their key source of livelihood, and semi-arid landscapes. Kajiado County had earlier identified the need to develop effective adaptation and mitigation strategies to secure livelihoods and community development, and got interested in learning more about the BIRDP experience. After several months of discussions and preparations the Learning Route finally materialized 15-24 October 2018, when 10 Kenyan participants embarked on a learning expedition to the Butana region in Sudan.

The Butana region in Eastern Sudan has seen a rise in conflicts over water, forests and rangelands between settled farmers and pastoralists in recent years. An influx of pastoralists fleeing insecurity in neighboring South Sudan has placed even more pressure on limited natural resources in the area. To address these challenges BIRDP has piloted an innovative grassroots approach to land management. One of the innovative aspects of the BIRDP grassroots approach to NRM is inclusive and participatory involvement of local communities in land governance. Up to date, BIRDP has facilitated the establishment and registration of 12 community-based natural resource management networks in the project area. These networks, operate as legal entities, and have become an important bridge between community development committees and state institutions, helping rural communities address local development issues, reduce tensions between settled farmers and pastoralists and strengthen communities’ resilience to climate change. The networks have enabled settled communities to register communal ranges and forests to secure their customary land rights, and also to respond to natural resource management challenges as one entity.


Hafir water irrigation: Barbara Massler/PROCASUR/2018

During the Learning Route the Kajiado team visited the al-Idaid Network, where six communities have established a network to address specific community identified NRM challenges. Their most innovative interventions is securing hafirs - community water sources - by mechanically excavating pits to harvest rain water both for human and animal consumption and supplementary irrigation of women communal farms. The network has created and registered water management committees to manage the water infrastructure. The hafirs have been particularly important in improving access to water, reducing risks associated with long distances to collect water for both humans and animals , and can be considered a sustainable strategy for managing the adverse effects of climate change. 
Another field visit was undertaken to the Tamboul slaughterhouse and a secondary livestock market within the Rufaa locality. Discussions with producers and butchers revealed that the traditional mode of animal production, in which the owners rely on free range grazing and selling of live animals and skins, has been dominant in the area. Full commercial value of livestock has not been fully exploited yet due to challenges such as harsh terrains, low literacy levels and cultural practices that make communities less receptive to change. However, through BIRDP, communities have been sensitized on benefits that can be accrued from the livestock sector and exposed to critical skills necessary for improving livestock production and marketing. Communities have together created the Tamboul butchers’ cooperative, an innovation brought in from a field visit to the Keekonyoike Cooperative in Kiserian, Kajiado County, Kenya a few years ago. Since then, the Tamboul butchers have constructed a modern slaughterhouse in Butana that can cater for all types of animals. The slaughterhouse design also includes a bio-digester to generate energy and produce organic fertilizer. As part of their future plans the cooperative intends to link meat production to markets and increase the quantity of food at household level to minimize food insecurity and enhance incomes of livestock producers. 

Lessons learnt
The Learning Route was an opportunity for Kenyan and Sudanese counterparts to share good practices and forge stronger south-south partnerships. The Kajiado County representatives highlighted several lessons that can be learnt from the BIRDP project. Some of the critical lessons are highlighted below:

Gender and women empowerment. In the context of BIRDP, many women have taken up leadership roles in different NRM committees, for example, water management networks. The fact that women have been given the opportunity to manage water resources, own and cultivate land was an eye opener to the Kajiado team. At community level in Kajiado County women still remain vulnerable and walk long distances in search of water and pasture. Leadership at all levels remains male dominated. The Kajiado team was impressed by how BIRDP has empowered women at community level. 

Key highlights also include the promotion of women economic empowerment through village level saving and credit groups. A Community Investment Fund promoted by BIRDP, has proven to be a crucial driver for the success of the project. The initiative has been particularly useful for women and youth who face limited livelihood options. The Kajiado County works with initiatives that seek to encourage women groups to work together and register in to cooperatives to access more opportunities, and would like to strengthen women economic empowerment a community level.

Integrated approach to development. BIRDP has adopted an integrated approach to development where a common shared goal at community level contributes to the realization of greater development results. By bringing in different stakeholders (men, women, youth) to implement project activities BIRDP has succeeded in creating buy-in from the community as a whole. This is an important lesson to replicate in comparable contexts such as the Kajiado County in Kenya. 

Community ownership and leadership. The high level of ‘ownership’ held by local communities has proven effective in surviving the many challenges they face. This can be seen through community owned development work plans and strategies that include clearly stipulated common goals. In one of the communities visited by the LR participants community representatives mentioned that they have been empowered as a community and now have reached out to the local government to request support for establishing a local livestock market, accessible to women, as well as support to improve roads to facilitate transportation of animals to the market. 

Food security. The fight against hunger and malnutrition should be preventive rather than curative. The BIRDP interventions have embarked on asset-building, livelihoods recovery/diversification and income generation to address food insecurity. Diversification beyond cattle rearing, including the provision of seeds and new agricultural practices has played a key role in realizing good harvests. Investments in nutrition training for women has reinforced the nutritional status at household levels. 

BIRDP/2018

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The importance of georeferencing your project interventions - the case of Cameroon

February 4, 2019, 4:45 am
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Geospatial data can support IFAD operations throughout the entire project cycle. For example, national and regional mapping can provide input to a Social, Environmental and Climate Assessment Procedure (SECAP) included in Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes (COSOP). An essential part is to keep track of all project interventions as well as all relevant actors in the area of interest. In this blog we will show/demonstrate the added value for an IFAD project of georeferencing all this information, starting from the collection of the data, going to the proper organisation and storage of the data to finally using it for your project. As a case study, we will use two IFAD-funded projects in Cameroon: PADFA (Commodity Value-Chain Development Support Project or Projet d'Appui au Développement des Filières Agricoles) and AEP-Youth (Agropastoral Entrepreneurship Program or Programme de promotion de l'entreprenariat agropastoral des jeunes).

Mapping actors and interventions

There is the perception that the collection of location data is very difficult and expensive. Sure, professional GPS equipment could easily amount to a few thousands of US dollars, and extensive training is needed for a proper use of the equipment, but the precision level that is obtained is not really needed for our purpose. When you are happy with an accuracy of one or a few meters instead of one centimeter, there is a much cheaper option: your (smart)phone. This little device has revolutionized the way we can collect information in the field. And to make things easier, there are a wide array of apps available to help you with the collection and the organization of your data. Some of these are freely available, while others need to be bought. In cameroon we have decided to use KoBoCollect (available in Play Store).

KoBoCollect is based on the OpenDataKit and is used for primary data collection in humanitarian emergencies and other challenging field environments. With this app you enter data from interviews or other primary data -- online or offline. There are no limits on the number of forms, questions, or submissions (including photos and other media) that can be saved on your device. An additional advantage is that it possible to manage and store the data (in the cloud or offline) and share the data with project staff. The next step is to combine the collected field data with other information for further analysis.


Organising and managing your data

Field data is usually not collected by just one person within the project. As everybody has their own way of working, it is key that data standards are introduced before the data collection even begins! Just a few examples are: data and time formats, naming conventions, which coordinate system to use, and whether to collect point-data versus polygons or lines. This uniformity in data is essential for bringing all the data together, and making it again available.

Projects typically do not have a clear plan on what to do with all the collected data, and information is exchanged on an ad-hoc basis. However, to get the most out of the data, and to facilitate its use, it pays off to organise your data in a database. This will allow people, with the right permissions, to view and use the data when needed. This also allows keeping the data up to date in an easy and transparent way. In the ideal case, this data organization occurs on a higher level than the project level. This ensures data remains available over the lifespan of the individual projects. In Cameroon, the General Census of Agriculture and Livestock (CGAL) has been setting up a geospatial database for this purpose, centralising the data and making it available to a broader public.

Creating meaningful output

Collecting and managing the information on the location of different project interventions or relevant actors of your case, is only the beginning. Once your data and data infrastructure are in place, the real added value can be created for the project. An easy win is the visualisation of the accomplishments of your project. These are typically shown in a table, denoting the interventions such as newly created warehouses, repaired roads, new or improved field infrastructures and so on. However, showing this information on a map makes it not only visually more appealing, it also makes the sometimes large amount of data easier to interpret and understand.  
A better visualisation of you data is only a start of what you can do with your database. You can also start using this data to study the complete value chain of your production system. For example, by studying the distance from the roads or warehouses to the agricultural fields, areas which are poorly connected can be identified and prioritized for the upcoming investments. 

Do you think this is something for you?

In this blog we only scratched the surface of what is possible when you start georeferencing your project interventions and relevant actors. However, we hope we were able to show you the importance of collecting and properly storing your data. If you would like to receive more information on the collection and management of project data, and how to create meaningful output from it, do not hesitate to contact us!

Who we are? 

Earth Observation for better-informed Decision Making (EODM) is a three year WCA grant that has supported different IFAD initiatives in Cameroon (but also Senegal and Mali). We trained AEP-Youth and PADFA project staff on the Kobotoolbox for proper data collection, helped GCAL with setting up a geospatial database, as well as provided satellite-based information and support to ongoing projects. 



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Second Edition of the Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) Local Workshop in Addis Ababa

February 18, 2019, 6:38 am
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Building on the first training workshop conducted in Addis Ababa last year, the Second Edition of Local Workshops provided by the European Space Agency’s Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) - Agriculture Cluster - kicked off this week in Addis Ababa. Following the fruitful first series of training organized last year in different countries, this second edition is starting in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) on 11 February 2019 at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus.

The workshop is organized under the European Space Agency initiative for building capacity among Task Team Leaders and implementing teams for increased uptake of Satellite Earth Observation in different stages of project cycles (planning, preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation).

EO4SD has built partnerships with IFAD-funded programmes across Africa, including the Participatory Small- Scale Irrigation Programme II (PASDIP II) in Ethiopia, and the regional GEF- funded Integrated Approach Programme on fostering sustainability and resilience for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (IAP-FS), the latter with a strong partnership at regional level.

The five-day training workshop focusses on the practical implementation of the knowledge and insights gained during the 2018 edition, with active participation and feedback from the participants at the core of the sessions.

The content of the workshop is composed of three blocks which address:
  • Recap and refresher of first workshop, EO4SD news and updates 
  • Earth Observation Clinic sessions in which four ongoing projects in Ethiopia are discussed. Project leads will present data collection procedures, services in use, and of how they have used EO4SD services in the past year 
  • Field data collection practices and procedures- calculating SDG indicators using land cover and land productivity maps with open source solutions. A road map will be drafted together with the team leaders to identify steps to ensure technologies’ uptake.
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Une visite pour constater les retombées concrètes des investissements du FIDA au Burundi

February 20, 2019, 1:29 am
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Par Espérance Ndayikengurukiye






Par Espérance Ndayikengurukiye Sara Mbago-Bhunu,  Directrice régionale de la Division Afrique orientale et australe du Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA) a effectué une visite officielle au Burundi du 28 au 31 janvier 2019. Elle a commencé sa visite  par une  rencontre avec le personnel et les cadres techniques des projets financés par le FIDA au Burundi. Leurs échanges ont porté sur les grands axes d’interventions du programme de pays notamment l’augmentation de la production et de la productivité agricole et animale, les appuis aux filières laitière et rizicole, la création d'emplois pour les jeunes ruraux, la sécurisation foncière, l’inclusion financière et la nutrition. Les projets financés par le FIDA ont développé les filières riz et lait de manière considérable en faisant passer la productivité de 1,5 à 5 tonnes à l’hectare. En ce qui concerne le volet élevage, la chaine de solidarité communautaire bovine permet de distribuer à grande échelle les vaches acquises dans le cadre du programme et de renforcer la cohésion sociale. Par ailleurs, la production moyenne de lait par jour et par vache est passée de 1 à 6 litres, grâce à l’insémination artificielle et à l’introduction de races de vaches aux performances zootechniques améliorées. La Directrice régionale a apprécié les innovations mises en œuvre et a indiqué qu'il faut maintenant recadrer et réorienter le portefeuille pour mieux répondre aux nouveaux défis auxquels fait face la population rurale burundaise.

Lors de son séjour, la Directrice régionale a aussi rencontré Domitien Ndihokubwayo, Ministre des finances, du budget et de la coopération au développement économique, Déo Guide Rurema, Ministre de l’environnement, de l’agriculture et de l’élevage et Isidore Ntirampeba, Secrétaire permanent au Ministère des affaires étrangères. Les discussions ont porté sur les nouvelles priorités stratégiques pour le Burundi énoncées dans le Plan de développement national 2018-2027 et sur le nouveau modèle opérationnel du FIDA concernant l'allocation basée sur la performance au Burundi au titre du cycle de financement de FIDA11. Les autorités burundaises ont réitéré leur appréciation concernant les interventions du FIDA en faveur de la population rurale et l’alignement du programme du FIDA avec le Plan national de développement 2018-2027. Sara Mbago-Bhunu a aussi eu une séance de travail avec le Coordonnateur résident des Nations Unies au Burundi, les représentants de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO), de la  Banque Mondiale et  du Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM). Les échanges ont porté sur la synergie entre les acteurs et la complémentarité des interventions.

La Directrice régionale a conclu sa visite au Burundi par une visite de terrain sur quatre sites de la province Bubanza, une des 13 provinces appuyées par le FIDA. Elle a visité un hangar de stockage de la coopérative rizicole de Mpanda, un foyer d’apprentissage et de réhabilitation nutritionnels sur la colline Nyabikere, un ménage de la colline Gahwazi ayant reçu une vache dans le cadre du programme, une mini laiterie établie sur la colline Kivyuka, un centre d’innovation et de transformation agroalimentaire créé par un jeune établi à Bubanza et un centre de renforcement d’innovation et de formation installé à Bubanza. L’impact des interventions sur la vie des bénéficiaires est indiscutable. « Je suis très contente de ce que j’ai vu. J’ai visité des riziculteurs qui sont très dynamiques. Ils ont été capables de mettre en place un système de stockage de la production et un système de warrantage qui leur a permis d’accéder à la fois à des produits financiers et au marché avec le Programme alimentaire mondial. Cela est déjà un grand pas», a expliqué Sara Mbago-Bhunu. Elle a ajouté que le développement de la filière laitière est un modèle très intéressant. Les petits exploitants agricoles qui ont reçu des vaches sont parvenus à accroître leur productivité et à trouver un marché de commercialisation du lait à l’instar de Rose, une veuve de 54 ans qui a pu scolariser ses trois enfants grâce aux revenus tirés de la vente de lait et doubler sa production vivrière grâce au fumier produit. Elle n’a pas manqué de souligner que l’implication du secteur privé dans cette filière est à encourager. « La transformation alimentaire et le partenariat entre producteurs et investisseurs privés à cette fin sont des initiatives que nous voulons encourager pour apporter un réel changement dans le monde rural.»
De gauche à droite Mme AISSA; CPM, Mme Malaisie, présidente de la coopérative rizicole et Mme MBAGO; Diresa



Pour conclure, la Directrice régionale Mbago-Bhunu a annoncé que le FIDA allait s’atteler à la consolidation des acquis et à la réorientation du portefeuille pour mieux répondre aux enjeux du moment et à ceux du secteur rural. Elle a fait savoir que le Fonds allait également davantage investir dans la transformation de la production tout en veillant à la qualité, à la création d’emploi pour les jeunes et à une agriculture sensible aux enjeux nutritionnels et résiliente face aux changements climatiques.


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Recipes for change comes alive at the IFAD Governing Council

February 22, 2019, 7:54 am
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By Andrew Morrow, IFAD









Amid the hustle and bustle of the opening day of IFAD's 42nd Governing Council, a sizable audience gathered to gain an insight into IFAD's Recipes for Change campaign. There was a hint of stardust in the air as the heavyweight panel comprised of ECG director Margarita Astralaga and the Moroccan and Italian ambassadors to the UN in Rome were joined by Italian celebrity chef Carlo Cracco.

In her opening remarks, Astralaga emphasized the urgent need to work with smallholders now in order to equip them with the innovative skills and tools necessary to enable them to thrive in climate change altered environments.

"That is why we are here having this discussion, knowing that smallholders are the most vulnerable communities to climate change" she remarked.

Those present were captivated by chef Cracco recounting his experience of visiting IFAD projects in Cambodia and Morocco where he saw first-hand how IFAD-supported funded projects work with farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change. As videos of his two journeys played in the background, Chef Cracco highlighted the importance of shining a light on the difficulties that climate change is causing rural smallholders in developing countries.

"It's important to discover these parts of countries," Cracco said. "Normally, you are a tourist. You see but you don't really see."

In congratulating IFAD on the success of the Recipes for Change programme, the Italian ambassador Pierfrancesco Sacco stressed the importance of the role that stars like Chef Cracco can play in capturing the public's imagination with regard to development issues.

"Programmes such as Recipes for Change draw our attention to the intersection of various dimensions, including the sustainability of agriculture and food systems as well as nutrition" said Sacco.

Rounding off proceedings, Moroccan ambassador Hassan Abouyoub echoed the earlier remarks of Astralaga in discussing the wider threat that climate change already poses to food systems throughout the world. Interestingly, he introduced a new dimension to the discussion by alluding to the impact of global trade. He focused primarily on North Africa, illustrating his point by referring to an array of fascinating examples including argan oil and olive oil.

"The threat is not just to one particular recipe, it is a threat to a model of food, survival, resilience and security. We see it now also because of the impact of the world market on our diets and food systems," opined Abouyoub.


Take a look at the recipes for change
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AVANTI Ag-Scan workshop takes place in Samoa

February 26, 2019, 2:21 am
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The second AVANTI Ag-Scan workshop was held in Apia, Samoa, in early February. The workshop brought together participants from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, the Public Service Commission, the Samoa Bureau of Statistics, as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The workshop, facilitated by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation and Itad, gave participants the opportunity to self-assess their monitoring and evaluation capacity, and their ability to report against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The objectives of the workshop were to:
  • Bring together core stakeholders in the agriculture sector in Samoa to self-assess capacity under five LEAPS pillars: leadership, evaluation and monitoring, accountability, planning and budgeting, and statistics. 
  • Create spaces for exchange and coordination on agricultural monitoring systems, including assessing synergies and feeding into Samoa’s upcoming mid-term review of its own 2016-2020 agricultural sector plan. 
  • Strengthen the Results Based Management (RBM) approach and the coordination of ministerial entities under the five LEAPS pillars 
  • Identify priority actions that guide the sector, under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. 

Participants said of their Ag-Scan workshop experience:

"This Ag-Scan workshop is very useful in our line of work because we are able to align the plans that our Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries have according to what the government of Samoa has like the SDGs linking down to our sector plan also linking down to our corporate plan." - Keyonce Le Hang, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

"What I have learned is the ways we can identify some of the gaps and some of the areas that we need improvement for the project moving forward and how we can find ways to progress many activities that is under different project." - Sharon, Ministry of Labour

As a result of the workshop, participants developed an action plan to enhance their capacity for results-based management in the agricultural sector.

This second workshop is an important step towards the AVANTI initiative’s goal to strengthen national governments’ ability to report against the SDGs through improved monitoring, evaluation, reporting and learning capacities across 20 countries by 2021.

More information on AVANTI website

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Lessons and challenges of financial inclusion of young rural women in Latin America

March 4, 2019, 1:29 am
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Bogotá, 28 February - 1 March 2019
by Maria Luisa Saponaro

With their differences and similarities, throughout Latin America, young women from rural areas represent an important group for the socioeconomic dynamics of rural territories in the region. However, this group has a long tradition of invisibility and under-representation in public policy as well as in the development programmes of different countries.

The MuJeR: Promoting the financial inclusion of rural young women programme is an initiative implemented by Fundación Capital (FundaK) and financed by an IFAD large grant, to contribute to the economic and social inclusion of rural women through their financial inclusion.

MuJeR aims to promote and facilitate the access and use of diversified financial services by rural young women, in a way as to respond to their specific needs, thus contributing to improve their living conditions. It is implemented in Colombia, Paraguay and Mexico, in partnership with various government agencies and financial entities.

In Colombia and Mexico, the initiative works with groups of young women in similar situations. Most of them are housewives who started a married life and/or became mothers at a very young age, often with few opportunities to study or start a business of their own.

In Colombia, more than 3,000 young rural female beneficiaries of the Families in Action programme led by Prosperidad Social worked on strengthening their leadership skills, self-esteem and financial capabilities, through a gender sensitive approach and using digital technologies. As a result, in the last four months, over 2,000 women have begun to use financial products.

In Mexico, the project is implemented with Acreimex, a savings and credit cooperative with broad coverage in the State of Oaxaca. FundaK has been working with one branch of the State of Puebla and eight in the State of Oaxaca, promoting better financial conditions for young people, as well establishing objectives to be achieved through saving plans. This has been achieved through face-to-face workshops.

In Paraguay, the project was developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science in 200 educational institutions in 11 districts of the Departments of San Pedro and Caaguazú, reaching 2,700 young people. Through innovative methodologies of classroom learning with a gender focus, and the use of digital tools, both teachers and students have been trained not only on financial education, but also on how to access and use financial products and services made available by different financial institutions. Additionally, 194 young women strengthened their leadership skills through promoting the use of financial products among their classmates.

During the implementation of the project, high levels of exclusion from the financial system were noted in rural areas, especially among young women.

The main reason behind this is fear and lack of confidence in the financial system, mainly due to lack of information. Added to this are the costs associated with most traditional accounts, together with transportation costs to physically reach these institutions, which reduces the interest in this type of products. Finally, it is worth mentioning that young people usually associate financial institutions with credit, and do not think of them as a means to save.

On the other hand, in the research phase it was noted that the majority of rural young women have cell phones or smartphones, and that they frequently use Facebook and WhatsApp. In this context, MuJeR combined the use of digital solutions with exchange venues to present gather information and establish bonds of trust with young women. In this way, they have managed to change their perceptions regarding the financial system, and develop new abilities.

Savings: through the training received, young women realized that they can save and begin to set financial goals.

Technology: young women discovered electronic wallets, and realized that using this technology can save them time and money, since they can make transfers and pay for services from home. In addition, they understood that it is a safer instrument to save and manage their resources. In this way, technology facilitated the financial inclusion of young women and became an important instrument for their economic and personal improvement.

These lessons and experiences were shared by FundaK, at the event - Lessons and challenges of financial inclusion of rural young women in Latin America, Bogotá, 28 February - 1 March 2019.


More details on

Twitter: @FundaCapital, #InclusionDeMujeresJovenesRurales | Related videos
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Agricultural practices supported by IFAD reveal potential mitigation benefits

March 7, 2019, 8:44 am
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by Julianna White (CCAFS Low Emissions Development)

Smallholder farmers increase yields and incomes through improved agricultural practices, often while also sequestering carbon and/or decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) aims to eradicate poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries by investing in small-scale agriculture and connecting smallholder farmers and their communities to markets. Most agricultural practices promoted by IFAD are designed to help farmers increase productivity and income, but what impact do they have on climate change?

It depends on the agricultural practice.

In an ex-ante analysis of activities in IFAD’s 2011-2014 portfolio using the Climate-Smart Agriculture Compendium, scientists found that the following practices contribute to climate change mitigation: promoting agroforestry, use of organic fertilizers and green manures, periodic drainage of rice paddies and pasture management. Synthetic fertilizers also have mitigation potential through soil carbon sequestration, though they increase nitrous oxide emissions.
"Climate change is already a reality for smallholder farmers. In smallholder agriculture, we realize that although clima​te change adaptation is a priority to ensure long-term sustainable development, it has significant synergies with mitigation actions." 
Aslihan Arslan, co-author an​d Senior Research Economist, IFAD


Agricultural practices with mitigation co-benefits represent a significant commitment by IFAD. IFAD spent about $2 billion on projects that included these practices from 2011-2014, and another $1.6 billion on water harvesting and irrigation investments, with more than 1 million smallholder farmers targeted.

Climate change mitigation potential

Total effect on GHG emissions of improved agricultural practices within IFAD’s investment portfolio during the IFAD9 period (2011-2014). Source: IFAD report
As shown in the figure, the combined mitigation potential of agricultural practices in the IFAD 2011-2014 portfolio was 0.7 – 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year (the lower and upper bounds reflect the 95% confidence intervals). This is the equivalent to the mitigation of emissions of 1.6 – 3.9 million barrels of oil consumed, or removing 158,000 – 372,500 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.

The majority of mitigation potential comes from the contribution of agroforestry and organic fertilizers to soil organic carbon (SOC) and biomass carbon sequestration. While minimum and no-tillage have comparatively small mitigation potential on a per-hectare basis, the total potential impact of the practices is high because the practice is widely promoted. The authors note that the final impact on SOC could not be estimated without knowing whether concurrent increases in organic matter inputs, such as from residue retention or cover crops, were realized.

On the contrary, reduced irrigation of rice, for example through alternate wetting and drying (AWD), saves water and has high per-hectare mitigation potential, similar to organic fertilizers and agroforestry, although IFAD’s portfolio contained relatively few projects that were designed to promote water-saving irrigation techniques.
"The future of agriculture in the context of climate change is to produce more food with fewer emissions. This analysis showed that it is possible for practices promoted on the basis of agri​cultural productivity to contribute to climate change mitigation."
Meryl Richards, lead author of the study and scientist, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agri​culture and Food Security (CCAFS) and University of Vermo​nt. 


Constraints
The mitigation potential of livestock-related interventions was not analyzed due to lack of data. In other studies, productivity-enhancing practices tend to decrease emissions per unit of meat or milk (emission intensity) but increase emissions per animal, so IFAD’s agricultural development interventions are unlikely to reduce net emissions unless herd sizes are also reduced. 

The mitigation potential resulting from investments in biogas and alternative energy sources will be assessed between the current and next IFAD cycles. The mitigation potential of investments in irrigation are mixed or difficult to anticipate as information on the energy sources used or replaced by their implementation is needed.

Next steps
Moving forward, the authors suggest incorporating mitigation objectives into project monitoring systems to enable more robust and transparent assessment of climate change mitigation. To avoid dramatically increasing monitoring burdens, project design teams could identify practices likely to have the largest impact on emissions or carbon sequestration during the design phase and then monitor the adoption of focus practices. 

IFAD is already moving in this direction; it is planning to incorporate the Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) in its project design and monitoring cycle.
"This study shows agricultural development is helping farmers with adaptation and contributing to climate change mitigation. Although IFAD investments were driven by adaptation, we are increasingly incorporating mitigation objectives and plan to scale it up in the future. 
We need to scale practices that will prepare smallholder farmers to have a food secure, resilient and low emissions future."
Romina Cavatassi, co-author and Senior Economist, IFAD 

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IFAD and Portugal: a partnership from strength to strength

March 8, 2019, 1:59 am
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IFAD and Portugal share a deep commitment to ending rural poverty and hunger by supporting small farmers to improve their productivity and resilience. This was the overall message of the 1 March business seminar that took place in Lisbon at the Ministry of Agriculture organized by the Office of Planning, Policy and General Administration (GPP). The event aimed to strengthen collaboration between IFAD and the Government of Portugal, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and development partners from the private sector and public institutions. Luís Capoulas Santos, Portugal's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, gave the key note speech stating the importance of cooperation in safeguarding family agriculture and sustainable results of agriculture in the CPLP countries, playing a key role in supporting the efforts of the countries in the field of agriculture and food.

In October 2018, IFAD signed the Charter of Lisbon for the Strengthening of Family Farming, joining key stakeholders and the nine CPLP Member States to improve the livelihoods of small farmers throughout the Portuguese-speaking developing world. The Charter seeks to promote public policies that will strengthen smallholder farming and advance the 2030 Agenda. Small farmers account for up to 80 per cent of food produced in the developing world but are often the most vulnerable to hunger. The business seminar built on the principles of the Charter by engaging with stakeholders across sectors, including like-minded companies, towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Portuguese-speaking communities.

“As part of our drive to end poverty and achieve zero hunger, partnerships with the private sector are essential to meet the SDGs by 2030, which are at the core of IFAD’s mandate to invest in rural people,” said Charlotte Salford, Associate Vice-President for IFAD's External Relations and Governance Department.

During the event, Salford outlined various new instruments for collaboration with the private sector, including the recently launched Agri-Business Capital Fund (ABC Fund). The ABC Fund, initiated by IFAD, is a private impact investment fund that seeks to support rural small and medium enterprises in developing countries. By creating access to capital, the ABC Fund seeks to enable these enterprises to grow their businesses and create employment opportunities, especially for young people.

IFAD also met with various stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, and academia to identify concrete entry points for collaboration leveraging the institution’s portfolio. IFAD has a portfolio of approximately US$1.3 billion in CPLP countries that can be leveraged for investments in sustainable value chains that connect farmer organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises to markets. With the event, IFAD and Portugal further strengthened their partnership to accelerate the advancement of the SDGs in the coming decade.

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Igniting a passion in farming for rural youth

March 12, 2019, 5:43 am
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by Chloe Benson







During the IFAD Governing Council 2019, I had the opportunity to attend Sherrie Silver's press briefing on her new role as an IFAD Advocate for Rural Youth. During the Q&A session, she highlighted her passion and commitment to the new generation of farmers and emphasized the importance of creating agricultural employment opportunities for youth. In an era where hunger continues to rise, our world population needs more youth to pursue employment in the agricultural sector. Despite the urgent need to create new opportunities in the sector, Silver highlighted a trend among youth to perceive farming as "uncool" and outdated. Although every year, ten to twelve million youth enter the labour market in Africa, there is a growing perception that farming is antiquated.
The question becomes: how can we make agriculture tech-focused and modernize the industry enough to lead more youth into the agricultural sector?
Silver's new role offers a fresh perspective that redefines agricultural work as innovative and empowering. Through pop culture and art, we can transform the way agriculture is perceived around the world by telling the stories of rural youth in a different way. "We need to encourage the youth by showing them success stories of rural youth creating employment, running their own farms, and succeeding," Silver said. Voices like Sherrie Silver's provide the inspiration and passion that many young people feel the agricultural industry is lacking.





Sherrie Silver's recent trip to an IFAD-supported project in South Cameroon connected her with young farming entrepreneurs achieving in creating employment and producing more food. The opportunity allowed her to share their successes with the world through her social media platforms. At the press conference, she highlighted the story of one farmer in particular, Gabriel. Gabriel is a young farmer from South Cameroon who owns a chicken farm. Despite his young age, business has already enabled him to buy a house for his family.

By sharing stories of young entrepreneurs like Gabriel, we show the world and a new generation of farmers that farming is not just an occupation for grandparents and elders. It can be an empowering career opportunity for young people too. During the briefing, Silver reflected on her own formative experiences with the empowering nature of farming. She described her grandfather's connection with his cows, which had always brought her joy growing up. Interacting with young entrepreneurs like Gabriel conjured up memories of her experiences with the zeal and passion associated with farming.

Young people have the energy to transform agriculture for the better. If we invest in their unique experiences, we can tap into their potential and push the agricultural sector forward. Rural youth are willing to take risks and grow. When they have access to knowledge, resources , markets, and land, they can promote long-term prosperity in their communities. We need to work with the changing mindsets of youth and encourage innovation within the agricultural sector. By doing so, we give youth the choice to stay in their communities and create opportunities right where they are. Giving rural youth choices is key to igniting a passion for farming in the new generation. It shows that farming can progress with them and create a better tomorrow.


Visit the Real Ground-breakers website
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Progress of IFAD's first investment Fund

March 27, 2019, 5:55 am
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In 2017, IFAD took its first plunge into private sector investments by launching the Uganda Yield Fund in partnership with the European Union. The Yield Fund is an innovative, social impact investment fund targeting agricultural small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and producer groups in Uganda – the missing middle in the investment space. The fund offers patient, risk capital products such as equity, quasi-equity and debt funding to small and growing agribusiness in Uganda. It invests in companies that offer a solid social impact proposition with attractive financial returns.  In addition, a Business Development facility (BDS) supports the companies in improving on their operational processes, as well as addressing areas of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG). IFAD was selected as the coordinating partner by the EU and carrier of EU funds.

Compared to operations with IFAD’s “standard” investment instruments, providing finance and BDS support through an agribusiness investment fund clearly has its challenges. The financial sector in Uganda remains relatively underdeveloped, and the legislation to guide and support the operations of equity funds is inadequate. The EU wanted to establish this fund as a Ugandan company, partly to support the overall financial sector development in the country. Most other funds of similar type select to register themselves in countries like Mauritius, which brings clear advantages to the investors in areas such as the smooth transfers of funds, taxation and the resolution of potential disputes.

It has been close to two years since the implementation of the fund has started. Where are we today? 
Following a successful first close of EUR12 million from the EU through IFAD and National Social Security Fund of Uganda (NSSF), the Fund – managed by Pearl Capital Partners (PCP) and supervised by IFAD – has made five investments in agro-companies for a total of EUR3.3 million in a mixture of Quasi Equity loans (with an option to be transferred into shares) and debt financing with revenue participation. These companies include:

• A Kampala-based soya processor with plans for transforming the company into a modern agro-industrial unit. Their extensive and deep-reaching network of smallholder providers, a modern factory and a sales network targeting both the retail health market and regional aid agencies create a huge impact potential on both producers as well as consumers’ side. 
• An innovative start-up producing liquid eggs for business clients. With Yield investment in a network of buying centres and a digital solution to connect to farmers, the company will start procuring eggs from smaller producers.
• A coffee processing company based on a coffee growers cooperative in Central Uganda. This company specialises in Fair Trade coffee which it sells through its international partner organisations to the export market.
• A moringa farming and processing company; the investee is an agri-ceutical company specialising in production and processing of Moringa Oleifera (moringa). The company operates with its out growers using an innovative Secured Income Programme model, which offers the farmers a regular monthly payment for their moringa supplies to the firm.
• An internationally accredited analytical laboratory and inspection company playing a strong enabling role in the agro-sector. Particularly for the export-oriented agro-firms, the better capacities and shorter testing times following from the Yield Fund investment are likely to be of major importance when trying to capture new regional and global markets.

We are currently working on a second capitalization round of the Uganda Yield Fund. Due to the (deliberately) higher risk profile compared to other funds and extensive due diligence required by new potential investors, the full capitalization of the Fund did not go as quickly as planned. As of 1 March, two investors have received approval from their Investment committees to invest in the fund. The additional EUR 8 million will bring the Fund to a final close of EUR 20 million.

IFAD and the EU are very keen to capture the many lessons to be learned from this initiative. In the next impact investing blog, we will discuss some initial lessons from the first two years the fund.

For any questions, please contact Dagmawi at d.habte-selassie@ifad.org

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Africa Climate Week 2019

March 29, 2019, 4:00 am
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Africa Climate Week 2019 was marked from 18 to 22 March at the Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana on the theme: Climate action in Africa, a race we can win.

The event brought together over 2000 people from governments, private sector, development partners, donors, researchers, civil society and farmers’ organisations. The event raised awareness and shared knowledge to investors to buy into the country's National Determined Contributions (NDCs). 

IFAD with the African Union Commission (AUC), the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and others, under the Marrakesh Partnership on Global Climate Action, organized a one day event on Stepping up action on building climate resilient agriculture and food systems in Africa. The aim was to identify opportunities climate action on agriculture and food systems that can feed into the UNSG 2019 Climate Summit and COP25.

A dialogue between participants from the public, private, donor, academia and civil society, smallholders was organized through six parallel sessions:

1. Role of climate risk analysis for evidence-based Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and National Adaptation Programs (NAP) implementation – from planning to action for resilient farmers' livelihoods
2. Nature-based solutions – Africa's  agriculture and foods system powered by nature
3. Colliding climate and conflict risks in fragile and vulnerable contexts
4. Scaling up private sector investment  that builds resilience in agriculture
5. Nature-based Solutions: Large Scale Restoration and Agroforestry for building resilience - lessons from Africa
6. Early warning – early action and forecast-based financing

IFAD was represented at the event by Romina Cavatassi, Lead Technical Specialist Environment and Climate and Yawo Jonky Tenou, Task Manager of Integrated Approach Programme on fostering sustainability and resilience for food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

Romina Cavatassi presented IFAD's approach and experience in addressing smallholder farmers' resilience. She highlighted that risk analysis and impact assessments are key components of IFAD's operations through project design and implementation processes. She emphasized IFAD's work on mainstreaming climate change and gender into country development strategies and plans in agriculture.

Recommendations from the panel discussions: 

1. Make a link between science policy and farmers, to bring all stakeholders together to design risk-informed adaptation actions
2. Share data on climate change impacts and adaptation needs and effectively disseminate research findings across all levels: make results and lessons learned from evidence, impact assessments and research readily available for policy making for project up-scaling
3. Make the business case for adaptation: create incentives show economic potential of  making farming systems climate resilient
4. Create an enabling environment for farmers to implement adaptation strategies and to have access to risk insurance. 

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Global report on food crises: Joint analysis for better decisions

April 3, 2019, 4:34 am
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Armed conflict, extreme climate events and economic crises remain the key drivers behind acute hunger and malnutrition according to the latest edition the Global Report on Food Crises. The 2019 edition, launched today as part of a High-Level Event of the Global Network Against Food Crises in Brussels, brings together regional and national data and analysis to present the latest global picture of acute food and nutrition insecurity and its trends and drivers.

According to the report, 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger in 2018, with Africa continuing to be disproportionately affected. Despite the improvement on the previous edition's estimate of 124 million, actions need to be scaled up if the ongoing food crises in countries like Yemen are to be alleviated.

In his address, FAO's José Graziano da Silva concurred with the findings of the report, emphasising the central role conflict plays in fuelling food crises, while also acknowledging that the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation have also contributed to the current situation.

FAO Programme Coordinator, Luca Russo, highlighted the entwined nature of the drivers of food crises, pointing out that conflicts are frequently the result of a scarcity or lack of access to natural resources.

Speaking during Parallel Session 2 of the High Level Event, IFAD's Margarita Astralaga mapped the way forward and made the case for integrated and coordinated action among organisations.

"It’s clear that without concerted action from all entities working in sustainable food systems we will not be able to face the great challenge of producing sufficient, diverse, healthy and nutritious food for a fast growing population", said Astralaga.

Astralaga also pointed to the need to address the environmental and climate drivers of food crises at the local level, a goal shared by the other Rome-based food agencies, FAO and WFP. To underscore her point, Astralaga outlined examples of innovative actions being undertaken at the local level by the agencies. These included the utilisation of early warning systems and forecasts to undertake pre-emptive action by WFP in Egypt and FAO in Eastern Africa, an inclusive, participatory IFAD-supported project in Bolivia and the dynamic R4 Rural Resilience Initiative which combines multiple risk management strategies.

Using the example of the coordinated RBA work in the Central American Dry Corridor, Astralaga described the vast potential benefits that arise from well-orchestrated, collaborative action.

"In this geographic area, the three of us work together based on our mandates and strengths", explained Astralaga. Believing that investments in long-term resilience can reduce the impact and cost of disasters, the three agencies are involved in policy dialogue with governments and decision-makers in the region.

In response to the 2015 El Niño event, IFAD supported small-scale farmers as they strove to adapt to the impacts of climate change and increase their long-term resilience to extreme weather events. FAO’s work in the region involves strengthening the disaster risk management capacities of national and local authorities and setting up information and early warning systems. WFP provided assistance to one million people annually in 2014 and 2015 in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, primarily through cash-based transfers.

If progress in relation to food crises is to continue, then the continuation and scaling up of such actions will be of paramount importance, particularly as climate change becomes more entrenched in the coming years. The multi-dimensional nature of the problem demands a range of expertise and experience, and only operations involving multiple stakeholders can deliver.
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How Indian women have transformed rural communities

April 3, 2019, 5:48 am
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By Chloe Benson
©IFAD/Susan Beccio











In a recent Global Policy Engagement Forum on India's Rural Transformation, India's Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Amarjeet Sinha, described women as our "biggest consultants—the drivers of change." Globally, women make up 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force. India recognizes that women have become the backbone of agricultural work in rural communities, and that with support and investment, they can transform their communities and continue to reduce India's chronic poverty rates.

Between 2005 and 2016, India halved its multi-dimensional poverty rate from 635 million to 364 million people. According to Sinha, this reduction required consistent, concerted, and community-led action. In India, community-led action seems to also be women-led action. In rural areas, due to the out-migration of men seeking opportunities outside of their rural communities, agriculture has increasingly become a woman's occupation. This new trend has shown a light on how women can beat the odds and shape a better future in their communities.

In India, there are 60 million women in Self Help Groups (SHG). For those not familiar with the term, Self Help Groups were introduced by the Government of India in 1999 to promote self-employment in rural communities. Women-led collectives are the real change makers in rural India, innovating in areas ranging from custom hiring centres (providing greater access to equipment like tractors) to solar lamp production and women-led public transportation. Rural women are revitalizing their communities, creating new enterprises and opportunities that extend past agricultural work. India's rural economy is changing, and there is a growing demand for goods and services in rural areas. While women-led collectives have continued to work to meet this demand, Sinha emphasized the need to continue investing in these enterprises, as well as creating more opportunities for women to innovate in areas that promote rural poverty reduction and sustainable developments.

During Sinha's keynote presentation, he poignantly said, ''The world becomes one family when you look at rural poverty and how to address it." Poverty must be tackled through a range of dimensions, and rural women have proven to be a positive investment in India's attempts to reduce rural poverty. Globally, there are 1.7 billion women and girls living in rural areas. What has worked in transforming India's rural communities has the potential to work on a global scale.

That is why campaigns like IFAD's Real Groundbreakers are so important—they raise awareness about the challenges rural women face due to gender inequality as well as their triumphs in creating new enterprises and innovating to create change within their communities. As IFAD's Associate Vice-President of IFAD's External Relations and Governance Department, Charlotte Salford, said, "They farm, produce food, start businesses and innovate, despite living in some of the world’s most challenging conditions while facing extreme inequality and poverty.” Rural communities depend on greater investment in rural women and India's rural transformation serves a strong example of the progress we can make globally by investing in women. As we work toward our 2030 agenda, we need to continue to invest more in rural women and provide them with the support and empowerment they need to improve their communities.
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How improved nutrition can save the world

April 8, 2019, 6:59 am
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Every year, 12 million girls marry prematurely and 16 million adolescents become mothers. These young women are subject to widespread discrimination and malnutrition, with rural and indigenous women being even more susceptible.

At this year's International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, journalists and panellists gathered for an IFAD-sponsored panel to discuss youth malnutrition and how promoting better nutrition for young women can build a better future for all.

The panel included IFAD's senior technical specialist in nutrition, Antonella Cordone; Michelin-starred chef, Cristina Bowerman; RAI journalist and TV presenter, Luca Rosini; and freelance photojournalist, Linda Dorigo.

Gender inequalities and malnutrition - A cross-generational issue

Luca Rosini introduced the topic by highlighting that malnourished people can earn up to ten per cent less than properly nourished individuals. He emphasized that the impact of malnourishment transcends generations and that adolescent nutrition is critical in ensuring that future generations flourish.

In one example, Rosini described how gender inequalities in Uganda’s agricultural sector generates a US$67 million disparity between men and women. Women represent the majority of the work force in agriculture in rural economies and yet they are more likely to suffer from malnourishment if there is limited access to food.

Cristina Bowerman, a key supporter of IFAD’s Recipes for Change, echoedthat rural women play a key role in agricultural development, calling women “fundamental” in eradicating poverty and hunger.

Speaking about the obstacles she has faced as a chef, Bowerman related, “I have always tried to become a role model for those, especially women, who decide to pursue a career in which man dominates.”

While in India, Bowerman saw first-hand how teaching Indian women entrepreneurial skills has had a positive impact on combating malnutrition. She says that we need a cultural shift to present women with more entrepreneurial opportunities to flourish and to be autonomous in Indian society.

Linda Dorigo talked about her own experiences visiting and photographing the all-female village of Jinwar in Syria. Seeking refuge from war, these Syrian women started a commune to empower women trying to escape violence by providing them with a safe place to live and sufficient resources. The women, many of them widowed and with children, serve as another example of successful, autonomous women, combating hunger through their own empowered sustainable farming efforts.

Despite these small victories in eradicating poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, Antonella Cordone brought the conversation back to the stark realities of malnourishment by sharing a startling statistic: “every minute, five children die from hunger.”

Cordone restated the cross-generational effects of malnutrition, highlighting the reality that many women suffer from anemia and a lack of micronutrients. This “hidden hunger,” a hunger that does not always manifest visually, is transmitted to future generations and contributes to a destructive and interminable cycle of malnutrition.

If young women are undernourished, they are more likely to experience premature pregnancy, die in childbirth, or give birth to malnourished children. The infants who survive these nutritional deficits also have a greater risk of becoming stunted.

Cordone stressed how combating malnutrition and the long-term effects is a complex issue that requires a dynamic approach. Addressing IFAD’s role, she expressed how IFAD supports and has prioritized women and young people. Since nutrition and malnutrition are a multi-sectoral issue, we must also put climate change at the center, in addition to addressing other complex determinants of malnutrition such as poverty, lack of resources, barriers to education, and various social, political, and economic factors.



All of the panelists brought critical insights to the conversation from drastically different perspectives, yet they all agree that eradicating malnutrition and poverty will require a multi-faceted approach that empowers and supports young women around the globe.

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Parmigiano Reggiano and Italian Cooperatives - IFAD Upscaling to Africa and Latin America

April 10, 2019, 5:58 am
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by Adriane Del Torto
Corte d'Aibo, Monteveglio (BO)



The partnership between IFAD and the Government of Italy is long standing. As part of this collaboration, the Italian Cooperative Model has been important in helping shape cooperative models in West and Central Africa, and Latin America through a partnership with Coopermondo, an Italian NGO created by the Italian Confederation of Co-operatives (Confcooperative). Coopermondo promotes socio-economic development in emerging countries on the Italian Cooperatives Movement model. IFAD has worked with Coopermondo through its country programmes in Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Togo, Columbia and Peru. In order to have a better understanding of Coopermondo and Confcooperative, a trip was organised to Emilia Romagna, the birthplace of the Italian Cooperative Movement to talk with some farmers and other cooperative members.




First stop: Corte d'Aibo, in Monteveglio, about a 40 minute drive from the centre of Bologna. Corte d'Aibo is an agriculture cooperative, a winery and Agritourism (small hotel and restaurant). After a visit to the vineyards and the winery, a lovely dinner with products from the farm was served.

Donal Brown, AVP, IFAD,
Giorgio Mercuri, President ConfcooperativeFederpesca
President, Cooperative Caseificio 4 Madonne

The next morning, we headed to a cheese factory Caseificio 4 Madonne. Here we got to visit the plant and see every step of how to make the world's most famous Italian cheese Parmigiano Reggiano - a meticulous process requiring very special secret skills that only the cheese master has and passes down to the next cheese master. This visit could not end without asking many questions to the President of the Cooperative and taste testing of 12, 24, 36 and 50 month aged Parmigiano Reggiano.

Milk processing to make Parmigiano Reggiano




















Barrels, traditional balsamic vinegar




It would be impossible to be in the Modena area without paying a visit to the traditional makers of Balsamic Vinegar! We had much to learn on this. We visited the attic loft of a producer of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from Modena, which is a very exclusive product requiring lots of patience and dedication to make: there is a minimum of 25 year’s aging to get a mere 30 100mL bottles of the vinegar.

After tasting Parmigiano and Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, it's time for lunch. And a special lunch it was – in a cooperative of course! At Locanda Smeraldi, Giusy and her team teach young people with disabilities to make traditional Italian dishes and how to manage a restaurant. Every day at the Locanda they serve between 150 to 200 people for lunch!

To digest a fabulous lunch, we went off to another cooperative, Kilowatt, a social cooperative run by a group of young people that renovates abandoned public spaces for use in social innovation, city farming, cultural activities and much more. They even have an outdoor kindergarten as well as a consulting company working on development projects and innovation incubators.In their suggestive 'sound house' - a renovated greenhouse with state of the art audio technology, we also met the founder of Local to You, a platform bringing agriculture cooperatives together as an outlet for distribution to consumers.

What we learned from this experience is that cooperatives in Italy do not limit themselves to farmers, but also to social organisations, such as the restaurant we had lunch in, banking services and even to areas such as healthcare and education.

The lessons learned from the Italian farmers are invaluable: you need to be more to be stronger. By being a member of a cooperative, farmers and other cooperative members get easier access to services needed to stay competitive such as quality control and certification of products, access to markets, credit and even some help on the administrative side – a model that very much reflects the needs and the request of farmers in the countries in which IFAD works.


Rossana Polastri, Director, LAC, IFAD; Camilla Carabini, Director, Coopermondo,
President of Corte d'Aibo; Adriane Del Torto, Regional Programme Analyst, WCA, IFAD;
Adriana Apollonio Deputy Permanent Representative of the Italian Representation to the UN Agencies in Rome;
Giorgio Mercuri, President of Confcooperative-Federpesca; Donal Brown, Associate Vice President, IFAD 









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“Nothing about us without us”: hundreds of youth voices heard at the UN

April 16, 2019, 2:29 am
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By Flora Sonkin
Standing ovation for a powerful keynote by Yolanda Joab, youth activist from Micronesia






 
Over 800 young leaders from around the world gathered at the UN Headquarters last week to demand stronger efforts from the global community on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 8th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum provided a platform for youth to hold UN Member States accountable for progress on the SDGs, and also engage in dialogue among themselves and with UN organizations.

The Forum
The ECOSOC Youth Forum, co-hosted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, is the largest annual gathering of young people at the United Nations. This year’s session was guided by the overarching theme “Youth: Empowered, Included and Equal.” Although much in line with the recently endorsed UN Youth Strategy which puts youth and the front and center of the sustainable development agenda, the theme is still but a hopeful future scenario.

There is a long way to go before reaching meaningful empowerment, real inclusion and equality for all young people. However, through two days of plenary sessions and thematic breakout groups, it became clear that concerted efforts by UN agencies – IFAD included – and Member States are already offering valuable solutions to reaching these goals. From National Youth Policies to National Youth Councils, from quotas for youth membership in government advisory institutions to municipal youth coordinators. Best practices abound.

But where does significant progress still needs to be made? Young advocates urged for more inclusive dialogue between governments and young people from all walks of life, including those living with disabilities and in rural communities, as well as indigenous youth.

From participation to empowerment: youth and SDG8
“The ones that need us the most include the over 260 million young people who are not in school today, the 64 million young people who are unemployed, along with the 145 million young people who live in working poverty,” said the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake. It was against this stark reality that IFAD, together with ILO, UNDESA, UNV, UNCTAD, UNIDO and MGCY approached the much needed debate around one of the most burning challenges faced by young people today: access to decent employment.

In line with IFAD’s Rural Youth Action Plan (RYAP) 2019-2021 and ILO’s Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, IFAD co-organized a Thematic Session on Youth and SDG8. The session featured a series of parallel conversations on the challenges and opportunities faced by young people in accelerating progress towards decent work for all. The following three themes framed the participatory dialogue for those 90+ present, including representatives of youth organizations and networks, UN entities and Member States:
  • Beyond GDP: youth perspectives on well-being, the environment, and inclusive economic growth.
  • Youth transitions to decent work: education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in urban and rural areas.
  • Rebuilding trust: increasing investment in the institutions of work.
The lively discussions allowed for Member States, young leaders and youth organizations to discuss innovative measures that enhance youth access to decent work, and accelerate progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. One of the take-away messages from the debates was the need to understand rural youth’s local challenges and solutions and to engage rural young people throughout project cycles as a whole – from design to implementation – and the need to integrate climate resilience in the future of work.

#Youth2030 and the next steps forward
Overall, the Forum served as a fertile space for young people to share their vision on sustainable development and elaborate their contributions to United Nations upcoming meetings, including the 2019 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), when progress on the SDGs will be discussed.

As for the watchword of the events: “Nothing about them without them” or “nothing about us without us.” Hopefully it will be replicated and increasingly echoed through the hallways of national, regional and local political institutions all around the globe.
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Using geospatial data to analyse and prioritize investments for agricultural value chains - the case of Senegal

April 23, 2019, 2:13 am
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Geospatial data can support IFAD projects in analysing agricultural value chains and prioritizing investments. An important contribution is to monitor existing project interventions but also designing new ones based on future developments. Earth Observation (EO) for better-informed Decision Making (EODM) is a three year WCA grant that has supported different IFAD initiatives in Senegal (and in Cameroon and Mali). This is the work EODM carried out in Senegal together with the Programme d'Appui au Développement Agricole et à l'Entreprenariat Rural (PADAER) project and the Centre de Suivi Écologique (CSE), a national technical partner of IFAD. Activities are implemented in the PADAER area intervention. The work targeted the Communes of Makacolibantang (Tambacounda Region, Tambacounda Department), Bandafassi (Kédougou Region, Kédougou Department), and Ndorna (Kolda Region, Médina Yoro Foulah Department) in Senegal, which represent areas of high production for cereals in the country.

Location of the three areas targeted 

Geospatial data was collected from open sources such as OpenStreetmap (e.g. roads, villages, rivers). In addition the CSE provided its national datasets (e.g. boundaries of the communes, location of villages, land cover map and additional feeder road network) and conducted a ground survey to collect more local data (e.g. PADAER interventions) and verify the existing ones.

EODM also produced EO-based maps to support the value chain analysis, including:
  • A flood risk map that was combined with the existing road infrastructure to assess roads for potential flooding and erosion, and also used for identifying potential bas-fonds areas (irrigated lowlands). The figure below gives an example of flood risk map for Bandafassi.
  • Baseline maps including accurate classification of cropland and forest land based on satellite information to identify: the current production areas and protected areas where cropland expansion should not occur.
Flood risk map for Bandafassi




This land cover information was used to generate baseline maps for all Communes together with, for instance, their administrative limits, the location of each village (further categorized as village centre and village satellite), the network of roads and trails, as well as PADAER and other partners’ interventions. These include storage facilities, irrigation schemes (bas-fonds aménagés) and all-weather feeder roads (pistes de désenclavement). 

Baseline map of Makacolibantang





EODM and CSE organized workshops to create capacity on the use of GIS and GPS for PADAER and its partners through participatory mapping techniques. Additionally to validate and integrate information for the value chain analysis, e.g. current capacity of storage facilities, statistics on crop production for each village, actual conditions of the roads, accuracy of the crop land map, etc.

Questions
The value chain processes identified are: production, collection, transport, storage, processing and sale of the production; also sales of inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, etc.). This exercise covers the processes from crop production to storage and transport of products as well as the delivery of inputs (especially during the rainy season).
Based on these processes we can derive a number of questions for identifying and prioritizing project interventions and investments that can be addressed through spatial analyses based on geospatial data. 

1) Is the existing storage capacity of villages sufficient for the current and potential production and are the warehouses well positioned ? If not, where should new storage facilities be located?

2) Where should all-weather feeder roads be best located to channel the production towards storage infrastructures and markets and to deliver inputs to the farmers?

Methodology
To answer the first question we classified the villages in each Commune as village centre (VC) or village satellite (VS) based on their role in both the collection of products and the delivery of inputs. A VS functions as first collection point of the products and has limited warehouse capacity. Products are then transported to a VC by truck where there are larger warehouse facilities. Farmers are organized through the Organisation Paysannes (OPs). Each OP has an unique village location and for each village PADAER collects statistics of the current areas planted and production for each crop in the relevant value chains. Totals can be calculated for each VC and geo-located. The marketable production in each VC is then matched against the current storage capacity of PADAER or other partners. Each VC is finally classified in terms of deficit or surplus. This information can now be geo-located and the two used for planning and evaluating investment needed: each VC should have sufficient storage capacity to cover its needs.

When addressing the second question we should start from the consideration that most VC are currently not served by roads that are easily accessed by trucks. In Figure 4 these are shown in orange, while roads in white are trails which in practice are used by trucks but with difficulties, especially during the rainy season. In principle all VC should be connected with such all-weather feeder roads. New feeder roads are prioritized for investment based on the size of the production areas they serve and the number of VC they connect. This is also taking into account the possible risk of being inundated in the rainy season, which should be minimized.

Outcomes
Current situation
The table below shows how current marketable production and storage capacity are matched to assess the current status of each VC and then for the whole Commune. Villages highlighted in red have a storage gap (indicating that a storage must be built), while those highlighted in green have a surplus, always with reference to the current situation. The exact needs in terms of new storage are calculated. Overall, Bandafassi has a gap of around 419 tonnes.

Storage needs in the current situation (Bandafassi)
The figure below shows a map of the storage status (deficit: blue cross or surplus: green cross) for each VC. A black cross shows VC without warehouse facilities.

Map of storage status for each village centre 


The outcomes above indicate in which villages new storage facilities should be built and their location. 

In the image below the factors considered for prioritizing the construction of new feeder roads are shown. The network of existing minor roads and trails is used for locating new feeder roads. Each portion of this network is analysed separately on the basis of the number of VC which can be connected; the marketable production which can be channelled; and the points which are at risk of flooding.

Prioritizing the realization of feeder roads



Looking forward
Apart from assessing the current situation, it is very important to analyse the potential needs for storage and feeder roads. Future scenarios are simulated (projected to 2030) which take into account population growth and, as a consequence, expansion of cropland and creation of new villages. All this determines a projection of the potential production and therefore an accrued need in terms of storage and road infrastructures. We have simulated this scenario using Agent Based Modelling (ABM) and participatory modelling techniques.

How can investments best be directed towards impact? ABM is a method for creating computer models with autonomous agents interacting in space, that can be utilized to understand complex problems in relatively data scarce environments. Based on ABM we have created an agricultural investment tool to assess where and how much to invest. By constructing a rule-based, digital representation of an agricultural system, users can test the effects of interventions in advance before enacting them in the real world. Users can test how different levels of investment impact economic output, inclusion in the supply chain, and exposure to environmental risks. They can further examine how to plan investments when prioritizing some of these factors more than others.

The projected cropland is modelled based on the currently cultivated land (for the major crops in the PADAER value chains, (i.e. riz de bas-fonds and mais) as identified from the satellite information. Expansion is modelled further based on: current population in each Commune, yearly population growth, size of the household holding for the 2 crops, and average attainable yield. A new village is created whenever the cropland expansion exceeds a maximum travelling distance from the farmers’ households to their fields.

More scenarios can be elaborated based on different assumptions on the available level of investment. A scenario with constrained resources (scenario no. 1) can be developed, which can cover only a limited number of village storage and road access needs. Or otherwise the level of investment can be raised to cover all needs (scenario no. 2). The two, as well as intermediate scenarios, can help prioritizing the investments or defining the total level of investment required to cover all needs in a specific Commune.

Outcomes are compared in the following figure. The increased investments in the second scenario simulation sees more villages connected, more production reached by all-weather roads and more flood-prone roads upgraded.

Comparing potential production scenarios with different investment levels





Why is this important?
The exercise was regarded as very useful by the PADAER project stakeholders participating in the evaluation workshops. The participatory mapping and analysis make visible problems in the current infrastructures as well as opportunities for future investments. According to PADAER these will provide very valuable inputs in the design of the new phases of the project as well as in its M&E system. Capacity building efforts from EODM have supported PADAER staff and stakeholders who now can take a detailed and holistic stock of their local environment by way of advanced data analytics and satellites. The ambition is to scale this exercise to cover a much larger area in Senegal and at the same time develop the needed capacity at country level.

Sensor technologies such as those mounted on satellites can greatly inform resource management, development and systems planning. The EODM project is staking out paths for integrating satellite derived data in IFAD activities, driving transparent and evidence-based development of agriculture.

Do you think this is something for you?
In this blog we only scratched the surface of what is possible using geospatial data for value chain analysis. However, we hope we were able to show you the importance of this approach for this application and many more. If you would like to receive more information on the approach itself, and how to apply it to other areas and questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Who we are?
Earth Observation for better-informed Decision Making (EODM) is a three year WCA grant that has supported different IFAD initiatives in Senegal (but also Cameroon and Mali).






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