Clear all

8 results found

reorder grid_view

The State of Food Insecurity in the World: Meeting the 2015 International Hunger Targets - Taking Stock of Uneven Progress

May 26, 2015

This year's annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report takes stock of progress made towards achieving the internationally established Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) and World Food Summit hunger targets and reflects on what needs to be done, as we transition to the new post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. The report reviews progress made since 1990 for every country and region as well as for the world as a whole. Progress towards the MDG 1 target, however, is assessed not only by measuring undernourishment, or hunger, but also by a second indicator -- the prevalence of underweight children under five years of age. Progress for the two indicators across regions and over time, is compared, providing insights into the complexity of food security. Overall progress notwithstanding, much work remains to be done to eradicate hunger and achieve food security across all its dimensions. The 2015 report not only estimates the progress already achieved, but also identifies remaining problems, and provides guidance on which policies should be emphasized in the future. Key factors that have determined success to date towards food security and nutrition goals are identified. The list of factors -- economic growth, agricultural productivity growth, markets (including international trade) and social protection -- is by no means exhaustive. The report also shows how protracted crises, due to conflict or natural disasters, have deleterious effects on progress in hunger reduction.

Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment

September 1, 2012

The preparation of a gender policy was recommended by the 2010 corporate-level evaluation of IFAD's performance with regard to gender equality and women's empowerment. The policy will reinforce IFAD's position as a leader in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in agricultural and rural development. It builds on IFAD's experience and achievements in field operations and in the broader policy arena in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. The policy will provide IFAD with strategic guidance in systematizing, intensifying and scaling up its efforts to close gender gaps and improve the economic and social status of rural women in rapidly changing rural environments.

Strengthening Women's Access to Land into IFAD projects: The Rwanda Experience

February 1, 2011

This paper is a joint effort of IFAD and RISD to analyse and investigate women's land rights in Rwanda. It presents the outcomes of the investigation on women?s land rights and its implications in the redistribution, delimitation and registration process carried out in the Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza and Kirehe Districts in the Eastern Province. For the assessment, meetings were held in the four Districts, with IFAD project staff, beneficiaries, Cell and District Executive Secretaries, Districts Mayors, members of various men and women cooperatives, District Land Officers, members of Cell and District Land Committees.

Agricultural Value Chain Development: Threat or Opportunity for Women's Employment?

January 1, 2010

This document presents information on how agricultural markets are rapidly globalizing, generating new consumption patterns and new production and distribution systems. Value chains, often controlled by multinational or national firms and supermarkets, are capturing a growing share of the agri-food systems in developing regions. They can provide opportunities for quality employment for men and women, yet they can also be channels to transfer costs and risks to the weakest nodes, particularly women. They often perpetuate gender stereotypes that keep women in lower paid, casual work and do not necessarily lead to greater gender equality.

Gender Dimensions of Agricultural and Rural Employment: Differentiated Pathways out of Poverty

January 1, 2010

This document presents a report on gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment.There's no debate about the importance of women for rural economic growth and poverty reduction. They fill many crucial roles, as farmers, wage labourers and small-scale entrepreneurs, as well as caretakers of children and the elderly. Rural women have the potential to lift their households and communities out of poverty. But they are hampered by persistent gender inequities that limit their access to decent work, which they need as a vehicle for economic empowerment, social advancement and political participation.Policymakers and researchers seeking to respond to this situation are hindered by gaps in data and analysis. Recognition of this need led our three agencies to organize a technical workshop on the gender dimensions of rural employment, held 31 March to 2 April 2009. It sought answers to important but rarely addressed questions: What do we know exactly about the gender dimensions of agricultural and non-farm rural employment? What are the gaps in data and research? Are there examples of good practices that could be used to address gender inequalities through national policies? This report on the outcomes of the workshop is a first step in providing guidance to policy makers, researchers and development practitioners in developing countries and the international community.

Water Markets in the West: Prices, Trading, and Contractual Forms

March 1, 2009

Payments for environmental services (PES) are a means of creating a market in environmental/ecosystem services. They link those who value a given service with those who can provide it. Most early PES initiatives were in Latin America, which remains the region with the most PES schemes, followed by Asia, and lastly Africa. From IFAD's perspective, the problem is that poor rural people lack the prerequisites for participation in PES. Part of the solution to this stubborn dilemma may be to eschew PES schemes that simply seek market creation. Rather than clinging to economic principles, develop a variant of PES that builds on the reality faced in rural areas. This means allowing for market support, subsidies and a means of directing PES benefits to poor people - in short, developing pro-rural-poor PES.

Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

January 1, 2009

The purpose of the Sourcebook is to act as a guide for practitioners and technical staff in addressing gender issues and integrating gender-responsive actions in the design and implementation of agricultural projects and programs. It speaks not with gender specialists on how to improve their skills but rather reaches out to technical experts to guide them in thinking through how to integrate gender dimensions into their operations. The Sourcebook aims to deliver practical advice, guidelines, principles, and descriptions and illustrations of approaches that have worked so far to achieve the goal of effective gender mainstreaming in the agricultural operations of development agencies. It captures and expands the main messages of the World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development and is considered an important tool to facilitate the operationalization and implementation of the report's key principles on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Water and the Rural Poor: Interventions for Improving Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa

January 1, 2008

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural development collaborated on this report on water and rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper addresses the potential benefits of water initiatives under a livelihood approach, with special consideration to two major recommendations: that investments in water infrastructure must act in concert with political, institutional, market and other related concerns; and that interventions must be context-specific, given the vast heterogeneity in water use and needs among sub-Saharan African rural poor.