Knowledge

The brief emphasizes the importance of community involvement in multi-stakeholder platforms and the need for adaptive strategies, like public-private partnerships, to ensure the long-term success of programmes.

This photobook offers a glimpse into the Rural Economic Growth and Employment Project in Jordan.

This policy brief, based on the lessons and experience of the Rural Clustering and Transformation Project in Montenegro, describes how engaging youth in agriculture requires an enabling environment.

Montenegro’s Rural Clustering and Transformation Project highlights the imperative of integrating rural women into decision-making processes at all levels. This policy brief underscores the importance of enhancing rural women's education, training and job access.

The Small Ruminants Investment and Graduating Households in Transition Project (SIGHT) aims to reduce poverty and improve national food security among Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan by providing a package of support to boost small-ruminant productivity.

This publication describes Climate-smart agriculture case studies in Egypt, Georgia, Moldova and Somalia.

This publication synthesizes IFAD’s experience on introducing Community Pasture Management Plans in Kyrgyzstan and how the historical and legal context led to the creation of a modernized and sustainable pasture management system.

To capture and systematize findings on programme implementation models, IFAD’s Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia (NEN) office reviewed models that are proving successful in boosting programme efficiency or capturing key project implementation lessons.

IFAD country programme in Egypt is the largest in the Near East and North Africa. In total, IFAD has invested in 14 agricultural development projects and programmes for a total Cost of US$ 1.1 billion, with IFAD direct financing of US$ 519.28 million benefitting around 7 million people.

IFAD has invested in rural development in the Kyrgyz Republic since 1996.

This report explores food systems in the Arab States and the policies that support them. 

This study reviews the opportunities and challenges facing rural youth in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia region.

Since 1979, IFAD has worked with the Government of Sudan to develop structural reforms that tackle the roots of poverty. IFAD has continued to support rural people in Sudan through investment projects focusing on sustainable resource management, value-chain development and support to farmer organizations. 

In Khatlon Oblast, the poorest region of Tajikistan, decades of overgrazing has degraded pastoral land leading to low milk and meat  production, food insecurity and malnutrition in rural areas.

Canada is partnering with the United Nations Rome-based agencies (RBAs) – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) – to further test in the field their joint Conceptual framework for strengthening resilience for food security and nutrition. 

IFAD has been investing in the rural poor in Tajikistan since 2008, by strengthening local institutions and grass-roots organizations, and expanding their access to land, productive technologies and resources. 

IFAD has enjoyed a long history of a strong and successful partnership with the Government of Azerbaijan in rural poverty reduction and overall agricultural development efforts, with focused interventions in remote and sometimes difficult to reach areas of the country where extreme pockets of poverty exist.

IFAD has been investing in Uzbekistan since 2012, providing financing worth US$81.7 million to three loan-financed projects/programmes that are intended to directly benefit 98,800 households at a total cost of US$81.7 million. 

Since 1980, IFAD has financed 13 rural development programmes and projects in Tunisia for a total cost of US$453 million, with an IFAD investment of US$194.6 million directly benefiting 125,850 rural households. 

This report provides the findings of a stock-taking exercise started in 2015 on IFAD's investment in tenure security measures integrated in its larger agricultural development projects. This stock-take provides an overview of tenure investments and activities in the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia region (NEN).

The goal was to improve the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers through the adoption of integrated crop–livestock conservation agriculture.

Since 1979, IFAD has financed 14 rural development projects for a total of US$268.6 million.

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

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

The total population of Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEN) is about 150 million, of whom more than half live in rural areas. In the CEN countries for which data are available, approximately 2 per cent live on less than US$1.25 a day, while the rate exceeds 6 per cent in some Central Asian nations. Since its establishment, IFAD has invested approximately US$797 million
in 59 projects in 13 countries of the CEN region.

This brochure describes the operations of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative, highlighting the unique position of postal networks for extending access to cashless payments and securing affordable financial services in rural areas.

This paper is a guide to current debates about agricultural development. It analyses the changes in development approaches and thinking in recent decades and explores today's critical issues in agricultural and rural development policy. With the main focus on Africa, the paper also includes insights from Asia and Latin America.

IFAD will seek to improve food security, natural resource management, livestock value chains, and climate resilience for the poor rural people of Sudan.

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

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

The Near East and North Africa region is one of the world's driest and most water-scarce regions. In many areas in the region, demand for water already outstrips supply. Although the region contributes relatively little to greenhouse gas emissions, it will be among those hardest hit by climate change. Climate experts predict that, in future, the climate will become hotter, drier and more variable. Over the next 15 to 20 years, average temperatures are estimated to rise by at least 2 degrees Celsius, and possibly up to 4 degrees Celsius. Higher temperatures and reduced precipitation will increase the occurrence of drought, as is already evident in the western part of North Africa. Densely populated low-lying coastal areas in Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are particularly at risk from rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion into agricultural land.

In Tunisia, young women managed to set up their own small enterprises that produce and sell Al margoum, a traditional embroidery of Berber origin that was on the verge of disappearing.