Knowledge

This policy note takes stock of government responses to the impacts of the war in Ukraine on food, fertilizer and food.

This brief shares the results and lessons learned from the first phase of the Insurance for Rural Resilience and Economic Development (INSURED) programme.

This report is a guide to shape investments by IFAD and other international donors in climate change mitigation actions in the East and Southern Africa region.

This report examines the universe of agritech and fintech providers that influence access to finance in East and Southern Africa, exploring their potential to become commercially viable and achieve scale.

This note identifies SAI practices implemented in 17 East and Southern Africa countries and recommends best approaches to promoting SAI in ESA and beyond.

IFAD’s strategy in Mozambique is to contribute to rural transformation by strengthening nutrition and agriculture linkages and focusing more on value chains and food systems.

The STARLIT (Strengthening Agricultural Resilience through Learning and Innovation) project is an IFAD-China SSTC Facility funded initiative which aims to strengthen the resilience of farmers in the maize value chain in Kenya and Rwanda.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, E-SLIP and RPSF helped poor people to be more resilient by providing livestock packages and access to market platforms, livestock insurance, water, and other resources. This booklet showcases the stories of these farmers.

This report reviews and documents lessons learned from livestock farmer field schools in four IFAD-funded projects that applied this approach in Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania (Zanzibar).

This flyer was produced in the framework of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI) to highlight the improved partnerships between the Post and Money Transfer Operators to provide remittance services in rural areas.

This report outlines ten lessons from 23 IFAD-supported projects that worked with PESPs to support efficient, inclusive and sustainable pluralistic extension systems.

Farm Radio International’s On Air Dialogues gathered the perspectives and experiences of rural people in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso as they contend with climate change. People responded to poll questions and left voice messages sharing their opinions on and experiences of climate change and what global leaders should do to help them adapt and prosper.

Since 1979, IFAD has invested US$455.09 million in 20 programmes and projects in Kenya (at a total cost of US$980.31 million), in support of the Government’s efforts to reduce rural poverty.

Since 1979, IFAD has funded 17 rural development projects in Madagascar for a total of US$434.285 million. Four projects are currently ongoing.

Partnerships between producer organizations (POs) and enterprises are promoted as a model for structuring value chains to integrate small producers more equitably and sustainably.

With funding from ASAP2, eight Climate Risk Analysis reports were produced by the University of Cape Town, covering Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Sorghum, finger millet and pearl millet are the most important staple foods for most households in the semi-arid tropics of East Africa, as these crops grow in harsh environments where other crops do not grow well. 

 In this paper, particular attention is given to the identification and promotion of productivity and resilience enhancing agricultural practices. 

Population growth, rapid urbanization, and a young population are major trends shaping the future of African agriculture.

Discover how the Resilient Food Systems programme is enhancing long-term sustainability and resilience for food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study reviews evidence on initiatives that invest in climate-resilient infrastructure to support smallholder farmer organizations and agribusinesses in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) category and, ultimately, to foster inclusive and sustainable agricultural value chains. Case studies from the BRACED and ASAP programmes across sub-Saharan Africa are presented.

This report summarizes the key facts about, and current observations on, the status of gender and social inclusion within the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region.

This paper reviews the narrative on rural youth and economic opportunities in Africa, using a set of policy documents from various African countries and regional and international organizations. 

This study examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities in various African countries.

This is the first study to quantify the general equilibrium impacts of introducing a new cash crop into a poor isolated economy, including impacts on environmentally sensitive fishing activities.

This report illustrates the food loss assessment studies undertaken along the maize, sunflower and beans supply chains in Uganda in 2015-16 and 2016-17. 

There are different views around the future of smallholder agriculture and its potential to contribute to the needed transformations of agriculture and rural economies. 

For millions of poor people in East and Southern Africa, bamboo has huge potential to alleviate poverty, protect the environment and help achieve the SDGs. 

This analysis examines the dynamics of youth employment in agriculture and the agri-food system in Tanzania and Malawi.

Despite decades of research and development of technologies and innovations which improve farming practices and productivity, small farmers in Tanzania continue to use technologies and practices which do not favour high yields and economic returns. 

The IFAD-funded SWAZI BEEF project set out to increase the quality of livestock and meat products and to diversify farmers’ incomes in the sugar-cane-producing areas of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) through targeted support to farmers and other value chain actors (livestock producers, butchers/meat processors, financial institutions and input providers). 

The Project for Rural Income through Exports in Rwanda, known by its acronym PRICE, aims to increase returns to farmers through the development of export-driven value chains for coffee, tea, sericulture and horticulture.

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

Rural people in the Ethiopian highlands depend mainly on rain-fed subsistence farming for their livelihoods.

This paper aims to better understand the context in which smallholder farms operate. 

Investments in irrigation systems have been shown to substantially improve farmers’ productivity, and thus alleviate poverty. This study provides an example of such an investment: the Participatory Small-Scale Irrigation Development Programme. 

This study estimates the impact of agricultural research, specifically improved maize seeds varieties, on agricultural productivity and welfare in Uganda using a three-wave panel survey. 

The Support to Farmers’ Organizations in Africa Programme (SFOAP): Main phase (2013 - 2018) is a continental programme which strengthens the institutional capacities, policy engagement and engagement of value chains of African farmers’ organizations (FOs). The programme supports the 5 regional networks of African FOs (EAFF, PROPAC, ROPPA, SACAU and UMNAGRI), their members at national level, and the pan-African FO (PAFO).

The African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI) was a unique broad-based partnership led by IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR), and bringing together the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and was cofinanced by the European Union (EU). The joint goal of this regional programme was to enhance competition in the African remittance marketplace through supporting and enabling African post offices in offering financial services. More specifically, it aimed at promoting a cheaper, faster, more convenient and more client-friendly transfer of remittances, particularly to rural areas, while fostering dialogue among stakeholders, regulators and policymakers. 

This paper aims to explore the influence of nutrition-sensitive interventions on dietary profiles of the beneficiaries of IFAD-funded projects.

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 East and Southern Africa region (ESA).

This paper challenges the traditional view that portrays income maximization as the main driver of migration and tests whether relative deprivation and social inequality lead to migration in sub-Saharan Africa. Examining data from the Living Standards Measurements Study – Integrated Surveys in Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, the paper finds that a household’s migration decision is based not only on its well-being status, but also on the position of the household relative to the wealth distribution in the local community. Results indicate that relative deprivation of wealth was positively associated with migration, implying a need to renew the discussion of relative deprivation and social inequality as a cause of migration in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Programme (SDCP) aimed to foster market-driven development of the informal dairy sector in Kenya. 

In Madagascar, the Project to Support Development in the Menabe and Melaky Regions (AD2M) aimed to improve the livelihoods of poor farmers by strengthening their tenure security and access to well-functioning irrigation systems.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

Approaches and experiences in five countries from East and Southern Africa.

The programme’s goals were to increase the food security of smallholder farm households in southern Africa and enhance their livelihoods while conserving and improving the natural resources used for agriculture.

The focus of the programme was on developing productive farming systems for smallholder farmers who managed maize-based systems, based on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA): increasing the profitability, sustainability and labour efficiency of agricultural production.

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

​IFAD Investments have opportunities for improving food security and nutrition outcomes. In 2016 ESA conducted a mapping exercise on nutrition sensitive interventions to provide insight for an effective nutrition mainstreaming and operations at project level.