IFAD social reporting blog

Coordination between the United Nations Rome-based agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP), is integral to all three organizations. Such a collaboration, at local, regional and global level, is necessary in order to deliver the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda, a framework for global action. The three agencies possess a combined force of knowledge, technical assistance and financial support systems. Solutions to global issues must also derive from partnerships between the Rome-based agencies and governments, policy makers and the private sector. The core UN strategic objectives in promoting development are social inclusion, resource sustainability and economic sustainability.

A Joint Briefing by FAO and IFAD for Agricultural Leadership of Tomorrow was held in July 2018 as a result of a visit from guests of Agricultural Leadership of Tomorrow (ALOT) programme. ALOT is a two year leadership development programme designed to provide leadership tools for those in agribusiness in Missouri, USA. The event at FAO headquarters was facilitated by Boubaker Ben-Belhassan (Director of Trade and Markets Division, FAO), and brought together speakers Guilherme Brady (Coordinator of Civil Society/ Producer/Cooperatives, FAO), Michael T. Clark (Senior Coordinator of Governance and Policy, FAO), Abdelkarim Sma (Regional Economist for Near East, North Africa and Europe Division, IFAD) and Shantanu Mathur (Lead Adviser of Global Engagement and Multilateral Relations Division, IFAD).

The first speaker, Guilherme Brady presented a general overview of FAO's mission and objectives. Michael T. Clark highlighted the importance of the RBA’s vocation aimed at supporting development and the 2030 agenda. He noted that rural areas are home to 80 per cent of people living in extreme poverty who directly and indirectly depend on agriculture. The SDGs, brought to fruition in 2015, are delineated by a distinctive set of assumptions and commitments:

Demand for transformational change
Recognition that inequality is systemic and growth is not inclusive
Recognition that there are different policies for different contexts and levels of development and capacity
Acknowledgement of a need for innovation

Michael T. Clark established that structural transformation is key to achieving sustainable development and countries that attempt to skip this process do not succeed in accomplishing a successful sustainable development scheme.

Abdelkarim Sma, from IFAD, provided an account of the framework, operations and objectives of IFAD. With 176 member countries made up of contributors and beneficiaries , IFAD has developed a six billion dollar investment portfolio. Sma asserted that, only with the support of agriculture we can overcome poverty. At the core of IFAD's work is investment in rural people. This UN agency partners with governments and private sector bodies to encourage sustainable economic and social transformation.

Shantanu Mathur also spoke on behalf of IFAD. He said that IFAD's self-help, self-reliant, inclusive and transformative agenda is a bridge to long term development. Mathur gave an overview of the Rome-based agencies and highlighted the importance of the collaboration, which was instigated by donor countries, given their common work on food and agriculture. These commonalities, combined with a collaborative effort will create a powerful synergy with the ambition of ending poverty and achieving zero hunger.

Find out more about the Rome-based agencies

By Jonky Tenou

The Africa Green Revolution Forum - AGRF2018 - is the biggest forum on the continent. It brings together 2,800 participants and is held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 5th to 8th September 2018. The AGRF2018 served as a platform where heads of state, representatives from governments, the private sector, development partners, donors, researchers, civil society and farmer's organisations met and shared their insights, knowledge and experiences to advance rural transformation in Africa. Innovative approaches, practices and technologies have been shared as well as partnerships and policy engagement/dialogue. It was also a platform for donors and receivers that facilitates the connection with various stakeholders from various arenas.

The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) was represented at AGRF2018 at a very senior level, organized a side event hosted by the Integrated approach programme on fostering sustainability and resilience for food security in sub-Sahara Africa (IAP-FS) with a focus on the Upper Tana Nairobi Water Fund (UTNWF) as a tested public-private-partnership.

The side-event highlighted innovative approaches including large-scale payments for ecosystem services in Kenya which benefit urban water users including beverage companies and power generation firms who are willing to invest in rural environments, creating win-win opportunities. Emerging lessons from the UTNWF initiative, which has a budget of approximately US$60 million and targets 21,000 households directly ( with a further 100,000 households indirectly) informed other development actors, countries, businesses of insights and potential collaborative opportunities in building resilience of the smallholder farming enterprises in rural areas.

The IAP-FS is a GEF funded and multi-agency programme aiming to promote sustainable management of natural resources: land, soil, water, vegetation and genetic resources. All the assets that underpin food security and resilience. The programme covers twelve dry-land countries in sub-Sahara Africa.

The event held on September 5th, 2018 from 14:30 to 16:30 was moderated by IFAD's Associate Vice-President Donal Brown and registered more than 300 participants from different development arena.

This keynote speech focused on public-private-partnerships (PPPs) explaining the most effective business case and frameworks in supporting smallholders resilience in Africa. It was delivered by Munhamo Chisvo, the Chief Executive Officer and Head of Mission at the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN). His presentation highlighted the progress made by African countries in achieving their commitment to the Malabo declaration, in investing in agriculture, reducing poverty through inclusive agriculture growth and transformation, and enhancing resilience of livelihood and production systems to climate vulnerability.

From the African 2018 Inaugural Biennial Review Report, specific recommendations have been made for creating a policy environment for private investments, boosting regional trade for agricultural commodities, increasing local processing of key agricultural products and their respective value chains, stimulating local and regional private sector investments in agriculture through a conducive business environment that attracts both domestic and foreign investments in the agriculture sector. Regarding the PPPs framework, opportunities in various stages of agricultural systems such as primary production, post-harvest, market and utilization/consumption were identified. The future direction of PPPs needs conducive policy environments, guiding principles with obligations and risk-sharing mechanisms for more PPPs in financing climate-resilient production and processing to transform African agriculture.

After a presentation of the UTNWF initiative by Jonky Tenou, the Task Manager of IAP-FS programme, a panel discussion ensued, talking about how to conserve the Upper Tana catchment by improving water quality and quantity, enhancing ecosystem services, food security and livelihoods. There was a focus on the research of ways and means to advance PPPs which is indispensable for agriculture transformation in Africa. Hand-on experiences and strategies from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) were also shared with the audience respectively by Dr. Joe DeVries, Vice-President for programme and innovation at AGRA, Dr. Charles Karangwa, Regional coordinator, forest landscape restoration at IUCN and M. Philip Githinji, Production manager at NCWSC and board member of UTNW.

From the panel discussions and interactions with the audience the following key recommendations have been pointed out :

(i) The important role of the private sector for effective ways of producing goods and services that offer resilience solutions and climate-resilient technologies and processes, while the public sector is critical for creating an enabling environment;

(ii) The catalytic role of multi-lateral financing which is needed for co-financing from the private sector and is essential for sustainable rural transformation in sub-Sahara Africa;

(iii) Integrated and innovative approaches need to be scaled-up across the continent.

In general and regarding the IAP-FS objectives, the AGRF2018 has permitted the link/connection with a range of partners such as the African Union Commission and its regional initiatives, the private sector, including financial institutions, civil society organisations and former's associations operating in rural areas at national, regional and global levels who are relevant for the delivery of the programme. The AGRF2018 paved the way to further develop strong partnerships for implementation in an integrated approach in order to significantly influence policy directions for resilience, foods security and sustainable growth in sub-Sahara Africa. IFAD, alongside the GEF and IAP-FS partners (UNDP, FAO, UNEP, ICRAF, World Bank, Conservation International, AGRA and Biodiversity) will continue to support countries and regional platforms for effective continental agriculture transformation through sustainability management.

©IFAD/Pablo Corral Vega

The Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) has approved a regional policy directed to family farmers. The policy was developed by the Programme for Rural Regional Dialogue (PDRR), a long-term programme supported and financed by IFAD since 2007.

PAFCIA: The First Regional Policy on Family Farming

A new victory for peasant, indigenous and Afro-descendent family farmers has been achieved in Belize last July. After a long and highly-participative process at regional and country level, the governments of the CAC's member countries approved a regional policy that will constitute the framework to be followed by the national governments in the development of local policies. The Policy on Peasant, Indigenous and Afro-Descendent Family Farming 2018-2030 aims to 'move towards a diversified, inclusive and territorialized productive model, to contribute to the social and economic development of the countries and the region'.

Mr Abel Lara, Regional Coordinator of the Programme for Rural Regional Dialogue, stated that the policy aims ''to provide to the governments with the necessary instruments to support family farmers, especially in terms of agro-ecological practices and sustainable natural resource management. The next step now is to transform this policy in different laws at country-level, and we are working in different dialogue spaces at national-level to institutionalize the instruments developed in the regional policy’’. On the role of IFAD in the process, he added: ''IFAD has been a key partner over the years, not only because of its contributions in terms of knowledge and experiences in rural development and natural resource management, but also by pushing the boundaries of the debate on how to assure the outreach of traditionally excluded groups, as youth and indigenous people.’’

According to Juan Diego Ruiz Cumplido, IFAD's Hub Head for Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, ''the official approval of the Family Farming Regional Policy for Central-America must be considered as a strategic milestone in order to promote sustainable, rural transformation processes in the region. The effective participation of small producers in inclusive food value chains is a key driver for tackling poverty and malnutrition at community level. This IFAD-funded initiative provides an outstanding good practice about the relevance of promoting policy dialogue by involving different stakeholders, both public and private, such as Governments, civil society organizations, think tanks, etc.’’

The Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) is the organisation within the Central-American Integration System (SICA) dedicated to develop and execute policies directed to the agricultural development of the member countries. A regional policy framework directed to family farming is a great advance for the region, as over 2.6 million productive units are responsible for 70 per cent of food production in the region.

IFAD's policy engagement in the region
The Programme for Rural Regional Dialogue was created in 2007 as a space for policy dialogue composed by professional social organizations representing small and medium-scale farmers and indigenous people, which benefited from the technical and financial support of IFAD. The overall objective of the PDRR has been to enhance policies related to family farming and rural development in Central America. Since its creation, the PDRR has established and maintained close dialogue with the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) by means of hearings – attended by representatives of the organizations involved in the PDRR – and through the establishment of a channel for close communication and coordination with SECAC (the executive secretariat of CAC). CAC has acknowledged the PDRR as the main regional venue for dialogue between family farmers and governments in Central America.

The last IFAD's grant was approved in December 2016 to a consortium of the PRISMA Foundation, RIMISP and OXFAM, and has been dedicated to strengthen the institutional capacity and strategic vision of the PDRR and of organizations working on the topic of family farming in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Within this, it has facilitated and improved spaces for dialogue on national and regional policies focused on rural development and family farming.

IFAD has been promoting public policy engagement in Latin America, and particularly policy dialogue on issues related to family farming and rural development, for more than 10 years. At least two successful models for encouraging policy dialogue (and strengthening the institutional capacity of rural organizations) have now emerged in the region.

The first aims to facilitate dialogue and policy harmonization at the regional level. This model is best illustrated by the highly successful Commission on Family Farming (REAF) of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), which was created in 2004 with the support of IFAD, and the Programme for Rural Regional Dialogue.

The second and more recent model are the rural dialogue groups, funded by an IFAD grant to the Latin American Centre for Rural Development (RIMISP) and focused on promoting dialogue among high-level policymakers and relevant national stakeholders in a number of Latin American countries (Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico).

IFAD participated in the conference’s session on What development partners really want (and need) from gender research, where representatives of international development organizations and development partners highlighted the challenges and opportunities of gender research.

From left to right: Lydia Atomsa, Gender and Migration, Dutch Embassy; Ulaç Demirag, Country Director and Representative for Ethiopia and South Sudan, IFAD; Fatouma Seid, FAO Representative in Ethiopia; Amsale Mengistu, BMGF Ethiopia; Faith Bartz, USAID Ethiopia; Tanja Nader, Delegation of the EU to Ethiopia.

Organized by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Collaborative Platform for Gender Research, the second Annual Scientific Gender Conference and Capacity Development Workshop is being held at the ILRI Campus in Addis Ababa from 24 to 28 September 2018. The conference brings together national and international researchers and representatives of development organizations to identify the gender’s agriculture research priorities, strengths and gaps. Presentations will also examine how to build capacity to undertake and implement the findings of gender research, as well as promote knowledge sharing among key stakeholders.

During his intervention, Mr Demirag stressed IFAD’s commitment to overcoming gender inequalities and empowering women to reduce rural poverty and food insecurity; a commitment which is embedded in all its operations and guided through IFAD’s Policy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

He highlighted some of the key development issues from a gender perspective such as: women’s limited access and control over productive assets and thus, limited opportunities; women's double burden of productive activities and domestic work which continues to limit their ability to participate in new income-generating opportunities; limited inclusion of women leaders and models within development interventions; gender perspectives often poorly represented in public services such as agricultural extension; and the need to consider the role of women in value chain interventions to progress beyond subsistence level or being care givers but rather in productive and profitable activities.

In addition, he emphasized that research can also make a vital contribution to enhance the set of practical tools to enhance the quality and effectiveness of development interventions, which can be applied during project designs and implementation. Some of these tools include: effective methods to ensure women’s participation in defining their training and skills development needs; tools to identify and address gender inequality issues in institutional analysis; development of training packages and approaches that take into account gender-specific constraints; and tools to enable business enterprises to tailor their products and services to the specific need of women.

However, given the very location and context-specific, multidimensional and complex nature of gender issues in development, Mr Demirag highlighted the need for more action-oriented and applied studies, as opposed to basic research. While women representation and advocacy are important to ensure participation, ownership and nurturing women's leadership, we need focus our attention on the economic empowerment of women. Based on good examples in IFAD supported projects in Africa, he highlighted that successful business women often turned into strong leaders in the community, making a vital contribution to create employment, as role models and opinion leaders representing women's perspectives in local institutions and organizations. Gender analysis and the work of gender experts in general can be enhanced by strengthening their focus on gender-sensitive value chain analyses, and support to small enterprises, including rural financial institutions, to design products and services targeted at women, with a clear business model.

Finally, Mr Demirag shared with the audience examples of how IFAD-supported operations are supporting women; including empowerment through land certification and access to finance as well as their enhanced decision making role through gender-sensitive community demand-driven social services delivery.

The audience engaged in an enthusiastic discussion, agreeing on the need to strengthen the partnerships between development partners and research institutions to better position themselves for advocating for gender priorities to governments, who are ultimately leading the gender agenda. There was also consensus on the need for longer term investments that prioritize gender empowerment.

Mid-term review mission
Between 27 August to 5 September 2018, IFAD carried out carried out a mid-term review for the Sustainable Development Project for the Rural Communities of Semi-Arid Zones (North and Mixtec Regions) - PRODEZSA; executed by the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR). The National Financial (NAFIN) and IFAD's Independent Office of Evaluation also participated in the mission. Six ejidos and a producter organization were visited in the States of Zacatecas and Coahuila, Mexico.

Objectives
The objective of the mid-term review was to learn about different experiences on the use of non-timber forest resources, such as candelilla, lechuguilla and oregano, among other native species of the semi-arid ecosystem; as well as carrying out a joint review of the administrative, financial and operational progress of the project.

Project location and scope
The territories visited were the Ejidos de San Jerónimo, Los Indios Romualdo and Apizolaya in the State of Zacatecas; and the Ejidos de Las Ánimas, Tuxtepec, Plan de Guadalupe and the Sociedad Microempresarial Lureno in the State of Coahuila. As part of the mission, there were also meetings with municipal authorities, state managers and other representatives of CONAFOR, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), NAFIN, personnel of the Project Coordination Unit and the participants of the project ; agreeing on measures that will contribute to the achievement of results and impact.

In the Mexican system of government, an Ejido is an area of communal land used for housing or agriculture, on which community members individually farm designated parcels and collectively maintain communal holdings. The Ejidos are registered with Mexico's National Agrarian Registry.

"At first glance, it would seem that the semi-arid zones have little potential or little economic advantage. Which is not true. Supported rural families show that there are viable, sustainable economic activities linked to the exploitation of non-timber forest resources such as: lechuguilla, used in the manufacturing industry; candelilla for the extraction of wax: and oregano for the production of oils. Handicrafts are also produced, such as candles and honey. Rural tourism is promoted. These are the center of economic and cultural activities in these areas,” said Juan Diego Ruíz, Hub Leader for Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, IFAD.

Project financing
The PRODEZSA project is a good example of how IFAD finances projects to improve the living conditions of rural populations; in particular young people, women and indigenous peoples. In coordination with the Government of Mexico, this project was formed in 2015, with financing amounting to US$35.7 million; of which IFAD has granted a loan of US$18.7 million plus a donation of US$2 million; and a loan of US$15 million from the Spanish Trust Fund (FFE). Likewise, there are national counterparts of CONAFOR and contributions from more than 40 thousand rural families that participate in the project.

Objectives of the project
The overall objective of the project is to enable the indigenous and rural population of the Semi-Arid Zones in the North and Mixtec Regions increase their income and employment; this strengthening the social fabric through its organization for rural businesses in forest regions. To achieve this objective, PRODEZSA allocates resources to owners and holders of forest lands to:

• Development of human and social capacities
• Promote sustainable production
• Promote access to rural markets and businesses

Mrs Aurelia Zapata is one of the beneficiaries of the project, living in in Ejido Tuxtepec, located in the Municipality of Ramos Arizpe, in the State of Coahuila (about 125 kilometers from the municipal capital). She dedicated herself to growing candelilla since she started the revegetation project (with PRODEZSA). This has contributed to improving her household economy. "I get up early, I make lunch and we are going to plant the candelilla with my husband and one of my children, who lives with us, we have lunch there. We produce between 30 and 40 kilos in a fortnight and with what they pay us for the candelilla, about 70 Mexican pesos per kilo; my husband pays for the fruit, I pay the errands (the vegetable that comes every Saturday and other expenses) and my son supports his family’’.

Some advances of the project
Three years after its execution, PRODEZSA has served 1,555 groups (27,403 men and 7,341 women). The project currently operates in 192 municipalities, located in 13 States: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Zacatecas; totaling 12.4 million hectares. It has strengthened human and social capacities, sustainable production and access to markets and businesses of the participating rural population; with the execution of 105 technical and managerial training workshops, where 88 ejidos and communities have participated; as well as 17 organized groups.

62 microenterprises have been integrated, equipped and strengthened, of which four are led by women who work with the soyate palm, damiana, medicinal plants, dead wood and bow stick. Areas have been incorporated into forest management programmes, which allow for the sustainable supply of raw materials for their transformation and commercialization, through the rural microenterprises and production chains promoted by the project. 342 studies were conducted that have allowed the regularization of 688,845 hectares of arid zones, where currently various species are sustainably cultivated.

by Eugenia Stefanelli Martín, Raphael Seiwald and Eloisa de Villalobos

Last week the AVANTI – Advancing Knowledge for Agricultural Impact initiative was officially launched as a side event of IFAD's Executive Board. Member State representatives, IFAD staff and others attended the event to find out more about the new AVANTI initiative and how it can contribute to governments' capacities in managing for development results through increased M&E capacities and systems.

So… what is AVANTI?

AVANTI is an initiative that works with national partners to facilitate systematic self-assessments of country capacities to manage for results in the rural sector. Its objective is to facilitate better government decision-making for rural policies and strategies through improvements in areas like monitoring and evaluation, leadership, planning, statistics and sharing of good practices. AVANTI started in early 2018 for a three-year period and will work in up to 20 countries across all IFAD regions.

… And how does AVANTI contribute to achieving IFAD's mandate and the broader Sustainable Development Goals?

The objective of AVANTI is to promote better government decision making for rural policies and programmes, by enhancing the ability of national monitoring and evaluation systems to capture progress achieved against the SDGs.

It is clear that without adequate in-country results-based management and M&E capacities and systems in place, achieving and tracking development outcomes is challenging. This is why the international community is increasingly focusing on this. However, there are currently no systematic efforts (or standardized tools) to measure country capacities for results-based management in agriculture. This makes it difficult to understand which capacities there are in place, where the gaps are, and how to strengthen what exists in order to promote sustainable development.

This is why IFAD has sponsored this new initiative, to support countries that are working on improving their M&E systems for the agricultural sector. Using facilitated self-assessment tools, participants from government agencies will deepen their understanding of the challenges, success factors and open questions existing around M&E, focusing particularly on areas such as leadership, planning, statistics and sharing of good practices. These assessments will then serve as the basis for the development of national Action Plans for strengthening rural sector M&E capacities and systems. These Plans, in turn, are expected to lead to better development results and improved value for money in terms of returns on investments.

There are less than 12 years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and given the current global context, we know that a business-as-usual approach will not work. According to the 2018 report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 821 million people were undernourished last year, with hunger being on the rise for the third year in a row. We have to not only scale up efforts to achieve food security, but also make them more effective and more sustainable – now and over the medium-term.

©IFAD/Daniele Bianchi

The experts' view

During the launch event, we heard the enriching insights from a panel of experts from different fields (representatives from governments, donors, partners of other international organisations, NGOs and international development consultancies) telling us about their experiences, challenges in their day-to-day activities and suggested ways forward. We had the opportunity hear from H.E. Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, Minister of Livestock of the Republic of Senegal, how initiatives like AVANTI can contribute to strengthening governments' abilities to deliver and achieve greater development results, through the strengthening of their manging, monitoring and reporting abilities. In particular, the Minister highlighted how AVANTI can contribute to create a coalition of champions, through the development of national Action Plans with clear priorities that are available to partners and donors for synergies and coordinated support.

These statements were supported by other panellists, like Oscar Garcia, Director of IFAD's Independent Office of Evaluation, and Bernard Woods, Director of Results Management and Aid Effectiveness division. They both agreed on the need to strengthen the institutional framework and greater demand of M&E capacities and systems, and pledged for initiatives like AVANTI that are another step in the right direction.

Lastly, we heard from Annette Kolff, Director of International Programmes at HELVETAS and Ethel Sibanda, Principal Consultant at Itad and AVANTI Ag-Scan lead, both representatives of the AVANTI implementing partners. It was crucial to hear about the importance of involving all stakeholders, including civil society and farmers' organisations, in development projects, and of AVANTI's potential of creating stakeholder platforms. Country ownership was also pledged as a fundamental pillar of AVANTI's approach in the countries and as a key factor contributing to greatest in-country results.

The panel and final Q&A discussion was truly engaging and the interest showed by colleagues in the room and online demonstrates the relevance and opportunity for initiatives like AVANTI.

Way forward

Fulfilling the promise of Agenda 2030 will require all of us to be more creative and innovative. That includes developing – and using – better tools to manage for results and to measure our progress. AVANTI represents a small, but important, contribution to this agenda.

IFAD, together with HELVETAS and Itad, has taken the lead on setting up AVANTI. Governments and partners are welcomed to ensure that these efforts are sustainable by showing their commitment and support.

To find out more about AVANTI visit: www.avantiagriculture.org

A mangrove preservation and ecotourism development site in Pintu Kota, Lembeh Island, North Sulawesi. ©IFAD/Susan Beccio

Wetlands are land areas that are flooded with water, either seasonally or permanently. They may divided into three main categories: marine and coastal wetlands, inland wetlands, and man-made wetlands.

Wetlands greatly contribute to nature and humankind through economic and ecological services, as described below:

Economic services: many societies rely on wetlands for their livelihoods. They are home to indigenous peoples and a natural source of livelihoods for their communities by providing them with drinking water, energy, fisheries, agriculture, transport, recreation, cultural values and tourism.

Ecological services: wetlands greatly contribute to regulate climate and maintain ecosystems and biodiversity: plants in swamps absorb pollutants, mangroves store carbon, lakes and underground aquifers are a crucial source of water, and coral reefs protect coastlines from wave action and serve as shelter for marine organisms.

However, wetlands are at risk due to human-induced factors. Estimates show that at least 64 per cent of wetlands have been lost since 1900 and around 87 per cent since 1700. Moreover, 76 per cent of populations of freshwater plants and animals have disappeared in the last 40 years.

Human-induced factors threatening wetlands include:

Agriculture: globally, agriculture accounts for 65 per cent of the total water withdrawal on Earth;
Industry: paper making, beverage production and other industries consume significant amounts of water;
Climate change: while raising sea level swamps shallow wetlands, desertification has put in risk other wetlands like estuaries and floodplains;
Dams: More than half of all large river systems have been fragmented by human dam building, with the more than 45,000 large dams worldwide obstructing two-thirds of all freshwater flows.

The Convention on Wetlands is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971, also called the "Ramsar Convention", it came into force in 1975. Since then, 169 countries – or almost 90 per cent of UN member states – from all of the world’s geographic regions have become “Contracting Parties” of the treaty.

The Convention's 4th Strategic Plan 2016–2024 urges its members to address and engage the drivers behind pressures on wetlands, such as unsustainable agriculture, forestry and extractive industries – especially oil, gas and mining.

In September, IFAD was pleased to host a lecture by Ms María Rivera, Senior Advisor for the Americas at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, who spoke about the key issues, benefits and challenges involving wetlands.

In recent years, Ms Rivera has contributed to the implementation of the Convention in the Neotropics, both in her position as Technical Officer at the Ramsar regional initiative office in Panama (CREHO), and before that in her work at the Ministry of the Environment in Colombia.

At IFAD, Ms Rivera advocated for more coordinated actions and sustainable practices in line with the Ramsar Convention. As an example of these, she mentioned the Ramsar regional initiatives, which support cooperation and capacity-building on wetland-related issues in specific regions or sub-regions.

Upcoming opportunity

The 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP13) will be held from 21 to 29 October 2018 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The theme will be Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future.

Ms Rivera highlighted that the upcoming conference will be a good opportunity to convene the mangrove community, address progress and encourage more commitments in regards to the conservation of wetlands.

During the conference, the report Global Wetlands Outlook: State of the World's Wetlands and their Services to People will be released.

In addition, 26 resolutions are expected to be approved, aiming to promote policy links, implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainable cities, regional initiatives visibility and awareness raising of wetlands values.

The training was provided by Andrew MacPherson, an international agribusiness consultant for IFAD and a farmer with extensive experience in the field of agriculture production and marketing. The role that market access alliances play in providing access to markets and services, such as credit and transport and the preparation of business plans, were the key topics covered during the workshop.

From left to right: Mr Andrew MacPherson, international agribusiness consultant for IFAD and farmer; Mr Halefom, PASIDP II agribusiness specialist from Tigray region (translating).

Since start-up, PASIDP II has been struggling with the implementation of its second component, which aims at strengthening the capacity of farmers supported under the programme to establish effective linkages and collaboration with other actors in the value chains as a way to access markets, finance and appropriate technologies. Following the second supervision and implementation support mission, IFAD has provided technical assistance to the implementing team, providing them with the intended model and tools for supporting local stakeholders to set up their market access alliances (MAAs) with business plans.

MAAs, which are organized either at Woreda or Kebele level, are comprised of farmers’ cooperatives, service providers (e.g. input suppliers, aggregators, exporters), representatives of lead farmers in each of the beneficiary Kebeles located in each region, regional youth/women representatives, representatives of the regional bureaus of agriculture, representatives of the regional bureaus of trade, and the regional PASIDP II agribusiness specialists.

The mission supported a series of stakeholder meetings, in three of the four regions where PASIDP II operates, between 27 August and 7 September 2018. These aimed to provide practical and hands-on guidance to the nascent MAAs on how these can create linkages with markets, credit providers and other service providers as well as on the preparation of business plans by farmers. This exercise also intended to demonstrate the modalities of training to the PASIDP Agribusiness personnel at both Federal and Regional levels.

During the training it was apparent that all farmers were most interested in producing for the market. There were no exceptions to this, demonstrating the need for farmers to produce for income, as opposed to producing for household consumption. Aside from the enthusiastic reception of the concepts covered during the workshop, it was found that the chairperson of the MAAs was a public employee, and not a commercial member of the value chains. This presents a potential conflict of interest, whereby the chairperson would not be affected by commercial decisions made. This was highlighted as a point of improvement to be considered by the members of the MAAs.

During the sessions on business plan preparation it was made clear that adequate payments for provision of water should be made to and kept by irrigation water users associations organized by the programme as a means of ensuring that there was sufficient funding to cater for actual operations, maintenance and replacement costs. This calls for a proper communication of actual water costs to farmers prior to or during scheme construction and the incorporation of these costs in farmers’ business plans.

The mission was concluded by sharing analytical planning tools and training materials to the federal and regional agribusiness specialists of PASIDP II to allow these to organize similar workshops in the future in other irrigation schemes of the program. The training tools included a graphic depiction of the rationale and role of the MAAs and on the ethics of value chain operations, a farm business plan model, and a farmers’ cooperative business plan model. The latter helps farmers’ cooperatives to assess their production costs, cost of sales, return of labour, as well as basic sensitivity analyses, enabling them to plan their production and marketing in a business-like fashion.

The ICO has worked with BMGF and AGRA to develop a collaboration and mobilize a grant to scale up the model to about four locations in each region, which are intended to serve as model locations for learning and further replication during programme implementation.

"I have a dream. It is that all IFAD projects incorporate household methodologies in their activities. I really hope we can work together towards this".

On this note, ECG Director Margarita Astralaga opened the ECG-NEN knowledge event Household methodologies for gender transformation and project effectiveness. The Kyrgyzstan experience, organized on 19 September 2018 at IFAD HQ. During this event IFAD and partners talked about the positive outcomes that household methodologies (HHM) can bring about in terms of gender equality and project effectiveness.

The field practitioner, Asel Kuttubaeva, from the service provider Community Development Alliance (CDA) walked us through achievements and challenges of the HHM pilot in Kyrgyzstan, one of the few experiences outside sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2016, IFAD has been supporting the roll out of the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) - the most comprehensive household methodology (HHM) - in Kyrgyzstan, in the context of the Joint programme Accelerating progress towards rural women economic empowerment (JP RWEE), a joint initiative by FAO, IFAD, UN Women and WFP.

Until now, GALS is being used by more than 3,500 JP RWEE participants and their families in the four regions of the project: Osh, Jalalabad, Naryn and Chui. It was used to strengthen existing self-help groups and enable their participants to make better use of viable resources to increase agricultural production or engage in off-farm micro entrepreneurship activities. "Thanks to GALS, women's developed self-confidence and motivation to change’’, Asel explained. ‘’They became able to negotiate workloads with family members and discuss about their future and their dreams. This resulted in improved planning skills for the family and ability of women to engage in new income generating activities’’.

The moderator, Ndaya Beltchika, IFAD Lead Technical Specialist on gender and social inclusion, teased out these key GALS/HHM aspects.

Gender transformative results
GALS is a powerful strategy to bring about gender transformation in different socio-economic setting and can be a very effective way to deliver on IFAD 11 target to have at least 25 per cent of gender transformative projects. Family members jointly analyse their economic and wellbeing situation, and plan for a better future of each member. GALS in Kyrgyzstan helped to challenge existing gender-based practices within the household. Men took up tasks that were used to be considered women-only and women gained support to engage in different economic activities. GALS also helped existing self-help groups of women to better plan for their future, revise internal governance mechanisms and decide over services they want to provide to members.

Suitable for different technical interventions
GALS was delivered through self-help groups managed by UN Women – another JP RWEE partner. The methodology helped women to take better advantage of economic opportunities supported by other agencies: women developed better business plans to access revolving funds, scope market opportunities in a more realistic way and gain intra-household support to engage in new activities – either by catalysing family saving or reallocating workloads to free up more time.

This shows how HHM/GALS can be integrated in a variety of technical interventions for development: support to entrepreneurship, value chain development, rural finance, natural resource management and so on.

Adaptability
The Kyrgyzstan pilot is the first GALS in Central Asia. This methodology was developed in Eastern Africa in a very different socio-economic context - with very different development challenges. Yet, it proved to be a very adaptive methodology and it was easily transferred to the Kyrgyz context and the development interventions of the Joint Programme RWEE. Mikael Kauttu, IFAD Country Programme Manager with long-lasting experience in the country claimed that, "Kyrgyz institutions are quite strong and are good interlocutors for development. They are promising entry points for ownership and upscaling of GALS practices on the national territory".

Accelerator of development results
Beatrice Gerli, gender and social inclusion consultant, presented GALS/HHM achievements highlighted by the JP RWEE midterm external evaluation, conducted in March 2018.

GALS Increased overall project effectiveness in achieving better livelihoods, increased income, food security and leadership role of participating women through solidarity economic models - like self-help groups and economic groups.

The evaluation revealed the following change model. When women start engaging in income generating activities, they still have to take care of domestic tasks, leading to overwork and less time for leisure. With GALS women make more accurate business plans, realize their needs and dreams and their husbands realize the value of domestic work and start contributing. As a result, women engage in income-generating activities and got more time for themselves.

Change maps created by women beneficiaries included statements indicating that women now enjoyed higher status in the family, more equal distribution of domestic tasks with their husbands and had more time for themselves. "After using GALS, happiness is around", said Asel smiling.

This interesting experience provides food for thought for IFAD operations in Kyrgyzstan, where there is potential for additional scale up and integration with investment projects – both in the country and neighbouring ones. The JP RWEE is now committed to support 700 additional rural women and men to use GALS, extending its scope to new communities in an additional region. UN Women itself has adopted this methodology to support its programme to prevent gender based violence in Kyrgyzstan.

By Oscar Garcia, Director, Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD

The evaluation criteria developed by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 1991 influenced the practice of evaluation in a significant way. Relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact are amply used, validated and recognized internationally. They are a cornerstone of the global architecture to evaluate development assistance and have been instrumental to improve accountability and learning. The standardized approach allows for aggregation and meta-analysis. What is interesting about the evaluation criteria is their broad applicability. They are useful to assess development interventions in any sector, in health, education, industry, trade, social protection, energy or agriculture.

After many decades of use, the evaluation criteria need some updates. There are three main sources of criticism. The first one comes from the limited scope, arguing that the criteria were developed with projects in mind. Currently, more complex development interventions are needed in policies, programmes or strategies to achieve the expected development outcomes such as eradicating extreme poverty, adapting to climate change or ending hunger. In other words, how the evaluation criteria can be useful in more complex development contexts, adopting a systemic approach. The second one refers to the definitions and their need to be updated, for instance, on the different dimensions of relevance. The third one comes from the rigid application of criteria that may highjack their potential to be used in a variety of contexts. The use of criteria without sufficient consideration of the context in which the evaluation takes place, has been identified as a constraint.

What needs to be done? The OECD DAC evaluation criteria can be kept as they are; be transformed, including by updating their definitions; or be expanded, by adding new criteria.

I am in favour of a combination of transforming them and adding new criteria. The OECD DAC evaluation criteria should continue orienting the evaluation practice and I would not question the importance of keeping them. I would simply adjust the definition of relevance to include the dimension of the appropriateness of design and would be more explicit on the indicators to measure efficiency. The main proposal I have, however, is to add a new criterion.

I propose to add coverage as an evaluation criterion to assess development assistance. Coverage was previously developed by ALNAP as part of the evaluation criteria for humanitarian action. It was understood as the extent to which major population groups were reached by humanitarian action.

In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, where the ambitious goals demand to reach out to marginalized groups of population in order to eradicate poverty, end hunger and spread prosperity, the disaggregated data on every development initiative needs to come clearly to the fore. Based on IFAD's experience, identifying more clearly the target population and their differentiated needs, which may include indigenous peoples, pastoralists, people with disabilities, women or youth, improves the soundness of the interventions. Adding coverage to the set of evaluation criteria would allow to respond to the political economy question of who benefits and who loses from the development interventions. It has the advantage of universal application. Who benefited from the initiative can be asked in every sector and would be valid according to the initiatives' objectives. Which population groups were reached out and which were left out will answer, in a standardized and systematic way, one of the main concerns about the Agenda 2030, namely to not leave anyone behind.

IFAD's Livestock and Market Development Projects I and II, with the support of ASAP funding, aim to strengthen the traditional “transhumant” system where herders move with their animals to the high mountains overthe summer months. The two projects work with over 300 pasture user unions who receive training and can submit grant proposals for small projects. Over 20,000 villagers have participated in trainings and in selecting over 1,400 micro projects.

No livestock? A local pasture committee in Naryn put a 5-year grazing ban on 9,500 ha of heavily degraded pastures, allowing the vegetation to recover
The projects are helping the pasture user unions to rehabilitate livestock shelters, water troughs, housing for herders, and roads. Their locations are being monitored through an online map. The infrastructure gives herders better access to and better management options for both old and new pastures. It also provides them with more options to react to changing conditions – in particular to bad weather induced or worsened by climate change. Livestock mobility and flexible management practices are key for climate change adaptation in pastoral systems.

The pasture user unions are reporting rising livestock numbers and better pastures thanks to access to new areas. Livestock are valuable assets that help to overcome poverty.

While summer pastures are abundant, spring and autumn – and in particular winter – pastures are the bottleneck. They are vulnerable to degradation. The herders’ current strategy to relieve grazing pressure by using new pastures will become ineffective as soon as there are too many livestock that remain on spring and winter pastures waiting for the snow at higher elevations to melt. Without a meaningful change in stewardship practices, the problem of degradation is only postponed and may even worsen.

The pastures user unions are increasingly becoming aware of this problem. The projects advocate pasture rotation, increased fodder production, measures to prevent erosion and focus on increasing productivity per animal. Pasture user unions with good leadership have the capacity to enforce better management practices. One union in the northern Naryn region is successfully imposing a 5-year grazing ban on 9,500 ha heavily degraded pastures.

Other institutions are also heading the right way. One of the implementing partners of the project, the Kyrgyz Association of Pasture Users’ Union, received an award from the International Land Coalition in September this year for its successful approach of helping pasture user unions to locally manage ecosystems sustainably.

©IFAD/ Guy Stubbs

The world faces the huge and complex task of providing healthy and accessible food for a population projected to reach 10 billion in 2050 while reducing agriculture's environmental and climate impacts, and improving rural livelihoods.

Tackling these challenges requires a systemic approach, states Alexander Müller, lead author of TEEB for Agriculture & Food: Scientific and Economic Foundations, a study addressing the core issues involving the agri-food sector, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Food production has successfully been increased over the years as new agricultural technologies have augmented crop yields and productivity, but many environmental and social impacts have not received appropriate attention. These are crucial for achieving sustainable development and ensuring a more liveable world for the upcoming generations.

During a talk at IFAD HQ this week, Müller highlighted that hidden costs and benefits in eco-agri-food systems are rarely captured in conventional economic analyses because they focus on goods and services that are traded in markets.

For instance, a hidden cost of food systems is their climate footprint, estimated (along the value chain) at between 24 and 57 per cent of anthropogenic global greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, a hidden benefit is that food systems (including small-scale agriculture) employ more people than any other economic sector – agriculture employs 1.5 billion people worldwide.

A systems approach looks along entire food value chains and reveals many significant but economically invisible or non-market stocks and flows. These stocks and flows may be unpriced and not incorporated in macro-economic modelling – including Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – because they are unrecorded inputs to production, or because they are considered “externalities”.

Müller and other experts advocate for more holistic assessments in order to enable a transformation towards sustainable food systems.

India's state of Andhra Pradesh, for example, is trying to eliminate chemicals in agriculture. Instead of just focusing on food production, the government has launched a scale-out plan to transition six million farms/farmers to 100 per cent chemical-free agriculture by 2024. This is an unprecedented transformation towards sustainable agriculture at such a massive scale.

As the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, eco-agri-food systems are comprehensive and offer interconnected elements, all of which need to be addressed simultaneously.

Guaraná sticks as traditionally prepared by the Sateré Mawé people, that first discovered Guaraná and is today one of the major producers of the performance enhancing plant. The Sateré Mawé peoples is part of the Slow Food Network and youth representatives take part in the IFAD supported Indigenous Peoples Terra Madre Youth Network.

Jacilene is a member of the Sateré Mawé Slow Food Presidium. She was helping to sell her peoples natural products in the Terra Madre Event. She is a youth leader in her tribe and wants to contribute to preserve the traditional knowledge of her people.

Capacity building and south-south exchanges about indigenous youth , innovations and drivers in the Terra Madre Arena. Rahul Antao from IFADs youth team contributes to the panel discussions stressing the pollination of knowledge needed at a global scale. With the aim to inspire others each participant lifted their own positive experiences, but also described the challenges. Concluding that indigenous youth can be the drivers of change.

A private collection of beans of different varieties was exhibited in the food fair. This was one out of many examples of how seeds and variety of seeds was put forth among the participants.

Experiences and visions were shared among the participants from far distant geographical locations and levels. In this panel indigenous representatives from Latin America, Asia, Scandinavia and Africa took part. The participant in green skirt is Victoria Tauli-Corpuz from the Kankana-ey Igorot ethnicity in Philippines. She is also the UN Special Rapporteur of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Being a Mecca for food enthusiasts Terra Madre delivered a large variety of types of foodstuff and flavours. In the picture is a variety of types of artisanal mustard produced by small scale producers.

By Oliver Mundy

Kyrgyzstan has a unique problem: it has an abundance of rich high-alpine summer pastures, but these are hard to reach. Roads and buildings from the Soviet time have deteriorated. Other herding societies witnessing an ever-decreasing area of pastures might envy such a challenge.

IFAD's Livestock and Market Development Projects I and II, with the support of ASAP funding, aim to strengthen the traditional “transhumant” system where herders move with their animals to the high mountains over the summer months. The two projects work with over 300 pasture user unions who receive training and can submit grant proposals for small projects. Over 20,000 villagers have participated in trainings and in selecting over 1,400 micro projects.

No livestock? A local pasture committee in Naryn put a five-year grazing ban on 9,500 ha of heavily degraded pastures, allowing the vegetation to recover

The projects are helping the pasture user unions to rehabilitate livestock shelters, water troughs, housing for herders, and roads. Their locations are being monitored through an online map. The infrastructure gives herders better access to and better management options for both old and new pastures. It also provides them with more options to react to changing conditions – in particular to bad weather induced or worsened by climate change. Livestock mobility and flexible management practices are key for climate change adaptation in pastoral systems.

The pasture user unions are reporting rising livestock numbers and better pastures thanks to access to new areas. Livestock are valuable assets that help to overcome poverty.

While summer pastures are abundant, spring and autumn – and in particular winter – pastures are the bottleneck. They are vulnerable to degradation. The herders’ current strategy to relieve grazing pressure by using new pastures will become ineffective as soon as there are too many livestock that remain on spring and winter pastures waiting for the snow at higher elevations to melt. Without a meaningful change in stewardship practices, the problem of degradation is only postponed and may even worsen.

The pastures user unions are increasingly becoming aware of this problem. The projects advocate pasture rotation, increased fodder production, measures to prevent erosion and focus on increasing productivity per animal. Pasture user unions with good leadership have the capacity to enforce better management practices. One union in the northern Naryn region is successfully imposing a five-year grazing ban on 9,500 ha heavily degraded pastures.

Other institutions are also heading the right way. One of the implementing partners of the project, the Kyrgyz Association of Pasture Users’ Union, received an award from the International Land Coalition in September this year for its successful approach of helping pasture user unions to locally manage ecosystems sustainably.

Food security and climate change are inextricably interlinked, and policy-makers and experts can and should work for more integrated approaches addressing both. That is the main takeaway from a side event on Wednesday 17 October, during the 45th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), in Rome.

The link can be explained through two ways – agriculture both influence and is influenced by climate change. Agriculture is highly sensitive to temperature increases and variability in precipitation patterns, which makes food production very susceptible to climate change; and it also contributes to climate change as the sector is causing 10-12 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Wednesday’s debate was motivated by a call made last year at CFS 44 encouraging the CFS to be more closely involved with the international climate agenda. The event was organized by the UN Rome-based Agencies – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) – together with the Government of New Zealand.

The IPCC special report Global Warming of 1.5°C (October 2018) shows that the most optimistic predictions of 1.5°C global warming present very significant challenges to maintaining food security in the most vulnerable regions. Crop yields, their nutritional value as well as availability and access will be adversely affected by climate change. Responding to and addressing the risks and challenges posed by climate change for food and nutrition security therefore requires very urgent action.

Climate change is a growing threat to food security, and an unprecedented transition is imperative for meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Individuals can make the difference as individual habits like what you eat and how much food you waste are behind major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. “If food waste was a country, it would be the third biggest emitter after China and the United States,” said Ambassador Mario Arvelo, CFS Chair.

The representative of the Rome-based Agencies, Bing Zhao, advocated for more preventive climate actions, mentioning the benefits from empowering smallholder farmers and investing in early warning mechanisms, effective information sharing and appropriate infrastructure. “These will save funds from humanitarian response,” he stressed.

“We should give priority to the poor and most vulnerable,” highlighted Maria Helena Semedo, FAO’s Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources. The 2.5 billion people who depend on agriculture worldwide are small-scale farmers, herders, fishers and forest-dependent communities generating more than half of the global agricultural production and who are particularly at risk from disasters.

The panelists agreed that achieving food security while increasing climate change resilience requires more coordination between different actors – government ministries (agriculture, health, environment, trade etc.), non-profit organizations and the private sector.

by Margherita Calderone (Overseas Development Institute) and Ilaria Firmian (IFAD)

The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted the urgent need for unprecedented action to keep global temperature rises to 1.5°C. It sheds light on how farming communities will be hit hardest by the impacts of global warming, particularly in the drylands and the poorest countries. Whilst touching on mitigation, the report also explains how adapting to the effects of climate change can support sustainable development. It highlights the importance of relieving the barriers the world's poorest people are facing, such as the lack of up-to-date and locally-relevant information, lack of finance and technology, and institutional constraints.

Stepping up adaptation efforts is becoming crucial for the global development agenda. Two multi-country programmes mainly funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) exemplify this commitment to help vulnerable populations cope with the impacts of climate change and build more resilient livelihoods: the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED, £140 million implemented across 13 countries) and the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP, US$305 million with operations covering 41 countries).

ASAP is the flagship resilience programme of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), whereas the BRACED consortium is led by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). The two organisations have crossed paths multiple times. From participation in the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (CoP) Development and Climate (D&C) days to when ODI carried out the mid-term review of the ASAP programme, there have been many opportunities for cross learning.

To ensure that best practices are being incorporated, BRACED and ASAP organised a joint workshop in Bamako, where key representatives from local projects funded under the two programmes convened to share insights and learn from each other. Mali is one of the landlocked Sahelian countries hardest hit by climate change and, thus, a strategic focus for the operations of both programmes.

ASAP and BRACED follow different modalities for local programme implementation. In Mali, IFAD’s loan project Fostering Agricultural Productivity Project (PAPAM) is focused on irrigation, water management and sustainable land management with the aim of increasing the yield per hectare. ASAP financing complements PAPAM and provides smallholder farmers with complementary adaptation technologies and services.

BRACED is implemented through four local NGO partners: the Near East Foundation with the Decentralising Climate Funds project Blumont/International Relief & Development (IRD) with the WYL project (Wati Yelema Labenw - Bambara for ‘action against climate change’), the Catholic Relief Services with the Scaling-Up Resilience for One Million people (SUR1M) project, and the Acting for Life Consortium with the Livestock Mobility project including a number of local NGOs such as TASSAGHT and ICD (Initiatives, Counselling, Development).

PAPAM is being implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, which guarantees direct policy impact at the national level. BRACED operations have wider geographical coverage by cooperating with various local actors based across the country from North to South.

The similarities between BRACED and ASAP are tenfold and multiple areas of common interest and similar approaches were identified during the exchange workshop. Chief among these commonalities were climate information services, adaptation technology, institutional setup, and inclusive strategies for adaptation - all prominent issues in the IPCC report.

Knowledge is power – Spreading climate information

PAPAM supported the creation of local meteorological assistance groups to increase the ability of smallholder farmers to collect, analyse, and disseminate climate information. A partnership with Mali Météo was promoted which gave access to seasonal weather forecasts. Other services included distribution of rain gauges, training of farmers in charge of rain data collection and the training of local radio commentators on the correct broadcasting of climate information.

Under BRACED, the SUR1M project adopted a similar approach by cooperating with government stakeholders to ensure continued radio messaging on key topics including climate information and natural resource management. The WYL project sourced local geographical climate information from a private company and supported communities to use two-day weather forecasts in their decision-making and planning. In spite of its cost, the service was well appreciated, the households’ uptake was large, and beneficiaries continued to demand it. Within the Livestock Mobility project, TASSAGHT organised field data collection to provide pastoralists with access to information gathered on the ground and derived from geo-satellites in order to help them in deciding where to move.

Adapting to the unavoidable
In both programmes adaptation technologies are vital and are being used to improve local livelihoods. For instance, in the WYL project, through a partnership between Blumont/IRD and ICRISAT (the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), the use of weather information was integrated with the promotion of climate-smart practices and technologies for households pursuing farming and animal husbandry.

PAPAM strongly focuses on the promotion of renewable energy. It piloted the installation and use of various types of biogas digesters to reduce women’s workload and pressure on forests. The project identified several ways to improve the technology, i.e. coupling bio-digesters with latrines, piloting plant-based biomass, improving slurry storage to preserve its fertilizing properties, etc. The benefits included a reduction in respiratory problems (a healthier kitchen environment, since the combustion of biogas, unlike firewood, does not produce smoke/fumes), reduced carbon emissions, availability of nitrogen-enriched fertilisers and, hence, yield increases. On average, women reported spending 58 per cent less time on household activities such as wood-gathering and meal preparation. Biogas development also created jobs and opportunities for engagement by the private sector through the training of artisans for the construction and maintenance of bio-digesters and photovoltaic kits.

Inclusive strategies
The Livestock Mobility project provides a clear example of the importance of securing access to markets and resources for every household. In spite of the difficulties in reaching mobile pastoral communities spread across the remote and often insecure areas of the North, it helped to prevent conflicts between farmers and (agro-)pastoralists by ensuring that transhumant routes were permanently earmarked for the mobility of livestock.

Along the same lines, PAPAM supported the creation and operation of land commissions which grouped different commune stakeholders in order to regulate disputes over access to land. An offshoot of this was that it was able to secure access to land in favour of small-scale producers, especially women.

Similarly, the SUR1M project supported women and women associations in acquiring better knowledge of land policies, acquisition processes, and titling mechanisms. It also worked on improving access to financial services for women through the creation of local savings and credit associations– an approach followed by the WYL project as well. WYL also helped in increasing women’s income generating activities and earnings by training women on improved practices for cultivating, drying, processing, and marketing sesame and fonio (a local edible grain similar to quinoa).

All the participants found the exchange very enriching and IFAD and ODI are looking at opportunities to replicate this experience in other countries where both ASAP and BRACED have programmes.

by Aïnina Aïdara and Marzia Perilli

On 11-12 October 2018, the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN) held its second Annual Plenary Meeting and a workshop on 'Business Models for the Delivery of Technical Assistance Complementing Finance for Smallholders and Agri-SMEs' at IFAD headquarters. The events brought together about 60 SAFIN partners and guest speakers from a diverse set of communities in the agri-finance and agri-SME development ecosystems from Africa, Asia, North and Central America, and Europe.

The event kicked off with the partners' plenary meeting, which was designed as a space for the SAFIN community to reflect upon its path and for partners to better know each other, share perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of the network, and discuss plans for 2019-2020. One key objective of the session, which was led by SAFIN's Senior Coordinator Bettina Prato, was to cultivate trust and mutual understanding among partners, as a key precondition for an effective network, and as the ground on which partners can stand to work towards their shared vision of a more effective and inclusive ecosystem for agri-SME finance and investment. Partners confirmed their commitment and engagement particularly under network activities related to blended finance, aligning investments at the country level around the SAFIN investment prospectuses, and knowledge sharing. Many good ideas were generated and shared about activities that the network may put on its agenda for next year. Many suggestions were also made about how to strengthen communication flows and outreach to some key stakeholder groups (e.g. commercial banks and farmers organizations). Partners also flagged the importance of transactional space to share and learn about their respective projects and to explore collaborations and co-investment opportunities.

The event continued with a workshop featuring a variety of interactive sessions including panels, pop-up presentations and two "clinics." The three panels delved into the pluses and minuses and the specific design and implementation challenges of different models of delivery of TA –notably technical assistance facilities, value chain-embedded and cooperative-based TA. They also addressed the challenges of TA market development and the role of development finance in that context. Some proposals for follow up by the network were formulated, for instance around benchmarking work on specific models of delivery and around country-level mapping of TA providers, perhaps complemented by a validation system vetted by SAFIN partners.

During the pop-up session, five new initiatives or products under development in different institutions were presented in rotation to small groups of participants. The purpose of this was to elicit questions and suggestions for improvement, as well as to stimulate the identification of possible partnerships for the implementation, replication or scaling up of specific initiatives. The pop-up presentations covered the following:

The East African Farmers Federation's (EAFF) Scaling-Up Rural Youth Access to Inclusive Financial Services for Entrepreneurship and Employment, an IFAD-supported project led by EAFF in East Africa to support young farmers' groups to develop viable enterprises and access finance to invest in these.
The Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) Management Company's Agriculture Financing Initiative (AgriFI), a facility that co-invests with European DFIs by taking up the higher risk shares in investments aligned with ESG reporting indicators.
Rabobank India's Blended Finance Risk Mitigation Products, three recent products focused on risk sharing, through which Rabobank India has managed to engage the commercial banking sector in India to expand its work in agriculture (including with farmers' organizations).
The MIX and SCOPEinsight's Data portal to increase visibility and mobilize finance to the missing middle (concept note stage).
IFAD's Agricultural Business Capital (ABC) Fund, an impact investment fund for smallholder farmers and rural small and medium-sized enterprises.

Finally, two "clinic" sessions were held around two funds targeting agri-SMEs and agricultural finance providers serving smallholders, both of them currently under development or about to be launched. The purpose was to tap the expertise of partners and other participants to strengthen elements of the design and implementation strategies of the funds. These are the Huruma Fund of Gawa Capital - a 100 million EUR fund targeting a combination of financial institutions and agri-SMEs in Latin America, and secondarily Asia and Africa, and the Food Security Fund of AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited and partners, with particular focus on Nigeria.

Like the pop up sessions and the partners' plenary, the clinics effectively underlined the great potential for "transactional" value generation that exists within the network, as partners and other participants put on the table a tremendous aggregate amount of knowledge as well as interest and enthusiasm around these new initiatives, and many expressed the desire to stay engaged and to provide further support. More generally, there was a pervasive sense of "critical mass" during the two days of the meetings, which reflects a stage of significant advancement of the network from its early conceptualization a year and a half ago. The challenge in the coming months will be to expand on the areas of greatest value to partners and to continue to balance transactional and ecosystem-changing value, and the interplay between global and country-driven dimensions of network action.

Expertos y autoridades de tres países africanos y tres países latinoamericanos han pasado una semana en Bolivia visitando emprendimientos rurales que están gestionando riesgos medioambientales para adaptarse de manera exitosa cambio climático.

Por Arnoud Hameleers, Gerente del Programa de País del FIDA en Bolivia.

El Programa de Inclusión Económica para Familias y Comunidades Rurales (ACCESOS), un proyecto dependiente del Ministerio de Desarrollo Rural y Tierras, el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA) y la Corporación PROCASUR llevaron a cabo durante la última semana la “Ruta de aprendizaje de Estrategias y herramientas de adaptación al cambio climático para el desarrollo rural”.

Esta iniciativa ha permitido a las personas participantes –una veintena provenientes de seis países: del continente africano, Ruanda, Malawi y Mozambique; de Sudamérica, Chile, Perú y Brasil- conocer diferentes experiencias de gestión de riesgos medioambientales y adaptación al cambio climático realizadas en el país mediante la ejecución de diferentes iniciativas de desarrollo rural financiadas por el FIDA y ejecutadas por el Gobierno boliviano a través del citado programa ACCESOS.

“La iniciativa de la Ruta de aprendizaje ha sido realizada en Bolivia por los avances logrados en experiencias y metodologías de adaptación al cambio climático en este país, que aspiran a hacer de él un país resiliente y con un desarrollo rural sostenible” señaló en la jornada inaugural de la ruta José Antonio Carvajal, coordinador general de ACCESOS.

“En Bolivia, el programa ACCESOS ha tenido muy buenos resultados. Hemos conseguido recuperar tecnologías que tuvimos por muchas generaciones y que habíamos perdido. Esto ha permitido revitalizar la producción y transformación de alimentos en muchos lugares” mencionó el ministro de Desarrollo Rural y Tierras César Cocarico. “Es un esfuerzo importante el que estamos haciendo como entidades de gobierno de diferentes países para adentrarnos en los trabajos que debemos hacer para preservar la Madre Tierra”, añadió.

El recorrido de la ruta se inició en La Paz, para después trasladarse a Tarija y Chuquisaca. Los participantes visitaron tres municipios en la región del Valle de Cintis, en donde conocieron microproyectos apoyados por el programa ACCESOS. En Camargo, una iniciativa de construcción de reservorios de agua a través de la planificación territorial. En Villa Charcas, un proyecto de riego con un enfoque de resiliencia. En Villa Abecia, un interesante caso de adaptación al cambio climático en la comunidad Higuerayoc, donde se ha generado un emprendimiento piscícola a partir de una estrategia de dotación de agua para el riego, que articula un atractivo turístico y gastronómico que dinamiza la economía local.

“Las rutas de aprendizaje representan una manera muy eficiente de compartir conocimientos, experiencias y resultados concretos. Un modo absolutamente eficaz de promover la cooperación entre distintos países del Sur” señaló el representante del FIDA en Bolivia Arnoud Hameleers. Según datos de esta agencia de Naciones Unidas, el 65% de la alimentación en Bolivia proviene del pequeño productor. “El cambio climático puede tener efectos impredecibles de aumento de temperaturas o disminución de lluvias, poniendo en riesgo la seguridad alimentaria en nuestro país, por lo que es importante unir conocimientos ancestrales de los pueblos bolivianos, ciencia y experiencias de otros países para hacerle frente”.

Bryson Msisica, representante del Ministerio de Agricultura de Malawi señaló durante el trascurso de la ruta que África puede aprender mucho de Sudamérica: “Podemos aprender mucho sobre cómo adaptarnos al cambio climático cuidando la nutrición, economía y seguridad alimentaria de los pequeños productores. Estamos muy lejos en contextos pero tenemos problemas que pueden ser similares. Aprender juntos cómo solucionarlos nos acerca más”, aseguró.

El representante de la ONG Procasur Juan Moreno destacó que la Ruta cuenta con una metodología de aprendizaje basada en conocer de primera mano soluciones concretas a problemas concretos. “Para poder aprender sobre el terreno con los agricultores cuáles han sido las estrategias y herramientas resilientes al cambio climático que han dado mejores soluciones; cuáles han sido los problemas que han atravesado y como se han resuelto” menciona. “Bolivia es un laboratorio de soluciones que pueden replicarse en otros países”.

Cutting edge information, accurate data and state-of-the-art intelligence are essential to design high quality and impactful projects in smallholder agriculture. IFAD and a number of universities, research institutes and think tanks are joining efforts for improving evidence-based approaches on climate change adaptation in West and Central Africa.

Together IFAD and these institutions are setting up a long term partnership to improve the accessibility to best practices for research, technical and organizational innovations on climate change across agricultural and food systems in West and Central to support de-risked IFAD investments in the region.

This endeavour is part of a project funded by the second phase of IFAD's Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP II) which aims to address knowledge gaps in IFAD's planning and programming.

The initiative will enhance IFAD's evidence-informed Country Strategic Opportunity Programmes (COSOPs) and projects design while providing technical advisory support to climate change adaptation in West and Central Africa. This multi-partnership will improve IFAD's cooperation framework and future investments in countries with cutting edge knowledge, data and information on adaptation. This one stop shop will be a repository of relevant most up-to-date innovations, strategic studies/knowledge to inform future IFAD operations

To achieve this objective, IFAD has partnered with the University of Ibadan (UI) in Nigeria – one the best universities in Africa – having jointly organized a workshop on the topic at UI's campus, bringing together 20 delegates from 15 countries (Sudan, Niger, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Nigeria, and Italy) and different research and non-profit institutions.

During three days in September, universities, think tanks, agricultural engineering schools and business schools discussed the contents of regional project pipelines under IFAD11 and identified collaboration opportunities on knowledge for COSOPs, projects design and IFAD's Social, Environmental and Climate Assessment Procedures (SECAP).

Workgroups at the event's plenary sessions have been asked to make proposals on how to set up a long term strategic partnership with IFAD to address interconnected challenges for its project designs as well as implementation bottlenecks of approved projects regarding climate change and agriculture. Participants spoke about increasing expertise sharing to enhance IFAD’s evidence-informed initiatives during the design phase and provide technical advisory during the implementation phase in order to improve smallholder farmers' adaptation to climate change.

The main findings of the workshop and inputs from the different delegates were captured into a logical framework drafted before the end the workshop. IFAD is working to compile them into a three year proposal (2019-2021) to be shared soon with all participants for review. The final document will be submitted to IFAD Programme of Grants and Loans (PoLG) and ASAP II for funding.

See also

IFAD and the Lab launch new partnership to drive finance to African smallholder farmers combating climate change

By Everlyne Nairesiae

Rizki Rahmat/ILC

In September 2018, members of the International Land Coalition (ILC) and other stakeholders from grassroot organisations, activists, local and international NGOs, researchers, as well as multilateral organisations and government agencies from around the world converged in Bandung, Indonesia for the 2018 Global Land Forum (GLF). This year’s GLF was hosted by the Government of Indonesia under the theme United for Land Rights, Peace and Justice.

The Forum aims to advance understanding of the complex and dynamic political, economic, environmental and social link between land governance, food security, poverty and democracy. Locally GLF was timely because it provided a platform for the people and government of Indonesia to reflect on their Agrarian reforms and tenure rights for all, including indigenous people. Globally, the Forum advanced responsible land governance agenda as put forward by the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) and Agenda 2030.

The diversity of the delegates enriched discussions at the forum and affirmed the importance of global coordination, networking and multi-sectoral collaboration to achieve responsible land governance for peace, justice and sustainable development. Despite reported positive progress in addressing land governance issues globally by various ILC members, gaps in monitoring of land tenure and governance initiatives, communicating key outcomes in people’s lives and fostering best practice remains. This need resonates with the mandate of the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII). This is a global multi-stakeholders’ platform hosted and facilitated by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) at UN-Habitat, made up of over 50 partners working towards achieving global monitoring of land governance issues through comparable land indicators for comparable data by 2030.

Going Beyond the SDGs to Monitor Land Governance Issues

Inspired by the VGGT and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2, 5, 11, 15 and 16 which include key land targets land and governance of other natural resources, the ILC members and other stakeholders are challenged to do more to secure land tenure and natural resource rights for all; leaving no one behind to achieve the SDGs by 2030. At the heart of land and data communities is the aspiration for better coordination and strong mechanisms for generating authentic, regular and sex disaggregated land data and statistics. This goal is pursued through National Statistical Offices (NSOs) whose role is central to data collection, tracking progress and reporting on SDGs with CSOs, the private sector and other data contributing agencies well positioned to provide complementary data and monitoring support to track progress at local to global. This data is used to track and communicate progress and outcomes related to local and global land tenure and governance of natural resources.

Since 2012, GLII, has coordinated and facilitated efforts of the land and data communities in developing global indicators, data protocols, tools and knowledge products that set the foundation for monitoring land governance issues. The GLII community successfully developed a set of 15 globally comparable and nationally applicable land indicators for monitoring land governance issues. Through high level lobbying and influencing, some of these indicators including tenure security indicator 1.4.2 were included in SDG1. This is a major milestone considered to position the importance of securing tenure rights in achieving sustainable development globally. GLII indicators have since gained traction and integrated in various data initiatives including those of regional bodies like Monitoring and Evaluation in Africa under the Africa Land Policy Centre; CSOs generated data under the ILC Dashboard and the private sector like Property Rights Index (PRIndex) by Global Land Alliance.

Rizki Rahmat/ILC

There is no doubt that the global mechanism for monitoring SDGs led by National Statistical Organisations, complemented by other local, regional and global mechanism for monitoring land governance is set to transform quality and accessibility of land data and statistics for tracking progress on key outcomes related to land than ever before. Despite the significant success, for GLII, land data and statistics are not enough. There is a need to collate and compare land data and statistics from various sources such as governments, CSOs and the private sector for more nuances on land governance issues that will inform policy decisions at country level. This will allow for a deeper analysis of key trends, data triangulation to establish relationships between variables, profile gaps and areas of interventions that governments, CSOs and development agencies need to focus on. This is achievable through a facilitated process that converges land data and statistics for development of a regular global status report on land governance for policy makers and practitioners.

ILC Delegates Express Support for Development of Global Status Report on Land Governance

Consultation between members of the land and data communities on the value, structure and need for development of a global status report on land governance was held during the GLF session titled “Going Beyond Data to Develop a Global Status Report on Land Governance”. The session was organised by GLII and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) to further discuss the idea of developing a “Global Status Report on Land Governance”. One of the panellists, Everlyne Nairesiae, underscored the importance going beyond the norm to give real meaning and value to land data and statistics by developing a report that will benefit from government-generated land data related to the SDGs and which will be complemented by other data sources including CSOs and private sector.

The report is expected to track progress on land governance issues, show key trends, profile critical gaps and areas in need of more interventions, emerging issues and opportunities. Everlyne noted that “the UN Annual SDGs Progress Report is limited in content and does not offer the depth of analysis and scope required to address land governance issues (…). As land data and statistics are increasingly becoming available, a global status report is the way to go (…) going by the example of other global reports on poverty, food security and nutrition.’’

Other panelists affirmed the importance of developing this report through a collaborative and inclusive multi-stakeholder process. Malcom Childress of Global Land Alliance emphasised the relevance of the report and its direct link it to the PRIndex initiative that collects data on perception of tenure security through global polls; while Ward Anseeuw of ILC confirmed that the Dashboard initiative for people generated data will be a good data source for this report. All the panelists agreed that monitoring land in the SDGs and the requirement for countries to provide comparable data is an opportunity to access comparable data for consolidation and development of this global status report.

The discussion generated interest and various reactions from delegates. Those who contributed to the discussion supported the development of the global report with the following recommendations:

The report should be produced by a wide group of stakeholders (not just the custodians for land indicators in the SDGs to expand the data sources and contribution from key stakeholders).
It is important to recognize the need for producing such a report under the umbrella of the United Nations for credibility and legitimacy although the process must be inclusive. The content and scope of the report should be incremental based on available and authentic data from governments linked to the SDGs and other data sources such as CSOs and the private sector.
GLII-IFAD will keep the discussions going with the custodians, data agencies, the Global Donor Working Group on Land (GDWGL) and other stakeholders to deliberate on the structure, scope, mechanism and institutional framework for development of the report.

The ILC members are ready contribute to the report and committed to support the process that will see to the launch of the first Global Status Report on Land Governance at the GLF 2021. The conversation about the development of this important report continues.

Session Theme: Going Beyond Data to Develop a Global Status Report on Land Governance

Session Chair: Harold Liversage, Land Tenure Technical Advisor at IFAD

Panelists: Ward Anseeuw, Senior Technical Specialist for Knowledge, Learning and Innovation at ILC

Malcolm Childress, Executive Director of the Global Land Alliance

Everlyne Nairesiae, Coordinator of GLII at GLTN/UN-Habitat

The blog was originally published by GLTN

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Going Beyond Data to Develop a Global Status Report on Land Governance

Going Beyond the SDGs to Monitor Land Governance Issues

ILC Delegates Express Support for Development of Global Status Report on Land Governance