How to save Bangladesh?

An interview with Thomas Rath, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Bangladesh
Originally posted on New York Times Green blog

A woman prepares a fishing net for mending in Hamidpur, Bangladesh.
©IFAD/Alexandra Boulat

In just over a month, policy makers from around the world will meet in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The meeting has been called Rio+20, reflecting the two decades that have passed since a landmark conference on the environment and development was held in Rio in 1992. This time the main themes are energy, sustainable cities, food security, water shortages, the health of oceans, disaster readiness and assuring people a livelihood.

Bangladesh is a prime example of a vulnerable developing nation that faces formidable challenges in all these areas, and it will be directly affected by the decisions that are made — or not made — at the conference. Firm commitments have often been elusive on the international level.

We asked Thomas Rath, the country program manager for the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development project in Bangladesh, about the development obstacles the country faces, some of which are linked toclimate change and environmental degradation. Following are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity.

Q.

How would you describe Bangladesh’s agricultural picture?

A.

Bangladesh, bordering India, Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal, is in the subtropical zone, very wet and flat and dominated by agriculture. Three large rivers from the Himalayas flow through the country, all ending in the bay on the southern coast. It’s a beautiful, fertile tropical delta.

The New York Times

About 150 million people live here, and the population density is one of the highest in the world after places like Singapore and Hong Kong. That’s 1,200 people per square kilometer (about four-tenths of a square mile). By comparison, in Mongolia there are only three or four people per square kilometer.

This density means that many farmers have very small land plots on which they struggle to feed their families. About 35 percent of the population lives under the poverty line of $1 a day, and about 40 percent, or 60 million people, are completely dependent on agriculture. Many people are landless or have less than an acre or half an acre to live on. It makes you wonder what they are surviving on.

Rice is the principal crop and, for those with very little land, the only crop they grow. Forty percent of children are malnourished, either because they don’t get enough calories or because they can’t develop healthily only eating rice.

Q.

How is climate change affecting the land, people and economy?

A.

Bangladesh sits at the end of the cone of the Bay of Bengal. The country is infamous for natural disasters. Every year there are typhoons. The coastal zones routinely get washed away, and the farmland is destroyed: people lose animals, crops, everything they have. They are very exposed: most of the land is flat and just above sea level, every storm sweeps across the country without any obstacles, and tidal surges pound the coast.

Fishermen begin their work at dawn in Dhopadanga Boar, Bangladesh.
©IFAD/Alexandra Boulat

If you go further north, there is an area in the northeast that is essentially a large depression in the land. When the monsoon season starts, the water comes down from the mountains and floods the whole area. It fills up with water and takes months to drain. Vast areas are underwater half the time, so farmers can’t go into their fields or grow anything then; they have to rely on something else for most of the year.

These things have always happened in Bangladesh, but with climate change it is expected that these flash floods will occur more frequently, and rainfall will be more intense and erratic. Farmers are already trying to adapt to these changes by sowing their rice earlier and using varieties that mature more quickly so they can get the harvest in before the rains come and they are left with nothing to eat or sell.

In the coastal areas, storms are expected to come earlier and be more frequent and severe. In the last two decades, 500,000 people have been killed in storms, and we should expect that this will increase.

And then of course, the sea level will rise, and the ocean will come in over what dikes have been built. It is very likely that about 30 percent of land in Bangladesh will frequently be underwater and the soil will be saturated with salt and useless. Many, many people will lose their farmland, crops and livestock and homes and become climate change refugees. Where do these people go then, when there is already not enough land in the country?

Q.

What are your thoughts on Rio as the conference approaches? Are you hopeful? Cynical?

A.

I am not cynical — there are too many cynics already, and how does that help?

But I do think it’s important that people act instead of just talking.
It’s really sad that there are still politicians and governments out there who don’t believe that climate change is fact. It’s very sad. I don’t know what their motivations are, but they should come to Bangladesh and meet the people who won’t have homes or land or any way of supporting their families.

“Many, many people will lose their farmland, crops and livestock and homes and become climate change refugees. Where do these people go then?”

— Thomas Rath

If we don’t do anything, then the problem will come to us: these won’t be problems in our backyard, we will have climate refugees in our front yard, knocking on our door.

These people have a right to live, just as we who by chance were lucky enough to be born in comfortable North America and Europe have the right to live.

Rio was and is a fantastic thing, but we have no time to waste.

The planet cannot afford for us to continue the mistakes we made during industrialization: rooting our economy in fossil energy and polluting the atmosphere as much as possible. We need to help one another.

Q.

What are the biggest challenges for Bangladesh?

A.

It’s not enough for us to help people become better farmers; we need to help transition the economy to something that does not depend on the availability of land. I know farmers who grow rice before the monsoon season and then, when the rains come, they stock their flooded fields with fish fingerlings and crabs and sell these in Dhaka. It is a strange sort of crop rotation, but it works in some areas.

Agriculture will still be a very important sector in Bangladesh — it has to be, given so much food insecurity. But food insecurity can only be tackled by sufficient food production, and expanding agriculture — livestock, rice cultivation — contributes to climate change, which in turn leads to greater food insecurity through flooding, etc.

We need to find ways to help countries all over Asia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while at the same time producing enough food to feed their people.

From pastoralists to terminal market: journey along the livestock value chain. Kenya Learning Route case 2.

by Silvia Sperandini and Elaine Reinke

“If you want to understand the livestock value chain, just follow the cow!”, is the first thing that the “Ruteros” learned once we arrived in Kenya. By now, following the cow, we have reached the terminal market of Kiseria, south-eastern Kenya, where the Keekenyokie slaughterhouse is located and where the livestock value chain ends and the meat value chain starts.

During this journey we met various actors of the livestock chain from pastoralists and agro-pastoralists at village level (producers) to different types of traders which include: primary itinerant traders who move cattle from producers to primary markets, middle level traders who sell cattle into secondary and terminal markets, middlemen who operate as brokers, mainly at the market, taking animals from producers, itinerant traders and middle level traders, and negotiating with buyers and transporters.

Interacting with them we learned the tips and tricks of grading systems and pricing mechanisms but also understood that all these actors along the chain face a variety of challenges. Frequent drought periods cause market fluctuation and massive depreciation of stock. High incidences of livestock diseases and pests affect production as well as trading due to frequent quarantine. Poor market infrastructure and absence of organized facilities (feeding, water, vet services, troughs etc.) put animals and humans at risk. Limited capital and scarce access to credit affecting the production as well as trading. Limited livestock transportation mechanisms and continued moving on the hoof to markets affects quality of stock.

Kiseria is the most vibrant pastoralist-managed livestock market in Kenya and the Keekonyokie slaughterhouse is more than an abattoir. It is the gateway to the urban market and offers business opportunities to the pastoral Maasai communities located in southern Kenya and Tanzania. It is an innovative business enterprise that was established by Maasai pastoralist groups controlling the slaughterhouse management to the benefit of their communities.

The most innovative aspect of the business was found to be the IFAD-supported biogas plant to convert slaughterhouse waste into energy and bio fertilizer, reducing the environmental impact linked to its business activity. The company uses the biogas produced to generate electrical power for the meat cold room, processing equipment and heating water for cleaning the abattoir.

The Keekenyokie community has strong ambitions for the future of their slaughterhouse. Apart from expanding the facilities for slaughter, meat processing and biogas generation and storage, the business seeks to improve its hygiene and sanitation in order to meet quality standards for the export market. Packaging meat products with the Keekenyokie branding and selling them directly to supermarkets will further require additional capital to purchase machinery and training on using technical facilities. But the main innovation they would like to introduce is packaging and selling biogas to rural and peri-urban consumers.

The “Ruteros” were particularly impressed with the initiative and business-orientation of the Keekenyokie community, the effective integration of the value chain, as well as the biogas innovation, and gave a wealth of constructive recommendations to their hosts.

What's mine is yours: household dynamics and women's wages

What’s mine is yours: household dynamics and women’s wages

International Women’s Day 2012

“As many as a third of married women in Malawi and a fifth of married women in India are not involved in spending decisions, even about their own income.” [1]

I read that sentence twice to be sure I hadn’t misunderstood it, and then carried on:

“Even in an upper-middle-income country like Turkey, more than a quarter of married women in the lowest income quantile lack control over their earned income.”

©IFAD/Asad Zaidi

Women’s “lack of control” over the money that they themselves bring home shows the deep-seated nature of gender inequality. If we don’t fight that inequality, then enabling women to increase their incomes may only put more money in the pockets of their husbands. 

Similarly, helping them to increase their productivity may put more food on the market – but it may not change the women farmers’ quality of life.

That’s why IFAD’s work to empower women is so crucial to everything that we do. Without that empowerment, inequality will continue to prevent the benefits of economic growth and social development reaching poor rural women.

That in turn hampers development – leaving deep pockets of deprivation and desperation that are handed on from generation to generation.

Even more shocking and revealing are statistics on what women think about domestic violence:

“On average, 29 percent of women in countries with data concurred that wife beating was justified for arguing with the husband, 25 percent for refusing to have sex, and 21 percent for burning food.”[2]

Those are just averages. The country-specific figures are truly shocking – with over 80 per cent of women in one east African nation saying that wife-beating is justified.

Let’s walk the gender talk

There’s a lot of apparent consensus today at the international level that levelling the playing field for women makes economic sense. IFAD President Nwanze is a vocal champion of women’s rights. And Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti went off-script at our recent Governing Council meeting to stress the importance of women’s role and their rights.

Yet empowerment is difficult to do, and it’s difficult to measure. For that reason, one of our commitments to our Members under IFAD9 is to improve the indicators that measure impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment, so that we can better analyse what works and what doesn’t for poor rural women. At the same time, we are committed to promoting expanded economic opportunities for women.

When she visited IFAD last year, UN Women Director Michele Bachelet touched on the importance of gender champions and quotas. International Women’s Day is a good occasion for us to remember her words.

An organization that works to empower poor rural women must have powerful women within it. And it must have powerful men and women who are prepared to stand up and champion women’s rights.

Let’s celebrate International Women’s Day at IFAD with a renewed commitment to fight gender inequality on our doorstep and in the countries where we work.

---

[1]World Bank: World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, p. 20.

[2]WDR 2012: p. 83.

Creating a “new rural reality” for young entrepreneurs to succeed

By Monica Romano

The young women and men who gathered at IFAD on Saturday for the Youth Session not only have clear ideas, but do not seem discouraged by the challenges and constraints they are fully aware of and that have even been already experiencing themselves. Coming as representatives and leaders of farmer organizations or invited as participants in IFAD-supported programmes, they showed enthusiasm and commitment to making FAFO somewhat different, maybe more special, compared to the past. Simply by having their voice being heard for the first time in such an important dialogue and partnership platform. Perhaps also knowing that the youth do not have that many opportunities to speak with the world of the adults, present their views and proposals, and even make recommendations, especially in the international arena and in front of policy makers. What impressed me although it did not come as a surprise was the strong awareness and sense of responsibility the young participants demonstrated in all their interventions and contributions, in several ways. Sometimes, I perceived they were feeling to be like “elected”, in the positive sense. I mean, they understood that they were representing the youth community as a whole, and therefore that they had to take advantage of this unique opportunity, avoiding to make mistakes and making sure they did not miss anything they would regret afterwards…

While putting on the table a number of challenges the rural youth face – limited decision-making, experiences and leadership skills, self-confidence but also trust from the older generations; and also those that may be common to their parents, such as limited access to land, credit, training and market – the young participants were also proud of highlighting their many, specific strengths: creativity, flexibility and energy, just to mention a few. One of the biggest challenges they debated upon was the lack of interest on the part of young generations in engaging in agriculture: “there is no pride in being farmers” - stated someone – and “one may even not be able to find a wife if he is a farmer”, echoed another participant. It was made clear that there is need to raise the profile of agriculture, starting early on, from the school. This may be challenging, if we consider that young generations have been seeing their parents struggling in agriculture. Therefore, in order for channelling the message of farming and farmers as good, young people also need to see business opportunities in agriculture, need to become entrepreneurs engaging in a “profession”. This was the world used by the IFAD President, who joint the unusual gathering to listen to the youth’s recommendations.

This final stage of the day was really when the youth proved once again to understand what they want and wish for as well as their ability to articulate their demands not without coming up with concrete proposals. It was unanimously recognized the need for FOs to become ‘youth-sensitive’, not only in terms of representation but also in effective decision-making of young members. Young people also called for youth-focused agricultural development projects and programmes and for participating in project design, implementation, and M&E. In this regard, IFAD-supported projects should systematically include rural young women and men as a target group, with specific support being provided and monitored. Young farmers also expressed the need to enhance their skills and showed they are aware of alternative approaches to the conventional “in-door/face-to-face training”: liaising with students in agricultural institutions or getting exposed to on-the-job experience by working with a successful farmer entrepreneur. Being trained and guided was felt as key also in addressing the issue of young people’s limited access to credit, which should be combined with advice for the business activity to be feasible and sustainable. While recognizing the deep value of indigenous and traditional knowledge, young people indicated that they aim at transforming agriculture through innovation: using media and ICTs and exploring for new opportunities (such as niche markets and agro-turism). All this and much more were the young women and men discussing and recommending to IFAD, farmers’ organizations and their Governments – to create a new rural reality in which to grow as successful entrepreneurs.

#IFADGC - Lao Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Forestry calls for better cooperation among Governments and Development Partners to support Smallholder

In occasion of the 35th IFAD Governing Council in Rome on 23 February 2012, Dr Phouang Parisak Pravongviengkham, Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the Lao PDR, has emphasized clearly that there is a true need for Governments and development partners to cooperate and collaborate in a more coordinated manner and to learn the lessons of past failures and challenges to support the development of more viable production systems for smallholder farmers.
Investing in farmers means to provide them with the needed policy and legal environment, assist them with the means to build a viable and resilient economy, helping connecting them to markets, making sure they have secure land tenure and access to fair contracts and information, and improving the reach of services for health, education and extension. It also means making sure they have access to credit and that local businesses are supported which can buy their products or provide them back with inputs and services.

The Government of Lao PDR has actively engaged itself in promoting strong smallholders’ groups with the creation of different forms and levels of farmers’ organizations which we believe would serve as key institutions to realize national policies to engage in a more viable and environmentally friendly agricultural systems’ practice.

The Vice-Minister has expressed his special thanks to IFAD for the continued active role in the Lao PDR in helping his country to eradicating poverty. He has also added that Lao PDR will continue with its pledge to the 9th Replenishment as in the past. He considers IFAD as a good model in assisting his country to forge stronger intra- and inter-sectoral and also cross-border type of technical and economic cooperation. This has immediate positive impact to reducing poverty along the border areas, home of most poor in the region.

#FAFO12 – Strengthening Farmer Organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa in a systematic and sustainably way can make the difference

Farmer organizations (FOs) in Africa play a key role to promote new opportunities to maximize their gains in lucrative agricultural value chains. However, these prospects depend on their ability to identify emerging opportunities and to meet the greater competitive requirements.

Mr Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA, has let the discussion on how to develop opportunities to work with and to strengthen Farmers’ Organisations in order to provide farmers with better access to production inputs and better opportunities to sell their produce. The representatives of regional networks of farmers organisations, Mr Fadel Ndiame (FOSCA), Mr I. Sunga (SACAU), and Mr John Mutunga (KENFAP Kenya) have presented their strategies to support these organisations.

The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) works to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers. AGRA aims to ensure that smallholders have what they need to succeed: good seeds and healthy soils; access to markets, information, innovative financing, storage and transport; and policies that provide them with comprehensive support.

The Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA), recently established by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Rockefeller Foundation, seeks to develop the managerial, organizational and technical capacity of FOs by linking them with service providers that focus on demand-driven and income-enhancing services.

The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) strategic pillars are advocacy on regional, continental and global matters impacting agriculture, capacity strengthening of farmers’ organisations, and provision of agriculture-related information to members and stakeholders. A systematic and structured approach to work with partners such as Governments as well as the private sector helps farmers to optimize their production capital and marketing and can substantially improve their incomes. Access to market information is essential.

The Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers (KENFAP) is the umbrella farmers’ federation representing interests of 1.8 million farm families and the legitimate farmers’ voice in Kenya. In partnership with AGRA, the federation provides business development training as well as data on yields of crops over years in a number of regions in order to help farmers to choose the right value chains to improve their income.

AGRA is also linking up to other regional networks of farmers’ organisation such as ROPPA and PROPAC. International partners such as WFP can provide skills and knowledge on logistics to bring the farmers’ produce to lucrative markets. The WFP Purchase the Progress (P4P) initiative, for example, buys stable food from also from developing countries. In 2010, WFP bought US$1.25 billion worth of food – more than 80 percent of this in developing countries.

Farmers are private sector players and able to increase their profit through services provided by FO. These services must be provided in a strategic and systematic way to ensure stability for the members as well as good quality of outputs and an increased bargaining power on markets for the members.

Full house at #ifadgc side event: Investing in green agriculture, and the role of diaspora

by Daniela Cuneo and Michelle Tang


More investments in agriculture are needed to feed a growing population. Governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector are often mentioned as key players, but they are not the only ones. What about the diaspora? Have you ever thought of the tremendous potential of diaspora investments in agriculture? Almost 215 million people live outside their countries, but despite the distance, they have an impact on development back home. Through their hard work and individual sacrifices, the migrants of the world save money and send it to their families living in the countries they had to leave. And the amount of money that they remit to their countries is impressive!

 IFAD estimated that migrant workers would be able to send home well over US$350 billion in 2011, according to The FFR Brief: Five Years of the Financing Facility for Remittances. It’s a huge amount that could make a difference if invested in agriculture. But how can diaspora investments be mobilized in agricultural activities of these migrants’ communities of origin? Why should migrants be interested in investing in agriculture? Since investments must be profitable, how can migrants be convinced that investing in agriculture is remunerative?

These were the challenging questions debated during one of yesterday’s regional events at the 35th session of IFAD’s Governing Council. Chaired by Pedro De Vasconcelos, the event was organized by the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) in IFAD’s Policy and Technical Advisory Division. In addition to Mr. De Vasconcelos, FFR’s Programme Coordinator, the remarkable panellists at the event included H.E. Ambassador Ibrahim Hagi Abdulkadir, Permanent Representative of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to FAO and IFAD; H.E. Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr., Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Philippines to FAO, WFP and IFAD; Estrella Mai Dizon-Anonuevo, Executive Director of the Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiatives Inc.; Fatumo Farah, Director of the Himilo Relief and Development Association; and Tawfiq El-Zabri and Rose Thompson-Coon, both of IFAD.

The experience shared by Ms. Dizon-Anonuevo shows that diaspora communities can be engaged in investing in agriculture. As she pointed out, financial education is of utmost importance, because migrants are not always aware of their saving capacity. Once they are aware of their potential to make investments, they can and do invest in agriculture.

FFR’s experience has shown that investing in agriculture can generate both economic and social returns for people in the diaspora. IFAD, thanks to its expertise, can contribute to identifying profitable and sustainable initiatives for them to support.
Read more Financing facility for remittances  The FFR Brief Five years of the Financing Facility for Remittances 

Agriculture: Can we make it more sustainable…and create a sea of change amongst farmers?

by Willem Bettink

This morning I joined a thematic session of the Farmers' Forum at IFAD. It discussed the merits of sustainable agriculture and looked for practises that can/should be scaled- up. Farmer organizations have no problem in embracing sustainable agriculture, but as one participant said "for a farmer to take- up/follow these practices, what matters are the benefits –an increase in income.  They are far less convinced to do so if they benefit climate change."

Segments of the discussion focussed on good practices that promote sharing of know how and transfer of practices and technologies. Many examples were given of peer-to-peer mechanism such as farmer field schools; all agree that this is the way to go. A farmer-to farmer approach implemented successfully by WFO in Zambia is now being spread to other African countries. Notwithstanding these good approaches it id felt that much more can and needs be done: IFAD should increase its support for capacity building of technicians and famers through its investment programmes in the countries where it operates.

From training and technology the discussion moved on to look into the benefits of organic agriculture. Examples were shared by IFOAM about the impact organic agriculture can have on productivity – up to 100% improvement in yields by integrating sustainable practices into their farming. Can we scale these practices up and spread them across countries?

Farmer organizations expressed the need to be more involved early on in consultation processes between IFAD and governments. With all the good practices that are available there is often not a good enabling policy framework that promotes and incentivises sustainable agriculture amongst small farmers.
I came away of this session with a mixed feeling; there are sustainable agricultural practices that have proven to work and benefit famer s; we do not hear (know…) of success of transformational levels in agriculture in any particular country. Thus “What is it that we are not doing right to achieve more strategic and sea changing results?”….hopefully the panels over the coming days can help me out ….

FAFO12 – Farmers’ Organisations are the backbone for a more efficient and productive agriculture in Western and Central Africa

Representatives from networks of farmers’ organisations (ROPPA, PROPAC) have pointed out the need for a systematic approach to ensure better capacity building particularly in terms of technical assistance, strengthening of young farmers, and better communication among farmers’ organisations during the Parallel regional working group sessions for the Western and Central Africa region.

Interesting presentations from Guinea and the Central African Republic have shown that IFAD involves farmers’ organisations in their country strategic opportunities programmes (COSOP), programme design, implementation and evaluation as part of the country programme management teams. However, improvements are still necessary particularly with regard to the monitoring and evaluation of programme interventions, communication among farmers’ organisation and project management across the countries as well as technical assistance.

It has been emphasised during the discussion that farmers’ organisation need to be involved in the determination of agricultural policies at local, national and regional level.

Regional cooperation remains a challenge and requires improvement. A better coordination and structuring of farmers’ organisations is needed to increase the efficiency and better opportunities of smallholder farmers across countries and regions.

#IFAD President shares his expectations of #ifadgc

We're 72 hours away from #ifadgc. There is a lot of buzz and excitement in the building. Over the weekend 30 young people came together to discuss the opportunities and challenges of agriculture and what it takes to make agriculture a profitable business.

Tomorrow, the Fourth global meeting of the Farmers' Forum will kick off. And on Wednesday our building will host world leaders, prominent guests, global movers and shakers.

As part of our "back story" and interview series, we had the opportunity to have a conversation with IFAD President and ask him what are his expectations for this session of #ifadgc.

In this interview, the President shared his excitement about having a first class international meeting  focusing on the hot topic of climate change  with renown panelists and prominent guests. He also mentioned he is looking forward to this event being an open one thanks to social media and webcasting.

You can imagine the smile on my face, when the President mentioned that #ifadgc is almost like what we experienced last September with the Share Fair! (The spirit of #sfrome is alive and kicking!)

The President, one of our best social media advocates, is looking forward to an interesting exchange of ideas and interaction on social media. Have a look at how, yesterday during the youth in agriculture session, he engaged in a conversation with WFP's Executive Director, Josette Sheeran.

This is your chance to interact with the renown panelists and guests. Send us your questions for Bill Gates and the other panellists. Join us in making #ifadgc a memorable event!

Help us show the world and the skeptics the power and potential of social media! We count on YOU and look forward to having an engaging and compelling conversation.

Getting ready for what promises to be an exciting #ifadgc

In our #ifadgc back story series Andreina and Paolo  talked about the evolution of IFAD Governing Council over time.

But what are these changes? We asked James Heer of the Communications division to walk us through the changes and transformations of #ifadgc.



We've tried our best to make #ifadgc an exciting event. Now we need YOU to take part in this  interactive event. As you know, this event has a strong social media component. Social reporters will keep the outside world informed through blogs, tweets, posting interviews and pictures on the following IFAD social media channels.

• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ ifadnews 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IFAD
• Blog: http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/ 
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/IFADTV 
• BlipTV: http://ifad.blip.tv 
• Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/ifad 

To stimulate the conversation, live tweets will be displayed on the Twitter wall in the Plenary Hall, in the meeting rooms and in the atrium.

The virtual audience - YOU - can follow the proceedings and interact with the prominent guests such as Bill Gates (@billgates) and panellists on the above social media channels and via webcasting.

Please send us your questions and rest assured that the social reporters will make sure these are put forward!! And follow the event via webcasting.

Check out the #ifadgc programme for more information.

How will the member states receive and respond to the new format of #ifadgc

As we are gearing up for #ifadgc, we are running back stories on the "GC making" and introduce you to some of our colleagues. Earlier this week we introduced to you Andreina Mauro who shared the story of how the format and content IFAD Governing Councils have evolved over time.

This afternoon we met with Paolo Ciocca, Secretary of IFAD. As the responsible person for the overall "deroulement" of the Governing Council he talked to us about how he thinks the member states will be receiving and responding to the new Governing Council format.



In the coming days, you will hear about some of the improvements and also hear what are the expectations of IFAD President. Watch this space and follow #ifadgc

Getting up close and personal with #ifadgc social reporters

The clock is ticking. Six days to go to #ifadgc and the social reporters who are your eyes and ears are already at work.

Irshad Khan (@Khantabile) our resident photographer has been keeping you abreast of the construction of the tent. Daniela Cuneo (@dnlcuneo), Beate Stalsett (@beatews), Tim Ledwith (@timledwith), Sundeep Vaid (@sundeepvaid) are drumming up interest on Twitter.

Christiane

Christiane Kuhn, one of our great social media champions has been blogging about the Farmers' Forum and the high-level panels. She has adopted blogging as a way to share knowledge and keep others abreast of what she is up to. She is one of those unique people who embraces change with open arms and has contributed to transforming IFAD. Thanks to her pioneer work, her division has embraced knowledge sharing methods and she herself is now a great resource and a wonderful facilitator.

Over the course of next week, she will keep YOU, the virtual audience, informed through blogposts and via Twitter (@ChristianeKuhn).

Bob

Bob Baber joined the social reporting team last year. At first he was intrigued and a bit puzzled by Twitter. Through out the course of the year, he appreciated more and more the power and potential of conveying and communicating with 140 characters. I was so pleased to see he finally signed up on Twitter to get his own personal account (@bobNrome). He has started tweeting and will be tweeting live from a number of sessions.

Monica

Monica Romano  is one who enjoys coming out of her comfort zone and try new things. Used to writing reports and research papers, she is looking forward to blog from some key sessions. She will be covering  Minister Riccardi's keynote address. I guess the next step for Monica would be to join  the twittersphere. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.

Theveteran social reporters - Maria Elena Mangiafico,  Silvia Sperandini, Willem Bettink, Christian Assogba, David Paqui, Rima Alcadi, Jeff Brez, Sabine Pallas, Amedeo Paglione, Marcello Barnaba and Suyun Kim are coaching and mentoring the new members of the team - Vincent Sineau, Tomas Donnelly, Michelle Tang, Dimitra Stamatopoulos, Maria Luisa Saponaro, Ilaria Firman, Ines Cabello and Barbara Bellogini.


A number of social reporters from other sister UN agencies will join us to spread the word. Make sure you follow us via webcast, via Twitter (follow #ifadgc) and on Facebook. Send your questions for the various panellists and for Bill Gates.

Beate and Tim	Maria Elena	Silvia
Tomas	Dimitra	Willem
Barbara	Ilaria and Beate	Daniela
Christian	Sundeep

Steve Jobs legacy takes centre stage at #ifadgc

IFAD's social reporting team - Yes this is a DREAM TEAM!

The readers of this blog know that #ifadgc promises to be an interactive event thanks to a number of social media components and the wonderful social reporting team. This dream team will keep the outside world informed through blogs, tweets, posting interviews and pictures on the following IFAD social media channels.

This  blogpost is about two out-of-the-box, innovative and open-minded colleagues working in our IT division: Marcello Barnaba  (@vjt) and Amedeo Paglione (@amedeo).

Amedeo and Marcello at work!!

Marcello is the mind behind IFAD's cool webcasting application which beats Livestream. Last September, during the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair (#sfrome), he got a standing ovation for this very application. Since September, Marcello together with other colleagues have further refined the application. A number of our sister UN agencies consider this application as  a model to follow!!!

Amedeo is one of those folks who has vision. He is one of our best partners in crime when it comes to introducing innovative approaches. And he played a crucial and instrumental role in bringing the web2.0 revolution to IFAD.

Against all odds, Marcello and Amedeo introduced us to new ways of computing by adopting opensource paradigm. And guess what, they broke the tabu and introduced Mac computers. To say they are early adopters is an under statement. Their mantra is THREE apples - iPhone, iPad, Macbook-  a day, keep a doctor away.

On 23 February at 10 a.m. CET, Amedeo and Marcello will be two of the many social reporters who will be reporting live from Bill Gates centre stage and share with the rest of the world Mr Gates perspectives on the importance of agriculture and how sustainable productivity improvements can reduce poverty in developing countries.

We encourage YOU to follow us via webcast and  interact with the prominent guests and panellists on Twitter and Facebook using #ifadgc hashtag. 

Please send us your questions and comments for the various panellists, including Bill Gates.

Action plans and indicators - the road leading towards the end of the EU Food Facility in West Africa

The M&E workshop in preparation of the Final Report for the IFAD/EU Food Facility Programme in West Africa closed today.

Over the two days of the workshop, discussions and energy levels were at their best. It was a real pleasure to facilitate a workshop of this type with such a motivated group.

The day began by the participants giving feedback on the data collection tools developed the previous day. Each team was asked to review the questionnaire and personalise it to fit the needs of the country and context. The precisions brought to the document were mainly concerning some thinking about the partners and stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Food Facility. We also reviewed some semantics one again, as the questionnaire needs to be as clear as possible and a stand- alone document for someone who has not participated in the Ouagadougou workshop where the document was conceived.

The floor was then given to ICRISAT who presented their qualitative data collection questions to the rest of the group. The ICRISAT questions necessarily needed to differ from those of the country components as the institutional arrangements for the ICRISAT grant are somewhat different.

In any case, for both the country components and ICRISAT, the questions are centered around the following themes:

- Relevance of the programme and its similarities to other food security programmes

- Farmer assessment of the trainings/knowledge and support received

- Sustainability and probability of scaling up interventions/services once the project is closed

After agreeing on the questions, the participants with the guidance of the M&E Consultant, Task Manager and Head Agronomist for the EU FF, drafted an action plan including an implementation schedule going up until the discussion and endorsement of the final report to be submitted to the EU which will take place in Abidjan at the end of March 2012.

The first step in the action plan is to recruit a local consultant by component to alleviate project teams in the collection of the qualitative data set that was agreed upon for the EU FF.

At the end of the workshop, the particpats expressed their enthusiasm regarding the methodology and approach used to tackle the preparation of the final report to the EU Food Facility. All participants recognised the lack of qualitative data in many of the reports produced and appreciate the innovative approach towards producing a final report which truly incorporates impact.

As many pointed out though, it would have been very useful to have this workshop well before January 2012. The report writing team and participants are in any case motivated and ready to achieve objectives set forth during the workshop and translated into the challenging action plan.

Indicators, indicators! They really get people talking!

Participatory M&E workshop towards the preparation of the Final Report on the EU Food Facility in West Africa

by Adriane Del Torto

Today, we opened the two day workhop on M&E for the EU Food Facility. Present at the worksessions were the M&E specialits and Production specialits from Benin, Mali, Senegal, Ghana and ICRISAT. The meetings took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso at 'Eau Vive" a local NGO on 26 and 27 January 2012.

The objective of the meeting is to take stock of the efforts already made in M&E at the project level and to come up with an action plan to enable to collect qualitative data for the final report to the EU. The idea of a participatory M&E workshop came from some brainstorming between myself and some CPMs and the M&E consultant who is part of the team producing the final report as a solution to the lack of time for a mission visiting all components of the Food Facility in less than one month. 

The first day of the workshop was mainly to discuss results achieved and activities which did not take place and why. Then the group went through all of the EU indicators and discussed the relevance of many of those requested by the programme. In many cases, it was pointed out that baseline data was missing and that it would be difficult to report on all of the indicators in both the Logframe and the EU table. Each indicator was discussed and put into context to ensure proper understanding of the mechianisms.

Thi step was not planned on the original agenda, however, when considering the complexity of the programme, made of 7 distinct grant agreements, it became quite relevant to discuss requirements in order to have a somewhat harmonious report.

One we had agreed on the quantitative indicators, the rest of the day was dedicated to the qualitative ones. Adding a qualitative dimension to the final report of the EU FF was suggested to the EU during my last mission in Brussels in December 2011. My proposal was very much appreciated by the Programme Manager at the EU, who is very much looking forward to reading our results.

The lead M&E consultant and the group identified a series of themes and specific questions to ask programme stakeholders in order to collect the qualitative type data sought. These were accompanied by a list of information sources and data verification documents.

This first day, was a bit long, however, the output was quite positive. The debates between participants were lively and engaging and the colleagues present were strongly motivated by others' comments and questions. Let's  hope the ambiance at its best tomorrow as well.

Monitoring and Evaluating the IFAD Country Programme in Ghana

by Adriane Del Torto
 
Monitorting and Evaluation (M&E) is often considered one of the weakest links in development programmes. This is also true for IFAD. The IFAD Country Programme in Ghana took this as a challenge to overcome and started to invest in M&E about two years ago. After putting an emphasis on this theme for some time now, it was finally decided that the stakeholders involved in M&E should get together to share successes and address the gaps that still exist in M&E. From 12 to 14 December, a Ghana Country Programme Learning and Exchange Workshop on M&E took place at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

The workshop , organised by the IFAD Country Office in close collaboration with the West Africa Rural Foundation (WARF) brought together representatives from all IFAD projects, the Roots and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Project (RTIMP), Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), Rural Enterprises Programme( REP II), Rural Agriculture Finance Programme( RAFIP), Northern Region Poverty Reduction Project (NORPREP), WARF, the Government of Ghana - the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFIP) and the National Development and Planning Commission (NDPC) and partners IFPRI/SAKKSS, IPA, University of Ghana, Busylab , Esoko Mobile Technology, in  an innovative and interactive workshop.

The overall objective of this workshop is to identify how to use M&E to its fullest capacities. This means using the information generated by M&;E on implementation progress as a management tool rather than an institutional requirement. The workshop helped identify outcomes, output and impact of projects while emphasising on the qualitative side of M&E which is often excluded.

The basis of the discussion were the newfound focus on M&E for the Ghana Country Programme, the recommendations from the last country programme supervision mission (which took place mid November to mid December 2011) , the current national and project M&E structures, capitalisation efforts and finally research in M&E undertaken by our implementation partners.

After each project identified the key issues raised by the supervision mission, the partners making their presentations, the workshop allowed each project to review the M&E indicators making sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound) and ensure that these indicators are the right one to measure the outcomes and impacts desired by the project. It also allowed for the identification of research needs that will improve the M&E and impact reporting

The workshop highlighted the good results in M&E in the Ghana portfolio until now, and also how much these efforts contribute daily to the improvement of the systems and the improvements still needed. Most importantly, projects have shared and exchanged on how to improve their indicators and how to address the difficulties they are facing. Some recurrent themes are the following:

- need to improve data collection at the field level by involving beneficiaries and possibly digitalising

- need to strengthen grassroots institutions
- need for data control at all levels
- need for better data management and analysis
- need for commitment of all actors
- need to fill information gaps through studies
- need to identify, undersand and maintain linkages
- need for better gender mainstreaming
- need to identify further partnerships through good planning

Each project came up with an action plan during the workshop that will be mainstreamed into the AWPB to ensure its implementation.

Most importantly, a topic that came up on many occasions is the importance of good communication and the importance of making the time to exchange on the positive outcomes achieved. In order to ensure good communication there are several Fora in Ghana to ensure exchanges between stakeholders on themes of on microfinance, rural finance and value chains. Furthermore, WARF and FIDAFRIQUE are imporant partners in Ghana but also for IFAD projects in West and Central Africa: they help will ensure that the information to be shared is well articulated and diffused on the regional platform.


Outstanding challenges and considerations for the future are how to make adequate time to engage in proper M&E activities and to ensure that the lessons learned from good M&E fit into policy dialogue.