Ventana Rural - Atrévase a soñar

Desarrollo territorial, desigualdad y nuevas iniciativas verdes 
Por Josefina Stubbs 
En una misión reciente a México, en la que presentamos un informe maravillosamente detallado y revelador preparado por el Rimisp-Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural acerca de las brechas de desigualdad y territoriales en toda la región, conversé con un Senador del Estado mexicano de Oaxaca, Heladio Ramírez López, acerca de nuestros sueños y responsabilidades (e incluso de nuestras deficiencias) en lo relativo al empoderamiento rural, la inclusión social y la selección y el diálogo de políticas.

“El FIDA nos permite soñar,” me dijo el senador.

No podría estar más de acuerdo con él. Sin embargo, aunque necesitamos atrevernos a soñar, también necesitamos atrevernos a innovar, seleccionar e impulsar abordajes de desarrollo territorial que lleguen a los sectores más pobres de América Latina y a promover nuevas políticas e iniciativas que aseguren la reducción de la pobreza rural de forma continua, responsable y sustentable en toda la región hasta bien entrado el siglo 21.

Aunque hemos dado pasos importantes en la reducción de la pobreza en América Latina es sorprendente (y a veces pasmoso) que las brechas territoriales permanecen. Para comenzar, América Latina todavía tiene la tasa de desigualdad más alta en el mundo. Y con países con economías de grandes y medianos ingresos como Brasil y México, las brechas socio-económicas serán tan pronunciadas como las que existen entre los países más ricos y más pobres del mundo.

Por ejemplo en México, casi 60 por ciento de la pobreza extrema en la nación está concentrada en áreas rurales, según el reciente informe “Pobreza y Desigualdad: Informe Latinoamericano 2011”, y la tasa de analfabetismo es de 15.6 por ciento, mientras que en áreas urbanas la tasa es de solo 4.3 por ciento. Los territorios más pobres en América Latina también tienen acceso limitado al cuidado de la salud.

El informe —hecho posible por la financiación del FIDA y del Centro de Desarrollo–Canadá (IDRC, por sus siglas en inglés)— destaca las causas de la extrema desigualdad, brechas de logros territoriales y la falta de oportunidades en el sector rural de América Latina. Analiza los indicadores socioeconómicos de salud, educación, dinamismo económico y empleo, ingresos y pobreza, seguridad ciudadana e igualdad de género en 10 países latinoamericanos que incluyen a Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, México, Nicaragua y Perú. 

El sueño del diálogo 
Uno de los primeros pasos al “soñar este sueño imposible” es recurrir al diálogo de políticas como catalizador del cambio. En América Latina, el FIDA financia activamente las plataformas de diálogo de políticas para asegurar que los agricultores, políticos, intelectuales y líderes de negocios cuenten con foros y herramientas para participar, debatir y hacer avanzar políticas inteligentes que beneficien a los pobres rurales.

Al ver los datos de México es evidente que a pesar de los esfuerzos intensos, la pobreza y la desigualdad rural en México han incrementado. Tan solo vea las diez municipalidades más adineradas de México, en donde las ganancias promedio per cápita están en los alrededores de USD32,000 dólares estadounidenses. Si ve a las municipalidades más pobres, verá que las ganancias son de apenas USD603 al año.

Uno de los primeros pasos para contrarrestar este fenómeno es apoyar las plataformas de diálogo de políticas. Los Grupos de Diálogo Rural ‘Conocimiento y Cambio’ reúnen a las partes interesadas para discutir temas de desarrollo rural y llevarlos hasta que figuren en los primeros lugares de las agendas nacionales. El programa de los Grupos de Diálogo Rural funciona en Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador y México, y ya está comenzando a producir resultados. Basta con ver el diálogo proactivo sostenido recientemente en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, en donde académicos y pensadores convergieron para lanzar la nueva publicación y discutir los caminos a seguir.

El sueño de la inclusión social 
Las lecciones que tomamos de los datos y análisis del Informe Latinoamericano nos ayudan a formar una nueva generación de proyectos que procuran remediar las abigarradas brechas territoriales que vemos en la región. En el caso de México, la junta ejecutiva del FIDA aprobó recientemente USD47.5 millones para el Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural en la Región Mixteca y la Zona Mazahua.

Una de las metas centrales del proyecto es mejorar la calidad de vida en el área seleccionada al fortalecer los mecanismos de inclusión social para las instituciones de desarrollo locales rurales. La inversión para fortalecer las capacidades de estas instituciones no es solamente una inversión en las personas rurales que viven en esta parte frecuentemente olvidada de México —las proyecciones indican un incremento de utilidades de hasta USD6.30 diarios para los participantes en el proyecto— es también una inversión en el tejido social mismo que entreteje cada aspecto da la vida rural en México y que trabaja para promover sistemas, capacidades y mecanismos duraderos para la paz y sustentabilidad a largo plazo.

Algo que me han enseñado mis 20 y tantos años en el desarrollo rural es que no hay una bala de plata para la reducción de la pobreza. Los proyectos deben definir su alcance, diseño y objetivo para adaptarse al contexto local. En Colombia, estamos ampliando nuestro trabajo con un nuevo proyecto nacional aprobado recientemente por la Junta Ejecutiva del FIDA que invertirá directamente en el fortalecimiento de capacidades locales para negocios. Los USD70 millones del “Proyecto Confianza y Oportunidad en Colombia” llegarán a unas 160,000 familias. “El proyecto busca mejorar la seguridad alimentaria, facilitar el acceso a servicios financieros y comunitarios, mejorar la competitividad e ingresos de productores de pequeña escala en la zona y crear mecanismos que incluyan a estos mismos productores en los sistemas de gobierno,” dice nuestro Gerente de Programa de País en Colombia, Roberto Haudry.

Más hacia el sur, el Proyecto Paraguay Inclusivo trabaja para crear alianzas público-privadas que faciliten el acceso a la asistencia técnica especializada y mercados, creen nuevos empleos y cierren las brechas territoriales. Resulta interesante que la economía en Paraguay creció 14.5 por ciento en 2010. Sin embargo, 1.3 millones de paraguayos rurales son considerados pobres, de los cuales 60 por ciento son considerados extremadamente pobres. Como vimos en México, estas brechas territoriales se hacen más pronunciadas en las comunidades indígenas, que tienen tasas de mortalidad tres veces más altas que el promedio nacional.

El sueño de un futuro más verde 
Muchos proyectos nuevos financiados por el FIDA en América Latina tienen la mirada en bosques comunitarios, mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático y la gestión de recursos naturales sustentables como mecanismos de reducción de pobreza y empoderamiento rural. En esta edición de Ventana Rural examinaremos estos mecanismos a profundidad.

 Sin importar cómo lo quiera ver, el futuro de las financiaciones del FIDA para América Latina deben avanzar hacia pastos más verdes y ecológicos, discurso y diálogo mejorado, acceso mejorado al mercado y fortalecimiento de la cadena de valor, y los enfoques territoriales matizados que consideran sutiles diferencias entre territorios, sociedades, corredores económicos y economías locales.

Saludos, 
Josefina 

Boletín Ventana Rural   

Gobernanza ambiental y sistemas agroecológicos en México

Carlos Edgar González Godoy es el director del Proyecto de Desarrollo Sustentable para las Comunidades Rurales e Indígenas del Noroeste Semiárido en Mexico (un proyecto apoyado por el FIDA)
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Fincas integrales, eslabones verdes, gobernanzas ambientales – La experiencia de Honduras con Victoria Flores Aguilar
¿Cómo podemos crear e implementar técnicas agrícolas sostenibles que beneficien a la gente pobre rural? ¿Cómo podemos fortalecer las cadenas de valor en una forma sostenible y verde? ¿Cómo definimos la gobernanza ambiental, y cómo insertar a los pequeños campesinos en programas de pagos ambientales, como REDD+? En esta entrevista relevadora, Victoria Flores Aguilar, experta hondureña en la forestaría comunitaria, REDD+ y temas agro-ecológicos, resalta cómo avanzar, dónde estamos y cuáles serán los retos y desafíos en el camino. Leer más

Protección para la Madre Tierra en Bolivia

En Valle Alto y la región del Chaco de Bolivia –un área remota del mundo en donde la reverencia y el respeto hacia Pachamama (Madre Tierra) es una parte integral de la vida diaria – el cambio climático y la degradación de la tierra están convirtiendo...
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Próximos eventos 
• 21 de mayo de 2012. Sintonice la transmisión web interactivo de nuestro seminario acerca de ‘Desarrollo rural en América Latina: Preguntas, perspectivas y desafíos’ 

• Mapas interactivos, gráficas, datasets y más del informe latinoamericano están disponibles en www.informelatinoamericano.org. 


¡Compártalo!

IFAD supports reframing of rural poverty for #rioplus20

Written by Clarissa Baldin

©IFAD/Susan Beccio

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has provided the Reframing Rio initiative with US$100 thousand to help ensure that rural poverty and the challenges faced by poor women and men living on 500 million smallholder farms are front and centre leading up to Rio+20.

Reframing Rio is a multi-media project designed by tve, Inter Press Service (IPS) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to enhance global awareness and mobilize efforts towards the urgent need of a sustainable world leading up to and beyond Rio+20. In addition to IFAD’s contribution the project is also supported by the EU and 9 other organizations.

The project aims to help focus public and political debate on how a green economy can contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development. The project will make use of written media, documentaries and short films covering a range of issues related to sustainable development to engage audiences in the discussion.

By sponsoring the Reframing Rio project, IFAD is able to ensure issues that affect smallholders are included in the discussion. Rio + 20 is an opportunity to change the food and agriculture system so that smallholders in developing countries can be included.

The world’s poor rural people and especially farmers of the 500 million smallholdings play a key role as providers of food and livelihoods. Smallholders supply up to 80 per cent of the food consumed in a large part of the developing world, with much of that produced by women, and yet smallholder households are often vulnerable to health and nutrition challenges. As managers of vast areas of land and natural resources, smallholders are both victims and drivers of environmental degradation, and need support to scale up sustainable practices.

The upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) promises to be a historic milestone for global sustainable development.  IFAD is working together with partners including the Rome-Based Agencies, farmers’ associations and indigenous peoples groups to ensure that smallholders will be empowered to contribute and participate to their full potential.

More on the Reframing Rio project will be posted here soon, so keep an eye on our blog.

Find out more on IFAD’s engagement in Rio+20.

$100 million of climate smart smallholder #agriculture for Vietnam #CBA6

by Jeffrey A. Brez

This afternoon at the 6th Global Community-Based Adaptation conference in Hanoi, Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and IFAD shared their experience in making IFAD’s 2012-2017 strategic planning document for Vietnam climate smart. (these documents at IFAD are known as “Results Based Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes” or COSOPs). IFAD’s portfolio in Vietnam focuses on the poorest rural communities, including ethnic minorities and women headed households, and is now worth about US$257 million, with another USD100 million of investments anticipated over the 2012-2017 period.

Mard ifad cba6 presentation - dr hung +roshan cooke - 19 apr2012

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

MARD was represented by Prof. Dr. Trieu Van Hung, Director General of their Department of Science, Technology and the Environment. IFAD was represented by Roshan Cooke, Regional Climate and Environment Specialist for the Asia and Pacific Region.



Dr. Trieu (click above to view his 1-minute video statement) made the point that Vietnam is expected to be among the countries hardest hit by climate change, and that the agriculture sector is one of the most vulnerable. According to the National Climate Change Strategy, from 2001-2010 “damages caused by disasters like floods, storms, flash floods, landslides, inundations, droughts and saltwater intrusion have been significant: 9500 dead and missing people; and an asset loss of about 1.5% of GDP each year.” Given that the majority of Vietnam’s poor women and men live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods – and that agriculture is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters - supporting community-based adaptation is crucial to help buffer their livelihoods.

My colleague Roshan Cooke (in the photo above) explained IFAD’s ambitious approach. The “Climate Smart COSOP,” he said, will ensure that all of the investments that IFAD supports in Vietnam are climate-smart. This will be done through, among others, the following interventions: support to the policy making process to ensure that the climate vulnerability of poor rural communities is effectively addressed through MARD’s policy frameworks; integration of climate change adaptation responses into the provincial level Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) for determining budget allocations; identification of adaptation pathways for diversification of livelihoods; and scaling up of autonomous adaptation actions that rural poor people are innovating.

Several presentations were made and the following discussion was lively. Issues raised included how to address the “surplus of rural population in farming,” how to balance focus between smallholder farming and opportunities in the rural non-farm economy (and beyond), and how to fill the knowledge gap on local level impacts of climate change in rural areas.

I have learned a tremendous amount here, through a field trip to Hoa Binh province to visit a COHED project (biogas, alternative off-farm livelihoods for women and community-based eco-tourism, disaster preparedness drills) THANK YOU TO THE COHED TEAM, and great conference sessions that included an amazing Red Cross-designed game to raise awareness about disaster risk reduction and planning THANK YOU PABLO SUAREZ and JULIE ARRIGHI, and a session to practice pitching climate change stories to journalists, led by IIED – THANK YOU MIKE SHANAHAN and DRAGONS including Pakistan's AFIA SALAM of www.speakforchange.org.

CBA6 has two more days left! Follow the LIVE WEB STREAM or enjoy the blogs and vlogs and other interactive materials - and learn and share along with the rest of us.

Find out more here about how IFAD is supporting smallholders and poor rural people in Vietnam.

Want to read the IFAD COSOP for Vietnam? You won't regret the time spent. Click here and scroll down to Vietnam 2012. Available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish.

Funding new opportunities for microenterprise development in Colombia

Colombia videos highlight project successes, new trends in rural development

Click through the playlist above to see all 11 videos from the Oportunidades Rurales' Ruta Verde Program

By promoting competitive processes that inject funds directly into the hands of small businessmen and women, Colombia’s Rural Microenterprise Assets Programme – known locally as Oportunidades Rurales – is funding innovation, peace and sustainable development in the Colombian countryside one competition – and one campesino – at a time.

Targeting traditionally marginalized communities like indigenous peoples, youth, afro-Colombians and people displaced by violence, the Oportunidades programme focuses on funding technical assistance through competitions, providing financial services and capturing the lessons learned through their knowledge-management programme.

“One of the primary objectives is to finance innovations that will be relevant to rural people, especially in the areas of micro-credit, insurance and savings,” says Andrés Silva, Director of Oportunidades Rurales.

Made possible through US$20 million in funding from the United Nations’ rural poverty agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the project has a total price tag of some US$32 million and is slated to benefit around 50,000 people.
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Financiando nuevas oportunidades para el desarrollo de microempresas en Colombia
Con la promoción de procesos competitivos que inyectan fondos directamente a las manos de los pequeños empresarios y empresarias, el programa Oportunidades Rurales de Colombia (conocido como el Rural Microenterprise Assets Programme en inglés) está financiando innovación, paz y desarrollo sostenible en los campos colombianos, concurso por concurso, y campesino por campesino.

Al enfocarse en las comunidades tradicionalmente marginadas como los pueblos indígenas, jóvenes, afro-colombianos y las personas desplazadas por la violencia, el programa Oportunidades tiene como objetivo financiar la asistencia técnica a través de concursos. Así, ofrece servicios financieros y captura las enseñanzas aprendidas a través de su programa de gestión del conocimiento.

“Uno de los objetivos principales es financiar innovaciones que sean relevantes para la gente rural, especialmente en la áreas de microcréditos, seguros y ahorros”, dice Andrés Silva, director de Oportunidades Rurales.

Hecho posible gracias a US$20 millones en fondos proporcionados por la agencia contra la pobreza rural de las Naciones Unidas, el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), el proyecto tiene un valor total de aproximadamente US$32 millones y se espera beneficie a cerca de 50,000 personas.
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Protecting Mother Earth in Bolivia

New generation PROMARENA development project looks to environmental stewardship as a mechanism for poverty reduction and peace

In Bolivia’s high valleys and Chaco region – a remote corner of the world where reverence and respect for Pachamama (Mother Earth) is an integral part of everyday life – climate change and land degradation are making family farming a very risky business.

In order to help poor farmers adapt to these changing conditions (and show their respect to Pachamama as they have done for centuries) the Natural Resource Management Project of the Chaco and High Valleys (better known by its Spanish acronym PROMARENA) is looking toward age-old practices of terrace farming and good old-fashioned competition as a mechanism for eco-friendly development and sustainable poverty reduction.

The eight-year US$ 15 million PROMARENA Project closed late last year after improving the lives and livelihoods of nearly 20,000 poor rural families.

“The environmental achievements of the project are quite impressive. Through the competitive resource allocation model, where project participants compete for project funding in public contests, the PROMARENA project helped to plant over 8 million trees and  construct 803,012 ha of new terraces that reduce erosion and contribute to minimize the effects of desertification,” says Francisco Pichón, Bolivia Country Programme Manager for the International Fund for Agricultural Organization (IFAD). IFAD contributed US$12 million to the PROMARENA project.  

How does the contest model work?
The contest model is being used across Latin America to ensure sustainability and build community-based, demand-driven support for rural poverty projects.

“The public contests (concursos) work by identifying a problem within a family. The family identifies a problem. They tell us that they want to improve their house, the ceiling is about to fall down, there aren’t enough rooms, they need a bathroom. The project looks at these needs through the contests and transfers the money to the families,” says the National Coordinator of the PROMARENA Program, Omar Tejerina. “Motivated by the economic resources, the families begin to work with local resources and with everybody in the family.”

Efraín Condori Quispe is a peach farmer that benefited from PROMARENA’s public contests. With a group of other farmers he competed for a grant to build a small dam and irrigation canals for his orchards. Quispe and crew won first prize with their three-dimensional “Talking Map” that mapped out how the community managed their natural resources in the past and how they planned to improve their management in the future. With technical assistance from PROMARENA, Quispe also added terraces to his farm to reduce erosion and improved the quality of his production by using organic fertilizer.

“Everything we had laid out with our talking map we’ve accomplished. We drew with our hands the past, present and future, and we’ve achieved these goals,” Quispe says.

During the project’s cycle, nearly 2.5 million ha of land were converted to organic, family-based vegetable gardens, new rainwater tanks (with the capacity to store over 1,150,000 m3 of water) were constructed, and around 1 million llamas and alpacas benefitted from better zoologically-based sanitary measures and care.

One of the most notable push-on effects from PROMARENA’s environmental work has been the raise in land prices across the region and improved earnings for area farmers. Land prices for project participants have increased ten-fold over the past eight years. “They started with nothing,” says Tejerina. “At the beginning of the project, a family with one hectare of peaches made US$100 to US$150 a year, now these families are making US$15,000 per year per hectare.”

With his improved income and asset base – at the beginning of the project Quispe’s land was valued at around US$200, now it’s worth around US$11,000 – Quispe is hoping to create a micro-business with his children that are currently attending university to become agricultural and industrial engineers. 

“I won’t sell our land. It’s ours, and it’s not something that’s for sale because each day we learn more about how to management it, how to conserve,” says Quispe.

Addressing food security
Throughout the region the changing climate patterns, desertification and divers environmental risks are putting productivity levels at risk and affecting food security. In order to address this challenge, the project worked with various other international and national programmes to improve food security and increase productive yields in a sustainable manner.

“PROMARENA helped renovate over 4000 kitchens in the project area, improving substantially the living and working conditions of women, youth and children. And through the concurso (public competition) methodology, the project carried out 4800 concursos with almost 40,000 participants, transferring over US$4.5 million to project participants,” says IFAD’s Pichón. “The project also financed around 950 livestock, agriculture, handicraft and rural services business proposals with around US$2.4 million in investments, which generated around US$10 million in income for small producers.”

But the job is far from done. There are still high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition across the region and the natural ecosystems remain at risk. With this in mind, the Bolivian government recently signed a new loan agreement with IFAD for the US$15.2 million Plan Vida-Peep Pilot Project to Strengthen the Capacity of Communities and Families Living in Extreme Poverty, a three-year program that will be implemented by the same agency behind PROMARENA.

More than 53 per cent of project funding will work to improve natural resource management and production systems, 16 per cent will go to community initiatives and 11 per cent is dedicated for strengthening productive infrastructure.

PROMARENA’s Tejerina sees these types of environmentally oriented rural development projects as a mechanism for peace.

“I understand that many of our problems come principally from lack of basic necessities and the lack of food. With this in mind, as a project, I believe that we contribute to peace,” says Tejerina. “And the best way to contribute to peace is to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to have enough to eat and to have access to citizens’ rights.”

Originally published in The New Agriculturalist. 

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Videos (en español)

Ing. Omar Gustavo Gustavo Tejerina es el Coordinador Nacional del Proyecto de Manejo de Recursos Naturales en el Chaco y Valles Altos de Bolivia (PROMARENA). En esta entrevista Tejerina destaca las lecciones aprendidas del proyecto. PROMARENA cerró este año después de contribuir a mejorar la calidad de vida de 19,985 familias pobres rurales. Los resultados del PROMARENA superaron las metas esperadas. El número de familias beneficiarias del proyecto fue superado por más de 130 por ciento, llegándose a trabajar directamente con 1269 comunidades rurales en 53 municipalidades en los departamentos de Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Santa Cruz y Tarija. Con la intervención del proyecto, el valor de las tierras de los campesinos participantes se incrementó gracias a las mejoras aportadas por ellos mismos y, por medio del mejoramiento de las técnicas agroecológicas, los ingresos para muchos usuarios del proyecto se elevaron del 40 a 60 por ciento.



En este testimonio Efraín Condori Quispe explica como su familia han beneficiado de los concursos del Proyecto de Manejo de Recursos Naturales en el Chaco y Valles Altos de Bolivia (PROMARENA). A través de concursos públicos, el PROMARENA transfirió 7.2 millones de dólares estadounidenses a los participantes del programa. Durante la ejecución del proyecto, se llevaron a cabo unos 4800 concursos, y el proyecto co-financió 951 propuestas de negocios por un monto de 2.1 millones de dólares. Esta metodología fue implementada para asegurar la participación en el proyecto, y para lograr transformar a los campesinos en los protagonistas principales de su propio desarrollo.


En su testimonio director Franklin Contrera Quispe explica como el apoyo del Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agricola (FIDA) y el Proyecto de Manejo de Recursos Naturales en el Chaco y Valles Altos de Bolivia (PROMARENA) le apoyó en proteger el medio ambiente y mejorar sus cultivos.

 
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Farmers’ Forum panel: Livestock keepers cope with environmental and social challenges

By Ilaria Firmian and Sundeep Vaid

This side event, held yesterday as part of the Farmers’ Forum at IFAD, was proposed by four members of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) Europa. VSF is a network of nine non-governmental organizations dealing with animal health, livestock production and development.

The room was packed to capacity with representatives of farmers’ organizations and NGOs debating the role of these organizations in supporting their members – especially small-scale livestock keepers. Participants also discussed how they could ensure sustainable production whilst coping with climate change, thus contributing to food security.

Antonio Rota, IFAD Senior Technical Advisor, Farming Systems and Livestock, opened the session. He reminded the participants that, to date, much has been said about the effects of climate change on livestock, but added that he wished to hear more about tangible actions that were being taken to address the issue.

Alessandro Broglia, President of VSF Europa, said his organization believes strongly in food sovereignty and briefly presented their experience with small-scale livestock in the context of climate change. Reflecting on the demand side of the world’s food problems, he described the alarming levels of obesity prevalent today. “We choose the food that we eat and how much we eat,” he said. “What we need are not only small-scale livestock keepers but also small-scale thinking consumers who can drive changes in the market.”

During the discussions, a shared view of the impact of climate change on small-scale livestock keepers started to take shape.

Marta Guadalupe Rivera Ferre of Centro de Investigación en Economía y Desarrollo Agroalimentario, based in Barcelona, spoke of adaptation strategies and future scenarios. One the one hand, livestock contributes to greenhouse gas emission, she said, but on the other, climate change causes serious problems for smallholders: reduced water availability, extreme weather events and increased pests, just to name a few.

Climate change also causes loss of local vegetation. As medicinal herbs that livestock keepers use to treat their animals start vanishing, traditional knowledge is lost.

In the debate that followed, some examples of good practices in livestock production came up.

Oumou Khairy Diallo of the Senegalese development organization CNCR outlined the benefits of biogas to women in cooking. Antonio Rota said similar results are witnessed in our projects and noted that he would like to see IFAD become a champion of biogas.

Taghi Farvar, of CENESTA in Iran, gave the indigenous and mobile pastoralists’ perspective, saying that some strategies’, such as biogas, are not easily applicable to mobile nomadic pastoralists – who, however, play a key role in maintaining natural resources and biodiversity, and help fight climate change.

Andrea Ferrante of Via Campesina chose to speak on a different tack. He emphasized that small-scale livestock farming is not the problem but the solution to climate change. As highlighted many times during the Farmers’ Forum, farmers have sustainable solutions. The challenge is how to scale up such solutions.

A set of key policy recommendations came out as a result of this session, as seen in the picture at left.

At one point in the session, the participant from Cambodia offered this anecdote: “Before, when we weren’t using biogas, a husband comes home hungry and if the wife hadn’t had the time to collect firewood for cooking, this would lead to a fight in the family. Now we don’t have this problem with biogas. In this way, biogas is tackling domestic violence!”

World Agriculture Watch: Coming Soon FAFO12

by Jeffrey A Brez

This afternoon, after IFAD's Governing Council ended, the Farmers' Forum took advantage of the fact that so many stakeholders were still in town to have a final round of thematic events. I attended a session hosted by the FAO and CIRAD on a proposal for a World Agriculture Watch (WAW background in English French Spanish). The concept is founded on the notion that while we do have a lot of agricultural information and data available, there are important gaps in quality, quantity, availability and analysis. Particularly, we are lacking a tool with which to track and analyze trends in transformations and impacts in agricultural and farming systems that affect the world's 500 million smallholder farms. The discussion focussed on how to ensure that farmers' organizations can contribute to and benefit from the WAW. Here are the three presentations made, and below them a few thoughts on the discussion that followed.

Alessandra da Costa Lunas of COPROFAM presented thechallenges family and indigenous producers are facing in Latin America.

Apresentação observatorio mundial de agricultura

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Alexander Muller, Assistant Director-General Natural Resources at FAO presented the rationale for a World Agriculture Watch.

Ifadp farmers forumam

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Patrick Caron, General Director at CIRAD, looked at some of the mechanics of assessing structural changes and impacts in agricultural and farming systems in an integrated way.

Presentation caron v8

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Esther Penunia (Philippines) of the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development set the tone by saying that while there is potential in WAW, it must include bottom up information and data that is already being generated by farmers' organizations to be a WOW! Ousseni Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso) of ROPPA urged that existing regional initiatives such as Agrimet not be duplicated, but complemented. Carlos Sere, IFAD's Chief Development Strategist advised that any new data system set up be sustainable, use an open data model approach that allows inputs from and useability for a variety of stakeholders, know its own boundaries (what questions it can and cannot answer), and have a reliable system to guarantee data quality.

A delicate balance

Community and Participatory Management of Natural Resources: Experiences from Mesoamerica’s Indigenous Peoples and Forest Communities

By Jeff Brez and Greg Benchwick
In today’s side event Community and Participatory Management of Natural Resources: Experiences from Mesoamerica’s Indigenous Peoples and Forest Communities, IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division hosted a robust discussion on how international organizations, indigenous peoples, governments and other key stakeholders can come together to create sustainable livelihood solutions from the world’s forests. It’s a matter of balancing development with poverty reduction - and sustainable forestry management with economic development - to create business (and development) models that work for all involved.

What was very clear in the discussion was the strong desire of the communities to identify more sustainable livelihood solutions within the forests, both from timber and non-timber products. These types of mechanisms would allow them to continue their way of life.

There was also a lot of excitement regarding the variety of ways that some communities are managing to earn sustainable incomes - such as through the sale of resin or by tapping the still-unknown potential of the forest to provide other sources of income, for example through medicinal plants or protection of biodiversity that may have other medical applications. Strengthening of value chains was a recurring theme, and it was felt that building mutually beneficial relationships with both industry and government is still an uphill battle, although ground is being gained.

Another hot topic was carbon: Who owns it? Because of land tenure issues in many countries, ownership of the land was unclear and by corollary rights to carbon income made accessing REDD+ mechanisms and carbon markets messy business. Jesus Quintana, Regional Climate and Environment Specialist for the LAC region with IFAD, pointed out that this is of crucial importance not only for reasons of justice, but also for the practical reason that clear ownership or rights is the foundation for a sound enabling environment for investment.

A final point of difficulty for communities is the short project and contract terms for forest management. The representatives pointed out that five years is too short a time period to show proven performance in sustainably managing a forest. What they see as more reasonable are 40-year renewable contracts that are automatically renewable if the management is indeed sustainable and effective. That would give communities certainty in planning their economic and ecological future, and also a broader base from which to gain social, environmental and cultural benefits.

Video

In this insightful video produced for an event on Community and Participatory Management of Natural Resources: Experiences from Mesoamerica’s Indigenous Peoples and Forest Communities, at the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) annual Governing Council, indigenous community leaders and forestry experts examine the challenges and opportunities of sustainable forestry. Indigenous communities are the protectors of the world’s biodiversity. Only by providing them with the means, tools and mechanisms to protect the world’s forests can we hope to ensure a sustainable future for our little green planet. In Spanish with English subtitles. 

 
Hot links
Tackling sustainable rural development and climate change in Mexico
Mexico Going Green - Emerging trends in REDD+ and other sustainable practices 
IFAD signs US$5 million loan for ‘Community Forestry Development’ in Southern Mexico
English | Spanish

www.forestsclimatechange.org/index.html

www.reddmexico.org/conafor

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What Will Rio Herald for Agriculture? #IFADGC

by Jeffrey A Brez

Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda of FANRPAN, introducing herself as the daughter of tomato farmers, this afternoon inspired IFAD’s governors and attendees with her compelling call to put farmers first to allow them to produce food sustainably to feed a growing urban population.

She pointed out that there is a disjoint between technology and policy: the technologies are there (soil management, animal management, water harvesting) but policies don’t give poor rural farmers the tools to use them. These sustainable technologies need to be adapted to local conditions and then adopted by farmers - but investment must enable this. A policy process that does not enable this adaptation and adoption, she explained, has robbed African farmers of their natural assets, sending them into a downward spiral of poverty and environmental degradation. 20 years ago yields were double what they are today, she remembered, and farmers could make a decent living.

How to bridge the gap? She observed that governments took action when the food price crisis hit a few years ago. They had to, under strong pressure from civil society. In an acute crisis it is more likely for policymakers and political leaders to act. In slow onset environmental crises such as climate change the impetus to act can be less strong. She cited the lack of political leadership and commitment giving the example of the 2004 CAADP pledge taken in Maputo to dedicate 10% of national budgets in Africa to agricultural investment and lamenting the small number of countries (10) that have “put their money where their mouth is” to date.

A silo approach pervades development planning and is damaging the rural poor farmer. She gave the example of climate talks where for years agriculture was ignored – and even considered a “dirty word” - because it wasn’t an “environment” sector, despite the fact that agriculture is the most sector most impacted by climate change. The silo approach, she said, is killing us by slowing down policy progress and investments. She was relieved that we are close to having an agriculture work programme under the scientific and technical advisory body of the UNFCCC (SBSTA), which will be decided at the next climate negotiations in Qatar. Better late than never!

For Rio+20 she was optimistic that the main 7 areas of focus – food, jobs, energy, cities, water, oceans and disasters - were the right mix for rural poor people and smallholders. She counted three things we need to achieve “the future we want” in Rio and beyond. First, bold political leadership. Second commitments to invest in sustainable agriculture and food security with smallholders. Third a framework that takes an integrated approach to investing in agriculture to create green “dignified” jobs, engage youth and empower poor rural women who, despite producing 70% of the food only own 2% of the land.

Environmentally Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture is Possible #IFADGC

By Jeffrey A Brez

The IFAD Governing Council began this morning with Rwandan president Paul Kagame telling us that environmentally sustainable smallholder agriculture is possible. IFAD president Kanayo Nwanze then reminded us in his Statement that environmental degradation and climate change are damaging smallholder farming systems.

With that challenge laid out before them, IFAD’s governors and other guests were ready to engage in a discussion on how smallholders can "Feed the World, Protect the Planet" (09:45-11:45), led by 5 expert panellists (see programme), and joined by viewers via the live webcast and social media channels (I also tweeted live from @jeffbrez).

The panellists gave excellent examples of sustainable approaches that are working, and in many cases being scaled up. Pamela Anderson of the CGIAR-affiliated International Potato Center explained how a new multi-functional smallholder agriculture provides a range of livelihood opportunities within households and communities, giving smallholders a “portfolio” of income opportunities, and spreading their risk. Nivedita Banerji of NGO Samaj Pragati Sahayog provided excellent examples of government incentives for smallholders to invest in durable assets and manage sustainable use of acquifers through mapping. Andre Leu of IFOAM explained how smallholders are the centrepiece of IFOAM’s policies on agricultural intensification through “eco-functionality” – where eco-processes are used to increase yields.

Bruce NcNamer of TechnoServe focussed on the imperative of creating business opportunities with smallholders through market systems and value chains that work, on top of which environmental sustainability should be “overlayed.” It was stressed that there are many steps in the value chain where sustainability needs to be injected with a big role for smallholders. Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Rural Development described successes in the Philippines agrarian reform program that empowers smallholder communities to manage their natural resources for present and future generations.

There appear to be millions of healthy green shoots of approaches and technologies, virtual shelves stacked with sacks of potent fertilizing government policies, heady flows of energetic ideas on empowering women and farmers’ organizations and incentivizing youth to stay in or return to rural areas. The private sector appears poised to invest in relationships with smallholders. But where in all of this is our next green revolution – the sustainable one that will feed the world (9 billion people by 2050!) and protect the planet?

The comprehensive change of mindsets needed to open the floodgates so that all boats will be raised up through a concerted global upscaling effort remains elusive. A lot has changed and more ears are open than ever. We’re making progress, but there is still work to be done. Join us via the webcast today and tomorrow (including side events that you can watch here) and help us to increase the momentum we are building towards enabling poor rural people to escape from and remain out of poverty through more productive and resilient livelihoods and ecosystems. Rio is just around the corner.

(double check times and programme schedule here).

Learn more about IFAD’s ENRM Policy.

Future for Smallholders at Rio+20? #FAFO12

This morning I attended (and tweeted from @jeffbrez) the Farmers’ Forum thematic working group on “Engaging Rio + 20.” The room was packed and the tension in the room I felt was equal parts optimism and frustration.

Frustration came from some who felt that the Rio+20 zero draft outcome document does not put a square focus on smallholders (see Food Security section paras 64-66). Some felt uncomfortable with the ramifications of a “green economy” focus that could turn ecosystem services and biodiversity into economic “goods” to be traded and speculated upon in open markets. There was frustration from some representatives about government focus on investment in urban infrastructure, despite the fact that a majority of people live in rural areas. Lack of reliable land tenure and insecure access to natural resources were mentioned as persisting obstacles to smallholder, family farming and indigenous peoples’ wellbeing.

On the positive side, the farmers’ organizations in the room felt that if they are strategic and coherent in their approach, that Rio+20 could be an opportunity to make progress on these frustrating points. The associations generally expressed appreciation for the Rome-based Agencies joint submission to the zero draft document, as well as to the Farmer’s Major Group submission. There was optimism that if consensus can be reached on how to engage in the process and exactly what the outcome objective should be, important progress for the rural poor was not out of reach.

One key hurdle to overcome will be connecting farmers organizations worldwide to enable their collective voice to be heard leading up to and at Rio+20. The associations may request IFAD to support their efforts to organize and navigate the dizzying mix of events and procedures. If they do I look forward to being a part of our partnership.

Agriculture In! (721 and counting...)

by Jeff Brez in Durban

Should agriculture be on the climate change agenda? What impact would this have? The ball is in the court of COP 17 attendees to assess the game changing impact of negotiations at COP 17 in Durban.

If you are at the COP – come to booth 18 to show your skill at getting ‘Agriculture In!’ 721 COP attendees have already played.

IFAD teamed up with the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) to design the game and raise awareness on agriculture’s role in climate change at COP 17 in Durban.

‘Agriculture In’ is a ball game with 3 targets designed to address the significance of agriculture and how it can contribute to poverty reduction, food security, building resilience, and improving environmental outcomes including reducing GHG emissions.

The Targets:

• Green Climate Fund
• SBSTA Work Programme
• Mitigation Finance for Farmers

These are all opportunities for negotiators to ensure that the worlds 1 billion poor rural people, most of whom rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, benefit from climate finance.

“Poor smallholder farmers, typically women are on the front line of climate change impacts yet they don’t benefit enough from climate finance,” says Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Director of IFAD’s Environment and Climate Division, “climate finance can help scale up investments in sustainable agriculture and research that will help them adapt to changing weather conditions and contribute to global food security.”

“Agriculture is the foundation of most African economies and the most climate-sensitive sector so it is imperative that it forms part of the agenda at this year’s COP17,” said Ishmael Sunga, CEO of SACAU. “This game not only highlights that but also the specific areas of intervention such as the need for the establishment of Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) Work Program on Agriculture that covers both adaptation and mitigation and addresses the needs of African farmers.”

Journalists and all those attending the COP (especially negotiators!) are invited to test their ball skills while getting a better understanding of agriculture and its importance at stand 18 of the ICC/DEC.

Prizes allocated for winners name the many benefits for farmers and wider communities if agriculture is included: Improved Food Security, Lasting Poverty Reduction, Enhanced Biodiversity, Reduced GHG Emissions, More trees, More Resilient Livelihoods.

Making Climate-Smart “The New Normal in Agriculture"

by Jeff Brez in Durban

Anticipation is building that sectoral text under the LCA may lead to the approval by the Parties of a work programme under SBSTA for agriculture here in Durban. The demand on the ground from farmers communities and governments for climate-smart agriculture as a means to tackle poverty reduction, food security, climate resilience, improved environmental outcomes and reduced emissions is already strong and continues to grow. Many feel that a SBSTA Work Programme would help agriculture take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future challenges.

Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of South Africa, opened the Agriculture and Rural Development Day, this past Saturday, and told journalists, “Agriculture must adapt to a changing climate and at the same time contribute to reducing emissions. We have a huge dichotomy between smallholder and large-scale farming, but… smallholder farming is now also being seen as an opportunity for food security as well as economic growth… not just as a social development programme.”

Governments and development institutions, including IFAD, the World Bank, FAO, and others together with other partners have made great strides in promoting climate-smart approaches that meet the needs of farmers and poor rural people. There is also a call for climate finance to benefit smallholders and the rural poor – where poverty is concentrated – through both adaptation and mitigation financing. It is hoped that the Green Climate Fund, in this sense, will prioritize financing for approaches that reward “multiple benefit outcomes” (aka “co-benefits” in negotiation language): poverty reduction, food security, climate resilience and emissions reductions through climate-smart agriculture.

Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD, The U.N.’s rural poverty agency, delivered a keynote address at ARDD urging negotiators to recognize that “Government officials once believed that they had to choose between feeding their people and protecting nature. Now they realize that they can and must do both.” He continued, “negotiators need to recognize the critical importance of enabling smallholder farmers to become more resilient to climate change and to grow more food in environmentally sustainable, climate-smart ways,” he added.

The world’s 500 million smallholder farms will have to significantly increase their production and will have to do it in the face of more frequent extreme weather events and shifting weather conditions brought by climate change. The development community must continue its efforts to come together with governments to make climate smart practices the new normal in agriculture

“Out in their fields, farmers are already adapting to the changing climate and realizing that they must respect and preserve the environment if they are to feed their families and produce a surplus for markets,” Nwanze said. “And policymakers at the country level are citing the impact of extreme weather on their crop production and asking for climate change to be addressed in rural development projects.”

Simple maths draws the connection between climate change poverty reduction and agriculture into stark relief. 1.4 billion people live today in extreme poverty, under US$1.25 per day. One billion of them live in rural areas, and the majority of those depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. IFAD’s experience with climate smart agriculture in 40 countries, through 22 loans and 15 country-specific and regional grants is just one testament to this.

Climate-Smart Smallholder Products: a new product label ?

by Jeff Brez, from COP 17 in Durban

At Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) at COP 17 in Durban, IFAD teamed up with Cafédirect and Fairtrade Africa to offer a learning event on “Getting Climate-Smart Smallholder Products to Market.” The case study was based on an IFAD public private partnership in São Tomé and Principe with the Government, communities, Cafédirect and other private sector companies. Read about the project, the objectives of the event, the moderator and speakers here.

The two main questions posed by moderator extraordinaire Matthew Wyatt of DFID, were simple. Can smallholders offer climate-smart products? Will consumers pay for them? He led a lively and focused discussion - thanks Matthew!

Cafédirect’s Wolfgang Weinmann said, “Access for smallholder farmers to added-value markets like climate-smart and ethical products clearly is the way forward. Plus, of course delivering high quality and absolute traceability. Our partnership with IFAD has been fantastic and allowed us to ensure, in a relatively short time span of 2 years, a great product for the UK market that delivers tangible economic, social and environmental impact for the São Tomé and Principe smallholder cocoa farmers.”

There was consensus that there is potential for smallholders to benefit from a “climate-smart” label , because:

1. Smallholders are natural providers of climate-smart products
2. Niche market opportunities such as organics and Fairtrade are bringing premiums to smallholders in São Tomé and Principe, where cocoa exports have increased ten-fold since 2004 through public-private partnerships
3. While climate smart smallholder agriculture is an undefined concept for consumers, they may be willing to pay more for a “climate smart” product if they better understand the full benefits to farmers , the environment and to them as well

Scaling up of a “climate smart concept ” would depend on:

1. Providing smallholders with knowledge sharing, technical support, and access to finance and markets
2. Developing metrics to demonstrate to consumers the benefits that accrue to farmers and to environment
3. Development and positioning of a “climate smart” label under either an existing product label or on its own

Nokutula Mhene of Fairtrade Africa was cautiously optimistic, “The role of consumers in influencing agricultural practices and policies is often overlooked. The growth of Fairtrade over the past decades is largely attributed to consumer support. Climate smart goods should have a place in the market but need to be integrated into already existing labelling initiatives.”

Carlos Seré, of IFAD said, “In addition to generating new technologies, increasing productivity and looking for ways to save labour to support climate-smart smallholder agriculture, climate-smart practices can be enabled by replacing inputs with knowledge – understanding the biology better and tweaking it. This implies a very robust research agenda and an equally ambitious knowledge sharing component. Shifting from existing systems to climate-smart systems – for example shifting to shade grown systems - can take years to achieve. Smallholders need support during the transition periods. And of course, we can never forget about the incentives for the producers: they have to be there.”

Learn more about how IFAD supported activities are benefiting smallholders and poor rural people in São Tomé and Principe.