'To remain always a child'

Video documentation in Latin America highlights lessoned learned from projects past and present
Learning from our past to guide how we work in the future is a central pillar to IFAD's operations and knowledge management practices in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Truly, as Cicero taught us… "To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it be woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"

In order to expand this knowledge base, learn from our history and promote inter-institutional dialogue, we are making a concerted effort to share the lessons learned from the projects we fund across the region through video documentaries, reports, newsletters and more.

One of the first steps here has been resuscitating the video documentaries from projects we’ve funded in the past. In the embedded video playlists below, you’ll find see over 40 videos that document rural empowerment projects in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. We hope these videos serve as an institutional record and historic marker as we continue our efforts to learn from our past and build on our future. 

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Colombia

Haiti

Nicaragua

Mexico

Peru

Uruguay

Venezuela


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In Venezuela, amidst extreme weather events, a new collaboration is being forged – to fight climate change

By Jesús Quintana, ECD/LAC

Venezuela, badly hit by climate change and environmental hazards

Between 2009 and 2010, Venezuela suffered one of its worst droughts ever recorded, affecting vital activities, especially agriculture and energy. The Guri dam, one of the biggest in Latin America, which supplies half of Venezuela’s energy, had to reduce electricity generation drastically. Agriculture production also fell between 10 and 30 per cent, depending on crops.

Rains returned to Venezuela in late 2010, only to flood the country. Torrential storms drove more than 130,000 Venezuelans from their homes and deepened a housing shortage. This year, Venezuela is facing renewed downpours during the rainy season, unleashing more mudslides and floods. Seven states (including Falcon, where IFAD is implementing the Sustainable Rural Development Project for the Semi-Arid Zones of Falcon and Lara States project - PROSALAFA II) and parts of Caracas are under a state of emergency.

Venezuela’s answer to these challenges combines several actions, including better preparedness and prevention, hydrological works, and better management of watersheds, with an emphasis on reforestation.

IFAD on call – providing useful tools with multiple benefits

IFAD has been supporting the second phase of PROSALAFA II since 2002. The project is working in the semi-arid zones of Falcon and Lara states, home to some of the country’s poorest communities, strengthening the capacity of rural organizations, and promoting conservation of the natural resource base, with a special focus on soil and water conservation, through the micro-watershed as planning and action unit.

IFAD has proposed to expand this partnership, including new institutions that could focus better on the environmental and climate change challenges faced by the country. In collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), IFAD and the Ministry of Environment of Venezuela (MPPA) are preparing an innovative project to foster afforestation and reforestation of degraded semi-arid watersheds of Lara and Falcón, improving the management of natural resources, especially soil and water. This will result in multiple benefits, social (living conditions), economic (water provision and increased production) and environmental ones, complementing other national initiatives, such as Misión Árbol and Mesas Técnicas del Agua.

Last week, I attended the start-up workshop for the design of this innovative project - Promotion of Sustainable and Climate-compatible Rural Development in Lara and Falcón States - which will contribute directly to climate change mitigation, sequestering carbon and avoiding GHG emissions - the first of its type in Venezuela. The meeting, held 7 and 8 of June in Cabudare (Lara State, west of the country), reunited MPPA, local authorities and IFAD, and was chaired by Rodolfo Roa, Director General, DGCH, MPPA.

This proposal, to be submitted to the GEF for financing (US$ 3.7 m) in December, will focus on innovative activities with strong demonstration potential for better planning and management of land uses – showing that they can effectively contribute to global goals, reducing carbon emissions and facilitating more resilient livelihoods, an approach that IFAD applies to its programs, and, together with other organizations, defends in international fora.

En Venezuela, entre sequías e inundaciones, se propone una nueva colaboración para combatir el cambio climático

Por Jesús Quintana, ECD/LAC

Venezuela, muy afectada por el cambio climático y los fenómenos ambientales

Entre 2009 y 2010, Venezuela sufrió una de las peores sequías jamás registradas, afectando sobre todo actividades vitales, como agricultura o energía. El embalse de Guri, uno de los mayores de América Latina y que produce la mitad de la energía de Venezuela, tuvo que reducir su generación drásticamente por falta de agua. La producción agrícola cayó entre un 10 y un 30 %, dependiendo de los cultivos.

Las precipitaciones volvieron a Venezuela al final de 2010, sólo para inundar el país. Las lluvias torrenciales obligaron a más de 130,000 personas a dejar sus casas, empeorando el problema de falta de viviendas. Este año, al llegar la estación lluviosa, Venezuela ha empezado a sufrir de nuevo tormentas e inundaciones, de forma que siete Estados (incluyendo Falcón, donde IFAD está ejecutando el proyecto PROSALAFA II) y zonas de Caracas están bajo el estado de emergencia debido a las lluvias.

La respuesta de Venezuela a estos desafíos combina diferentes medidas, incluyendo mejor preparación y prevención, obras hidrológicas y de otro tipo, y mejor manejo de cuencas con énfasis en reforestación.

FIDA listo para actuar – proveyendo herramientas útiles con beneficios multiples

FIDA está apoyando la segunda fase del Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Sostenible para las Zonas Semiáridas de los Estados de Falcón y Lara (PROSALAFA II) desde 2002. El proyecto trabaja en las zonas semi-áridas de Lara y Falcón, donde viven algunas de las comunidades más pobres del país, reforzando la capacidad de las organizaciones rurales, y apoyando la conservación de los recursos naturales, especialmente suelo y agua, usando la micro-cuenca como unidad de planificación y acción.

FIDA ha propuesto ampliar esta colaboración para incluir a nuevos socios y afrontar mejor los retos ambientales y climáticos del país. En coordinación con el Fondo para el Medio Ambiente Mundial (GEF), FIDA y el Ministerio del Ambiente de Venezuela (MPPA) están preparando un proyecto innovador que promoverá la reforestación de cuencas degradadas del semi-árido, mejorando la gestión de los recursos naturales (agua, suelos, bosques). Esta iniciativa conllevará beneficios múltiples, tanto sociales (mejores condiciones de vida), como económicos (provisión de agua y mejora de la producción) y ambientales, complementando otras iniciativas nacionales, como la Misión Árbol o las Mesas Técnicas del Agua.

La semana pasada asistí al taller de inicio del diseño de este proyecto innovador - el Proyecto de Desarrollo Social Integral y su Interrelación con el Cambio Climático en las Cuencas Hidrográficas de los
Estados de Lara y Falcón (Venezuela) (PDELAFA-FMAM) - que contribuirá directamente a la mitigación del cambio climático, secuestrando carbono y evitando emisiones – el primero de este tipo en Venezuela. La reunión del pasado 7 y 8 de junio en Cabudare (Estado de Lara, este del país), reunió al MPPA, autoridades locales y FIDA, presidido por Rodolfo Roa, Director General, DGCH, MPPA.

La propuesta, que se presentará al GEF para financiamiento (US$ 3.7 m) en diciembre próximo, promoverá actividades innovadores con fuerte potencial demostrativo, mostrando que el mejor uso y aprovechamiento territorial puede contribuir efectivamente a objetivos globales, reduciendo las emisiones de gases invernaderos y contribuyendo a reforzar las capacidades de agricultores y comunidades, un enfoque que FIDA aplica a sus programas y defiende en foros internacionales.

Video
Entrevista con Noli Fernández, Directora Nacional de Salud Indígena en el Ministerio de Poder Popular para la Salud de Venezuela, hablando sobre un espacio productivo para ‘la construcción de políticas públicas con pertenencia cultural.’

Basement blues

Saturday, 23 January 2010. The final day to wrap it all up. We spend the full and only day in the hotel basement, a kind of behaviour that has probably not yet been seen in Cusco, the tourism capital of Peru. Maria is back with us, having overcome the altitude sickness.

The first session, a left-over from yesterday, draws conclusions from the rural financial services in the project. The overall feeling is that the savings-based approach is very sound and sustainable, and that the combination of savings with micro-insurance, especially life insurance, is very powerful in assisting the rural poor to acquire assets while making sure no calamity throws them back to square one. It was suggested to limit the savings subsidies in time, and to include an insurance package in the savings products similarly to the credit products.

Lunch is spent preparing the innovation plans with which we hope to put the learned bits and pieces to practice in our own work, without which the entire tour is useless, as Ariel reminds us.

Making sense of it all

The Rwanda team kicks of with a joint proposal to integrate CLARs and competitions to provide capacity building grants through 2 IFAD-financed projects and one financed by Belgium. The plan would use local structures already being set up, but with a new focus on popular presentations of the proposals and results to be assessed by CLARs. An innovation would be the strong involvement of community innovation centres (CCIs) as secretariat to the CLARs supported by project staff, thereby supporting sustainability. The plan is explicit in its implementation plan, aiming at organising the first community competitions in December 2010.

Next is Venezuela. Their innovation plans promoting rural financial services, especially a savings culture, starting with a few pilot MFIs (cajas rurales), by providing subsidies to savers and additionally using competitions between savers (especially women) to allocate credit to the most performing savers that request credit. This sounds like a very interesting combination of elements of the SSDP. Marcela suggests undertaking exchange visits with Colombia.

The Colombians themselves, true ambassadors of their country, start their presentation with a publicity movie on Colombia. They continue with a talking map, evidently having learned something on the trip. It proposes:

• a pilot activity on including cultural identity in the business promotion, also to respond to the cultural diversity of the clients;
• the inclusion of micro-insurance with small subsidies; and
• the promotion of local talents. Finally, Marcela from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Colombia, plans to orient the local authorities in its development efforts, carry out exchange visits and to promote rural savings strategies.

The Irrigation and Rural Livelihoods Development Project (IRLDP) in Malawi wants to pilot some activities in 3 districts. The project team wants to move from project-driven grants for inputs and materials to CLAR-type allocation systems, include services by talents through direct sourcing in the these grants, link farmers to microfinance institutions and improve community-level marketing, and use PRAs to develop talking maps for natural resource management. Ariel suggests that convincing the authorities of the changes will be a challenge, and we propose that the project look for allies to support the cause.

Elizabeth Farmosi’s proposal is called Alliance Sierra Sur – Mother Earth. It is targeted at the Sierra Sur project, with new mechanisms for the population to access resources, alliances with public and private institutions, and improvements to the conditions of the competitions in favour of the poorer members of the participating communities. Good stuff, but possibly the recommendations are a little late for the project and can rather flow into the next design.

Maria Hartl proposes a Learning Route on rural financial services in Peru, targeted at IFAD-financed projects, IFAD staff (especially field staff) and other partners, covering savings, credit, insurance and leasing. Recommendations to Maria were to include remittances, and to match well the innovation needs and experiences available. I wonder how many of us are considering whether this should be their next route.

The final stretch is the auto-evaluation of the Learning Route, which I find really embarrassing: how can you just praise everything. In desperation, I propose organizing the background material so that it’s a little easier to work with. But honestly, the organization and contents was terrific, and now it’s on us to implement the learning plan, as otherwise Ariel will come back some day and tell us that it was all futile. I hope we can count on some ongoing support from PROCASUR and the project for that.

The last night we spend at Chicha, a restaurant specialising in refined traditional dishes. The tour ends with a fun round of surprise awards of certificates between routeros, at which it becomes clear to us that we’ve become a close group of friends that has shared a very intense experience.

I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that this tour was the best thing I did this year.

Claus Reiner, Country Programme Manager, IFAD