In the last decade, environmental degradation, hunger and poverty have continued to increase despite technological advances that allow food to be produced in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the world’s population. In some communities, rural people have developed agriculture and rural development practices that are environmentally sound, economically viable and socially beneficial, in other words, sustainable. Yet because community driven progress towards sustainable agriculture and rural development has occurred at the local level, it has often gone unrecognized. This FAO project in support of the SARD Initiative seeks to assist government and civil society groups to identify these local successes and to build capacities, particularly of the poorest and most disadvantaged groups, to adapt, replicate and scale them up.

The main purpose of this FAO project in support of the SARD Initiative is to reduce hunger and poverty and contribute to environmental, social, and economic well being by building the capacity of poor rural producers, disadvantaged groups, and the governments and civil society groups that support them, to become aware of and adopt good practices that facilitate the transition to SARD. It has the following three objectives:

1. To enhance access to SARD good practices, by identifying, documenting, and monitoring these practices and their measurable contributions to the livelihoods of disadvantaged, poor and malnourished rural groups. This would be done through an interactive and decentralized SARD Resource Facility to build public access and input to SARD resources and information, systematize existing SARD-related information, develop a repertory of community-level good practices, and disseminate and exchange information on SARD. The implementation of SARD within FAO and member countries will also be strengthened through technical assistance to a selection of FAO programmes and projects, and by analysing their contributions to SARD and the MDGs (phase II of the FAO/Italy Sustainable Development Facility project (GCP/INT/938/ITA)).
2. To help scale-up and replicate SARD good practices through community exchanges, support to existing SARD partnerships that contribute to the MDGs, capacity building and training in leadership and management, and the development of a SARD communications strategy to strengthen, expand, raise awareness and increase participation in SARD initiatives at the local, national, and global levels.
3. Establish a mechanism to fund SARD innovations, pilot projects, testing, experimentation and replication of new technologies and approaches by small farmers, agricultural workers, rural communities and other disadvantaged stakeholders seeking to make the economic and technical transition toward SARD.

This project will be FAO’s most important contribution to SARD. Access to the multi-donor trust fund project document and information about contributions of past and current funding partners can be found on the SARD Initiative Web Site.