This edition opens with a report of the last session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which has helped to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment feature prominently in the post-2015 Development Agenda. This will take over from the Millennium Development Goals, whose 2015 deadline is now close. Today, the post-2015 Development Agenda...

This issue highlights experiences of development approaches that are helping in the fight against poverty in rural areas. Reducing rural poverty is one of FAO’s strategic objectives for the coming years, to which the Dimitra project is making a special contribution. Innovative methodologies have been developed which seek to place...

Conventional wisdom holds that Sub-Saharan African farmers use few modern inputs despite the fact that most growth-inducing and poverty-reducing agricultural growth in the region is expected to come largely from expanded use of inputs that embody improved technologies, particularly improved seed, fertilizers and other agro-chemicals, machinery, and irrigation. Yet following...

The Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) is the approach suggested by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) through the sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) to address the acknowledged shortcoming of African Agricultural Research and Development’s (ARD) failure to achieve impact on the farmer’s field. The...

This book aims to contribute to filling an existing gap in the literature on food value chains in West Africa. It identifies good practices in value chain development and provides policy guidance to agricultural and rural development stakeholders. It is intended to be a sourcebook for decision makers, especially at...

Les 130 exploitations familiales étudiées dans 9 pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest et d'Afrique Centrale n'ont pas les mêmes caractéristiques selon qu'elles soient implantées en zone sahélienne ou en zone de savane (superficies plus grandes et meilleure sécurisation foncière, taille légèrement plus importante des familles au Sahel qu'en Savane). Ce sont des exploitations agropastorales dans...

A warm welcome to Dimitra newsletter 23, which outlines the project’s most recent activities and achievements, especially the development and growing impact of the Dimitra listeners’ clubs. These successes are producing growing recognition for the Dimitra approach and a strong increase in the number of partnerships. This issue also presents...

Ce présent travail s’inscrit dans le projet ANR ECLIS dont la question de recherche centrale est de comprendre : « de quelle façon l’élevage contribue à la réduction de la vulnérabilité des ruraux et à leur adaptabilité aux changements climatiques et sociétaux en Afrique sub-saharienne » ? ( ANR, ECLIS...

Strong rural organizations like producer groups and cooperatives are crucial to hunger and poverty reduction. They allow small producers toplay a greater role in meeting growing food demand on local, national and international markets, while improving their own economic, social and political opportunities. This thinking connects a series of case...

GIAHS are found throughout the developing world, linked to centers of diversity.  Agroecosystems cover more than one quarter of the global land area, reaching about 5 billion hectares. Agroecosystems are ecosystems in which people have deliberately selected crop plants and livestock animals to replace the natural flora and fauna.  

FAO is supporting a micro-financing scheme known as "warrantage" that is empowering smallholder farmers to make more money out of their crops and helping relieve food insecurity. (Ref.F0012/en)

Welcome to Dimitra Newsletter 22. This issue places the spotlight on the Dimitra community listeners’ clubs, with a special dossier made up of several articles that focus on the impact of projects under way, the development of this approach and the launch of new initiatives.

This issue focuses on particularly innovative activities that enable women to have better access to land in several African countries. In Niger, thanks to the debates that began in their listeners’ club, the women of Banizoumbou now have secure access to a large plot of land for 99 years. This...

The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys which have collected information on many dimensions of household well-being for over 36 countries since 1980 are one of the most important data sources for informing policy making on development. The LSMS surveys have been used to assess household welfare, to understand household...

This publication summarizes the unique experience of the community listeners’ clubs set up in Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo by FAO-Dimitra and its partners. These action based information and communication processes have proved so successful that Dimitra decided to share the experience. The first chapter offers a brief...

Meeting food security, nutrition and gender equality objectives entails applying development approaches that allow rural communities to participate and take control of their future. Of the many approaches used by FAO, there is one that is particularly effective at enabling the most marginalised groups, including women, to take ownership of...

The present ability or otherwise of Africa to cope with climate change and improve its agricultural production depends on the environment and natural resources base of the continent, on the impacts of its past and on the nature of its present interactions with the outside world. Africa is a large...

Agriculture remains an important means of alleviating poverty, but shortage of finance can constrain its development. At the same time, agriculture is evolving towards a global system requiring high-quality, comptetitive products, and is organized in value chains which often exclude smallholders. Value chain financing in agriculture offers an opportunity to...

Dar voz a las poblaciones rurales, en particular a las mujeres, es el principal objetivo de Dimitra, un proyecto participativo de información y comunicación en la FAO. Dimitra también pretende destacar las contribuciones de las poblaciones rurales a sus comunidades para poner de relieve su papel decisivo en el desarrollo. Este proyecto...

Located in the center of Niger, Keita Department is a 4,860 sq km plateau with rocky slopes and valleys forming a complex system of watersheds subject to strong winds and water erosion. Plateau slopes covered by forests in 1962 were completely deforested by 1984. As in other Sahelian nations, droughts...