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Five hundred millions farms worldwide provide most of the food consumed in the developing world. However, farmers, in particular smallholders, are frequently marginalized from decision-making processes, depend on agriculture and lack access to markets, services, technologies and economic opportunities. This hinders their economic potential, perpetrating low productivity, poverty and hunger. Farmer to farmer exchanges can improve small producers’ organizational and technical capacities, increasing their productivity and reducing rural poverty. Farmer to farmer exchange is an example of South-South Cooperation, which provides opportunities for mutual learning among countries through sharing experience and field visits. This is an important component of the [...]

Cash transfers have become a key social protection tool in developing countries and have expanded dramatically in the last two decades. However, the impacts of cash transfers programmes, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, have not been substantially documented. This book presents a detailed overview of the impact evaluations of these programmes, carried out by the Transfer Project and FAO’s From Protection to Production project. The 14 chapters include a review of eight country case studies: Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, as well as a description of the innovative research methodologies, political economy issues and good practices to design [...]

Women play key roles in rural economies. However, compared to men, rural women often experience greater constraints in accessing resources, services and opportunities. Brave Ndisale, Director Ad Interim of the FAO Social Policies and Rural Institutions Division together with Illaria Sisto, Gender and Development Officer explain the importance of empowering women and achieving gender equality to ensure food security and reduce rural poverty. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages, to achieve this.  See all videos in the Policy and Governance series :  AR  CH  EN   FR  RU  SP

Women play key roles in rural economies. However, compared to men, rural women often experience greater constraints in accessing resources, services and opportunities. Brave Ndisale, Director Ad Interim of the FAO Social Policies and Rural Institutions Division together with Illaria Sisto, Gender and Development Officer explain the importance of empowering women and achieving gender equality to ensure food security and reduce rural poverty. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages, to achieve this. See all videos in the Policy and Governance series :  AR  CH  EN   FR  RU  SP

One in five people in developing countries live on less than $1.9 dollars a day. Seventy-five percent of these people live in rural areas. They depend directly on small-scale farming, forest resources, livestock and fishing for their subsistence. Philippe Ankers, Senior Programme Advisor of the FAO Strategic Programme on Rural Poverty Reduction together with Susan Kaaria, Senior Officer of the FAO Social Policies and Rural Institutions Division explain how empowering people and strengthening rural institutions including small-scale producer organizations can significantly contribute to reducing rural poverty and eradicating hunger. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages.  See all [...]

Since 2009, FAO’s MAFAP programme has been working in several developing countries to create sustainable policy monitoring systems and carry out a consistent set of policy and public expenditure analyses across a wide range of agricultural value chains. MAFAP works with government institutions, research organizations and other partners to establish a community of practice on policy measurement, monitoring and analysis by developing institutional capacities to systematically analyse government policies and their effects. MAFAP analyses are used to inform targeted food and agricultural policy reforms that will result in a more conducive environment for agricultural investment and productivity growth, especially for smallholder farmers. MAFAP’s [...]

High levels of investments are required to unleash the potential of agriculture for sustainable development and poverty reduction in developing countries, but low public budgetary allocations to the sector have slowed growth. To address this problem, innovative partnerships that bring together business, government and civil society actors are increasingly being promoted as a mechanism for pooling much-needed financing while mitigating some of the risks of doing business in the agriculture sector. Commonly referred to as public–private partnerships (PPPs), these initiatives are expected to contribute to the pursuit of sustainable agricultural development that is inclusive of smallholder farmers. However, there remain [...]

Seventy-five percent of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas. The agricultural sector, therefore has a key role to play in poverty reduction and improving rural lives. Maya Takagi, Deputy Leader of the FAO Strategic Programme on Rural Poverty Reduction, together with Ana Paula De La O Campos, Programme Adviser explain the importance of promoting inclusive economic growth; long-term support to the rural poor; social protection; empowerment of rural women; decent rural employment; equitable access to land and resources; and strengthening rural institutions are key in creating new income generating opportunities. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy [...]

Social protection has helped lift millions of people out of extreme poverty.  However, seventy percent of the world population, particularly in rural areas, still lack social protection coverage. Benjamin Davis, Strategic Programme Leader ad interim of the FAO Strategic Programme on Rural Poverty Reduction together with Natalia Winder Rossi, Social Protection Team Leader of the FAO Social Policies and Rural Institutions Division explain how enhancing social protection systems in rural areas can contribute to reducing poverty and ending hunger. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages. See all videos in the Policy and Governance series :  AR  CH  EN [...]

Approximately 30% of food produced for human consumption around the world is either lost or wasted each year. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes of food. Robert VanOtterdijk, Agro-Food Industries Officer and Camelia Bucatariu, Technical Officer of the FAO Nutrition and Food Systems Division explain the importance of actively preventing and reducing food loss and waste and its direct contribution to food and nutrition security for all. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages. See all videos in the Policy and Governance series :  AR  CH  EN   FR  RU  SP