The FAO Rural Institutions, Services and Empowerment (RISE) Team contributes to strengthen rural institutions and organizations, facilitating the socioeconomic inclusion and empowerment of people engaged in agriculture, including small-scale producers, rural women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and poor rural communities. Its work helps mobilizing their contribution to food systems transformation and shaping their role in the realization of rural prosperity.
The RISE Team is part of the Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality (ESP) Division of FAO.
RISE provides policy advice and technical assistance; supports stakeholders’ capacity development; and works on generating knowledge, undertaking advocacy and establishing partnerships.
These activities, which work towards inclusive innovative and transformative rural institutions, are undertaken across four Work Areas: Community Engagement for Empowerment; Inclusive Rural Finance; Rural Services; and Territorial Development.
RISE Work Areas
Community Engagement for Empowerment
RISE’s Work Area on Community Engagement for Empowerment, through the participatory process of community engagement for empowerment, supports rural communities in becoming agents of change to transform their own environments and lives.
Inclusive Rural Finance
RISE’s Work Area on Inclusive Rural Finance helps to address the micro-, meso- and macro-level constraints to the efficient, inclusive and sustainable functioning of the rural financial market.
Rural Services
RISE’s Work Area on Rural Services improves access to services through pluralistic systems for service delivery, promoting inclusivity, market orientation and empowerment of small-scale producers.
Territorial Development
RISE’s Work Area on Territorial Development involves the use of territorial approaches to food systems transformation and sustainable development.