Biblioteca

This policy document was prepared for the Round Table on Climate Change at the thirty-first session of IFAD’s Governing Council. It presents a discussion on the impact of climate change on agriculture and smallholders farmers. Among the many mitigation measures currently under development, some could provide new opportunities to hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers, pastoralists and forest dwellers, through their roles as sequesters of carbon, through the changes they can make in their land use and cultivation practices to reduce GHG emissions, and as small scale producers of clean energy.

This policy document presents IFAD approach to climate change, rooted in the IFAD Strategic Framework 2007-2010. Climate change hazards affect poor rural people in developing countries and efforts have to be promoted to strengthen their long-term resilience to climate change. While an increasing number of IFAD-supported projects address climate change adaptation issues, the challenge is to ensure that all IFAD activities at the country level are consistently built on an understanding of the potential effects of climate change and that they take these effects into account as necessary.

This slide presentation provides an overview of IFAD’s experiences,  lessons learned and evolving approach to climate change. IFAD will implement the following four key actions in order to improve its strategy: take all possible measures to climate-proof IFAD operations; develop climate change strategy to ensure common understanding of potential effects of climate change; use core funding, plus new sources of funding and scale up engagement in climate change issues; work with partners to (a) support development of post-Kyoto regime that responds to needs of poor rural communities, and (b) work with them to benefit from the new regime once in place.

This technical document discusses  the potential role of agricultural research in improving small farmers’ productivity and ability to adapt to and mitigate climate change. It also analyses how to increase investments in international research and sharpen its focus on the challenges faced by regions that are most vulnerable to climate change.

This document discusses the issue of climate change impact on agriculture. It highlights that the future of global food security is highly dependent on two important and inter-related factors. The first is the degree to which developing countries will succeed in raising agricultural productivity through technological change and effective natural resource management. The second is the degree to which the world will succeed in limiting climate change, while helping developing countries adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects.

This document shows that there are many ways in which IFAD could strengthen its engagement in climate change adaptation. Active participation in the Nairobi Work Programme (NWP) on impacts, vulnerability and assessment is one of them. While IFAD’s Global Environment and Climate Change (GECC) Unit is the institutional focal point for the programme, adaptation-related work is taking place throughout the organization.

This slide presentation discusses the linkage between rural development and climate change. It presents the issue and some relevant questions such as: how should current approaches change because of climate change? Is it possible to generalize over what the rural poor would ask for from global climate negotiations and what would this be?

This video shows a BBC interview with IFAD’s President on the link between climate change and agriculture in Africa.

This video looks at the Pacific islands of Kiribati that were among the last places to be colonized by humans. Today, because of rising sea levels, they may be among the first to be abandoned. Should Kiribati President Anote Tong surrender to climate change and evacuate?

This document presents an interview with IFAD President, Mr. Kanayo F. Nwaze, published by IDN-InDepthNews. Mr. Nwaze stresses the necessity of investments in the agricultural sector. In fact, this is fundamental to deal with two actual global challenges: food security and environment conservation, while generating wealth and propelling the economy.

This video shows a MSNBC interview with IFAD’s President on climate change and the risks related to this phenomenon. IFAD’s President highlights that a catastrophe is pending if climate change is not halted.

This technical document presents the proceedings of the Governing Council Round-table organised during the thirty-first session of IFAD’s Governing Council. The paper focuses on the impact that climate change has on agriculture and looks at the solutions that can be implemented, involving rural communities. The document deals also with the issue of biofuel expansion and the risks/opportunities that this development can create for poor people.

This technical document, prepared for the thirty-first session of IFAD’s Governing Council, considers the pros and cons of the debate over the potential social, economic and environmental impact of the increase in biofuel production. It also recognizes that the developing world has its own set of bio-energy issues, which can be different from those of the developed world.

This document contains the opening remarks by IFAD President as chair of the round table on food security at the UN Leadership Forum on Climate Change. The President stresses that agriculture is where climate change, food security and poverty reduction intersect. In addressing the challenge of food security and climate change, the world faces therefore three inter-related challenges: first, the need to double food production by 2050 to meet growing world demand; second, the need to adapt agricultural production to shifting weather patterns; and third, the need to minimize agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions while maximizing its potential to mitigate climate change.

This document includes a statement on food security and climate change by IFAD President at the University of Ottawa. The President underlines that feeding 9.1 billion people will require that overall global food production grow by 70 percent and that production in the developing countries would need to almost double. Climate change is one of the main challenges in this regard. However, this issue can be addressed effectively if governments, the private sector, and civil society organizations take the required measures at both the international and the national levels. 

This paper discusses how deforestation is both a main driver and a consequence of land degradation. Forest degradation and forest land conversion are different aspects of the same problem, caused by multiple and interacting factors, such as economic growth, macroeconomic policies, population movements and the legislative framework, intertwined with climatic variation, economic activities and urbanization, among others.

This document looks at the relationship between IFAD and GEF: IFAD is an executing agency of the GEF. The GEF is one of the main financial mechanisms for addressing climate change and represents a strategic partner for IFAD. Together, the GEF and IFAD are addressing the intertwined issues of poverty alleviation, sustainable land management and climate change. IFAD helps countries access funding opportunities with the GEF for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

This slide presentation is about the updated IFAD’s Environmental and Social Procedures (ESA) released in late 2008. In particular, it presents how to create a more effective response to climate change, how to develop low carbon country strategies, how to reduce vulnerability and how IFAD can improve its action with new partnerships.

This slide presentation shows an overview of the recently established Disaster Risk Management (DRM) partnership between IFAD, WFP and FAO, also known as RP3. This Rome-based agencies’ partnership aims to jointly promote DRM for vulnerable people in high-risk countries prone to disasters in the food and agricultural sectors.

This slide presentation shows a concrete example of integration of climate change adaptation in IFAD’s operations based on the agriculture-related NAPA priorities of Sierra Leone. The presentation highlights the country’s vulnerability to climate change, the theoretical approach behind NAPA integration and the expected adaptation benefits.