Library

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.

This slide presentation introduces the role of micro-insurance and, in particular, weather-indexed insurance as an option for adaptation to climate change in the agricultural sector. In fact, there are many constraints in the traditional crop insurance especially due to moral hazard and asymmetric information. The presentation ends with an overview of the IFAD-WFP Weather Risk Management Facility. 

This activity report looks at the benefits of biogas including providing poor rural women and men in developing countries with clean and renewable energy all year round. The advantages of biogas technology are illustrated by a case study from Eritrea.

This video introduces the issue of heat waves in Jordan. This climatic phenomenon creates considerable concern among the local population: exceptionally hot weather across Jordan made many farmers worried. Jordan, already among the world’s top 10 water-poor countries, is the only country in the Middle East to ration water year round.

This activity report presents an IFAD supported project aimed to turn waste into energy in China. In particular the project recognised that animal manure is a source of methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas when released to the atmosphere. But methane can also be captured and used as a source of clean, renewable and affordable energy. The project provided about 30,000 poor households with nearly 23,000 ‘biodigester’ tanks for biogas production. As a result, methane emissions dropped, incomes rose and household sanitation and health improved. 

This video introduces the issue of biogas as an alternative source of energy. Animal manure is a source of methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas when released to the atmosphere. But methane can also be captured and used as a source of clean, renewable and affordable energy. An IFAD-supported project in China provided about 30,000 poor households with nearly 23,000 ‘biodigester’ tanks for biogas production. As a result, methane emissions dropped, incomes rose and household sanitation and health improved.

This slide presentation provides an overview of the efforts undertaken by IFAD’s Asia and Pacific Division to address climate change. Examples include the cooperation with the Global Mechanism to link climate change and land in the Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) for Viet Nam, the promotion of payment for environmental services (PES) through the RUPES project, and the pilot of index-based weather insurance products through the IMI funded pilot-project in China.

This slide presentation is about the main findings of an IFAD portfolio review carried out by the Environment Desk in IFAD’s Technical Advisory Division. The portfolio review revealed that IFAD strengths concerning adaptation lie in the following areas: (i) community empowerment, (ii) promoting access to land and natural resources, (iii) supporting community-based approaches, (iv) addressing the gender dimension, (v) building on traditional and indigenous knowledge, and (vi) supporting pro-poor research.

This curriculum covers the CLIMTRAIN project: a climate change tailor-made training programme for IFAD’s Programme Management Department. The main goal of the CLIMTRAIN project is to support directly IFAD’s Programme Management Department (PMD) in building its capacity both in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

This activity report  observes that national frameworks to reduce poverty and adapt to climate change rarely, if ever, interlink. Most Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) and National Development Strategies (NDSs) screened during a review by ODI ignore climate change issues almost entirely. Gaps and disconnects between climate adaptation and poverty reduction frameworks undermine efforts to cushion the poverty impact of climate change. More effort is needed to improve links between climate change adaptation plans and projects and country-led poverty reduction strategies.

This analytical report examines the impact of desertification on women, their role in the management of natural resources and drylands, and the constraints they face. It presents the experiences of several IFAD-supported programmes and projects in addressing women as natural resource users and managers in dryland areas, and highlights some of the approaches used to reach women more effectively. It also presents lessons learned from IFAD programmes and projects, and recommendations for expanding women’s roles in order to restore dryland areas.