IFAD social reporting blog: bangladesh

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Improving market access in South-West Bangladesh

Posted by Francesca Aloisio Tuesday, September 5, 2017 0 comments

By Christa Ketting

“Of course, we can build 197 markets – if we would start tomorrow, then we could be finished in a couple of months. But that is not the point.” says Luthfur Rahman, project director of the Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project –CCRIP- in Bangladesh. “We won’t have any development impact when we randomly construct markets without taking their location into account” he concludes.

CCRIP constructs climate-resilient road infrastructure and markets sheds in order to improve market access in south-west Bangladesh. The project is implemented in 32 upazilas (unions) in 12 districts in the south of Bangladesh. The 12 districts are known to be among the least developed of the country and vulnerable to natural disasters such as tidal surges, cyclones and floods. The goal of CCRIP is to improve the livelihoods (higher incomes and food security) for poor households. In order to do so, it upgrades markets in the selected areas and rehabilitates the access roads towards them.

For monitoring and evaluation purposes, the location of CCRIP markets and roads are uploaded in Google earth. As Google earth allows you to consult historical images, the project is able to track how CCRIP markets develop over the course of years. For example, the footage below is that of the “Post Office Bazar” located in the Babuganj upazila of the Barisal district, which has been established in 1988. In 2013, most of the market activities took place alongside the main road.

Photo credits: maps prepared by CCRIP Project Monitoring Unit Bangladesh

In 2014 CCRIP started with the construction of retail market sheds and open platforms, as you can see in the picture below.

These markets are constructed on government donated land, called “Kash”. Besides market sheds, CCRIP also rehabilitated access roads and internal roads, as well as constructing toilet facilities around the “Post Office Bazar”. Moreover, the project replants trees along side roads in order to make up for the logged trees. To date, 7 kilometers of trees have been replanted.

The number of sales points considerably increased in the last two years, as shown on the picture below. In particular, in the area West of the market sheds, a livestock market now takes place every Wednesday and Sunday.

This growth can not only be attributed to the markets and roads constructed by CCRIP. Yet, it seems increased connectivity and by offering smallholders a place to sell surplus production contributes to livelihood development in the project areas. The majority of CCRIP markets thus saw an increase in goods traded and the number of traders.

Moreover, site selection seems key in order to trigger growth, especially for the rural poor. Most of CCRIP activities take place in the most remote and poor Upazila’s of Bangladesh. Moreover, the project upgrades “small markets” with around 10-50 outlets that serves the rural population. This stands in sharp contrast to the rural growth centres like the Gosairhat Bazar (below) that are upgraded by other financial institutions in line with their respective mandates.

Bangladesh, which is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, has a fast growing economy. Small scaled interventions like the CCRIP road construction and market upgrading allows the rural population to benefit from this growth. However, as implied by project director Luthfur Rahman, these intervention should be carefully planned and well implemented.

Improving gender equality in Bangladesh

Posted by Linh Le Thursday, November 10, 2016 0 comments

Written by: Members of the project team of the Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP), Bangladesh

Shova in her homestead garden. Photo credit, Aminul Islam, UISE

Gender equality is an essential component for sustainable economic development, and empowering rural women is vital to enable poor people to improve their livelihoods and overcome poverty. IFAD is addressing gender inequalities and discrimination by focusing on areas which can empower women economically and socially, including access to land, water, education, training, markets and financial services.

Providing equal opportunities for employment

In Bangladesh, the IFAD-supported Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP) introduced an approach called ‘Labour Contracting Society’ (LCS) that is gender responsive and focuses on poverty reduction. A Labour Contracting Society provides a way for women to improve their economic and social situation. The women’s wages, hours of work and benefits are equal to those of their male colleagues, and many invest their earnings in income generating activities.

The CCRIP targets extremely poor and disadvantaged people, mainly women, who have inadequate and often low-paying jobs, or live below subsistence level, to work with construction of project markets and roads. It has also selected poor women to be leaseholders of shops in the women section of the local market, and provided income generating activities trainings to LCSs members.

According to the field survey report and project progress report, so far a total of 5000 LCS members have engaged or are engaging in market and road construction work which generates short term employment for 538,710 work-days. Women participation in construction work stands at 78 per cent against a target of 80 per cent. In terms of leadership, the president and secretary positions in a LCS are designated for women, and at least two out of eleven Market Management Committees are led by women.

LCS members, men and women, have already showed increased self-confidence as a result of becoming LCS members. They earn an income that many of them could not generate before. In addition women specific sections within the market platforms, and women shops have motivated them to have a more active role in the markets and in voicing their views on community decisions.

Shova's story

Shova Rani is one of the project participants. After ending a bad marriage she was left with the responsibility of running the household consisting of her two younger sisters, mother and her daughter. Shova and her family had to live in their neighbor's house for a few months. She says: “I was not very happy because we were really stretching their hospitality, but there was nothing much I could do. Then I heard that the CCRIP was developing Chutukhar Hat (the local market) under a contract with the LCS group members and I began to hope that their help would bring relief from this pain.”

The LCS that Shova and her sisters took part in was contracted to develop the Chutukhar Hat Market, and this presented an opportunity for them to earn a steady income. With help from the Upazila administration, they got housing materials to make a shelter and they were able to move out from their neighbor's house. Shova says: “In the months of distress, my mother had forgotten how to laugh. The day when the profit of the contract work of the market development was distributed among the members of the LCS was the first day she laughed again after a long time.”

With the income Shova received she built a new permanent home. Shova and her sisters also received livelihoods training and are making a business plan. “We will buy a cow which my sister will tend, along with the vegetable garden she is planning. And I will do fish farming and duck rearing. I hope our situation will improve so much that we never have to beg for help, ever again," she says.

Mobilization and Leadership Training for People’s Cooperatives in Bangladesh

Posted by Ariel Halpern Monday, November 23, 2015 0 comments

Four women groups from Mohalbari, Surail and Damoir villages in Northern Bangladesh participated in a two-day leadership and mobilization training in Dinajpur to spread the initiative of successful women-led cooperatives improving the livelihood of the rural poor. Among the 51 participants, most were landless women coming from Hindu, Muslim and indigenous communities.

The training, organized by ALRD in partnership with SUSTAIN, is part of the project’s innovation plan that received ROUTASIA’s award of 2,500 USD last year.

ALRD’s Innovation Plan entitled “Strengthening Women’s Empowerment and Livelihood through Access to Land and Market” was launched in July 2015, as a result of ROUTASIA’s Learning Route on women’s empowerment in Nepal’s Chitwan and Kapilvastu districts, in December 2014. With the financial award and technical assistance of IFAD-PROCASUR’s ROUTASIA programme, ALRD and SUSTAIN, its local partner in Dinajpur, are now implementing the plan in the northern region of Bangladesh, where the existing farmer groups are located. ALRD’s plan aims to secure equitable land access and control for marginalized landless communities, including farmers, indigenous peoples, religious minorities and women in particular, and to improve their livelihood through effective management of natural resources.

Using local resources, local technology and indigenous knowledge, ALRD’s action plan integrated the People’s Initiative or “Gonoprochesta” model. This initiative promotes sustainable, small scale, family-based organic farming and rural enterprises, and provides direct access to land and market for disadvantaged communities, which in turn contribute to the country’s food security. The Gonoprochesta model empowers women by advocating their recognition at policy making level, and by enabling access to public land and to supporting services such as bank credits, agricultural inputs and technology, information and knowledge, and policy dialogue with government institutions. During the process, women are encouraged to create their own capital collectively, and to invest it in agricultural production of food and organic fertilizers.

By transforming into People’s Cooperatives, the initiative sets a unique example to improve quality of life without external financial assistance. It also creates an alternative market for the products of small farmers and entrepreneurs united by cooperative groups, creating a wide range of employment opportunities in rural Bangladesh, particularly for women. In terms of diversification, cooperative farmers use different types of production, including agricultural cultivation (rice, vegetables, fish) and fertilizer production (earthworm compost).

To analyze the socio-economic context in Bangladesh, the path of change and the participants’ respective roles in it, ALRD used a participatory discussion method. All participants agreed to the new vision of the People’s Initiative process promoting social and economic changes to improve their life and to protect their children’s future. They selected a name and a leader for each of their group, and they set up a work plan for the next three months. To create their initial capital, participants decided to save a handful of rice twice a day and to organize their weekly meeting on Fridays, where the saved rice is put on sale to generate financial resources for each group to be used for income generation activities. This collective way of farming enables them to use their small land as a homestead. It was also agreed that all activities would be monitored and guided by SUSTAIN, ALRD’s local partner organization.

International Women's Day 2015: Empowering rural women to achieve food and nutrition security

Posted by Beate Stalsett Thursday, March 12, 2015 0 comments

Written by Anja Lund Lesa and Larissa Setaro

In celebration of International Women’s Day IFAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) jointly organized an event that focused on empowerment of rural women. The celebration took place on 6 March at IFAD headquarters, and among the attendees were staff from IFAD and its partner agencies, representatives of civil society organizations and around 50 students from universities in Rome.

The theme for International Women's Day 2015 was "Empowering Women – Empowering Humanity: Picture It!" To celebrate that theme, a call went out to IFAD-funded projects asking them to submit photos from their work on women's empowerment in their countries. More than 100 photos were shared from 22 country offices around the world. See highlights here.

This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. International Women's Day was therefore a special occasion to celebrate achievements made since Beijing and to discuss remaining challenges. In light of this, the Rome-based agencies dedicated the celebration to empowering rural women to achieve food and nutrition security. The event was followed by a Gender Share Fair where a number of organizations showcased innovative practices designed to empower rural women.

The International Women's Day event at IFAD on 6 March.
©IFAD/Giulio Napolitano

'If you invest in a rural woman, you invest in a community'

The opening speech by IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze emphasized that women are the backbone of rural societies. But unfortunately, many of them are also doing the back-breaking part of the work, and their access to productive assets and services is limited in most rural areas. Many studies have shown that rural women's economic and social empowerment leads to improvements in agricultural production, food security, nutrition, economic growth and social welfare. Their empowerment has a positive impact on themselves, their families and their communities. As Nwanze said: "If you invest in a rural woman, you invest in a community." Gender equality opens doors to entire communities, and the Beijing +20 anniversary is an opportunity to do more to recognize the role of rural women, provide them with more opportunities and better access to assets, and strengthen their voices in decision-making processes.

Significant achievements – but more needs to be done

In her statement at the event, Marcela Villarreal, Director of the Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development at FAO, also highlighted Beijing +20 as an occasion to reflect on what has changed in the past 20 years. On the development scene, significant progress has been achieved, she said. Millions of people are out of poverty and hunger, and development processes are now involving multiple actors, including civil society and the private sector. There is more awareness about gender inequality and the costs of not involving women in development. But many challenges remain, and rural women fare worse on all human development indicators compared to men and urban women. Rural women are still burdened with heavy domestic and care-giving workloads in most societies; in sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 40 billion hours every year to fetch water. Hence, more needs to be done to build on existing achievements. Let's not wait until Beijing +40 to see real advancement in the conditions of rural women, Villarreal said.

Field experiences

Four stories were presented in a panel discussion on nutrition, community mobilization, livestock and land. Those areas are all essential to empowering women to achieve food security and nutrition security.

Britta Schumacher, Programme Policy Officer at WFP, presented the work of REACH, which stands for ‘Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger and under-nutrition’. A very informative video showed experiences from REACH in Bangladesh, reporting on misleading cultural messages about child feeding and diet during pregnancy – for instance, that eating less during pregnancy to ease childbirth, or that feeding infants with water and honey so that they 'talk modestly' when they grow up. In addition, the video illustrated the weak status of women within households and communities – highlighting the issue of teenage and child marriages, and women's lack of decision-making power. Through participatory approaches, REACH aims to bring women out of the household, interact and share experiences to increase their knowledge on nutritional issues. Women's knowledge about nutrition is essential for the healthy growth and development of their infants, and for the well-being of women, of the household and, ultimately, of the community as a whole, enabling them to rise out of poverty.

Woman in Niger holding a land lease contract
©FAO/ Andrea Sánchez Enciso

Andrea Sánchez Enciso, Gender and Participatory Communication Specialist at FAO, presented information on FAO-Dimitra 'listening clubs' and the Joint Programme on Rural Women's Empowerment in Niger (which involves FAO, IFAD, WFP and UN Women). The Dimitra clubs created spaces for farmers to discuss issues affecting their livelihoods, so they could collectively build a strategy in order to bring about real change. In the case presented, insecure land tenure and access to water were constraining farmers' lives, but through community mobilization they were able to obtain a 99-year land lease contract of 3 ha of arable land, in addition to drip irrigation. Such a participatory approach enhanced leadership capacities and gave participants the needed confidence to present their arguments before different actors.

Antonio Rota, Lead Technical Specialist-Livestock, Policy and Technical Advisory Division, IFAD, stressed the important role that women play in livestock (e.g. milking and carrying feed and water to animals), and how livestock programmes can be important to women's empowerment as an entry point for other development activities (e.g. education and micro-credit). Indeed, through the Family Poultry Development Programme in Afghanistan, women – mostly widows and destitute – were provided with assets in the form of chickens, along with appropriate and gender-sensitive training. At least 75,000 women benefitted from the programme, increasing profitability by 91 per cent, and boosting egg and chicken consumption by 88.9 per cent and 67.7 per cent, respectively.

Women in Afghanistan working with poultry
©IFAD/Antonio Rota

Mino Ramaroson, Africa Regional Coordinator at the International Land Coalition, introduced two African experiences of women's networks – the National Federation of Rural Women in Madagascar and the Kilimanjaro Initiative – advocating for their rights to land and natural resources. These two examples of mobilization of rural women benefitted them by strengthening their confidence to express their needs and work together towards the recognition of their rights.

These programmes are all working towards women's empowerment, to finally picture it! And they share their successes in:

Creating a space for women, bringing them out of the household, interacting with other women and sharing their experiences and knowledge
Building capacities on specific issues (health, nutrition, livestock, land rights and taking action together), thus improving their confidence and self-esteem
Enhancing women's assets, allowing them to earn additional income and have a role to play in household decision-making
Recognizing women for their knowledge, skills, strength and contribution to the household and community.

Unlocking women's potential

In her closing remarks, Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of WFP, stressed that the Rome-based agencies need to work together to be more effective and efficient. We are serving the same population, she said, and the efficiency which donors demand is also demanded by the beneficiaries. She also emphasized that the global community will not advance if 50 per cent of the population are locked inside their homes, without influence and without having a voice. We need to unlock this potential, Cousin said. To do this, men need to stand up for gender equality, and women need to speak up to support other women.

Building strong partnerships for nutrition and agricultural development

Posted by Roxanna Samii Thursday, October 16, 2014 0 comments

by Kanayo F Nwanze

Every night, 842 million women, children and men go to bed hungry. Every day 8,000 children die needlessly from conditions linked to under-nutrition. Globally, 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient malnutrition.

These statistics are well known, but they bear repeating. The burden of under-nutrition is incalculable, and the ramifications for children are particularly severe. When a child is deprived of essential nutrients in the womb and during the first two years of life, the resulting damage to physical and mental development can lead to a lifetime of health problems and unrealised potential.

There is not only a moral and social imperative to address under-nutrition, but an economic one. It is estimated that childhood malnutrition will cost the global economy some $125 billion in lost GDP growth by 2030.

It is one of life’s cruel paradoxes that many smallholder farmers, who do so much to help feed their nations, are too often hungry and malnourished. It is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s hungry people live in rural areas. Investing in nutrition through smallholder agriculture is more than a social good. It is sound development policy and good economics.

For years, many in the agricultural sector thought that under-nutrition could be solved by a simple equation: increase agricultural production and incomes, and better nutrition would automatically follow. After all, if you grow more food and earn more money, you can consume more food and nutrients. We now know that income growth alone does not guarantee good nutrition. Despite better yields, higher revenues and greater access to markets, the rates of under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiency remain unacceptably high in many rural regions.

Over the last few decades, we have learned important lessons that have helped us ensure that agriculture – the biggest employer in most of the regions where IFAD works -- contributes to better nutrition. First, there is compelling evidence that women’s education, health, nutritional status and decision-making power have a significant impact on the health and nutritional status of children. Women are the primary care givers in rural households, and when women earn money, they are more likely than men to spend it on food for the family. More than half of the reduction in malnutrition between 1970 and 1995 is attributable to improvements in women’s status and education. Empowering and educating women must be a principal goal of agricultural development.

We put this knowledge to work in Bangladesh, where we partnered with the government and WorldFish to introduce nutrient-dense small fish to poor communities. As part of the project, families were educated on the importance of nutrition, particularly for pregnant women and young mothers. As a result, malnutrition and stunting have been reduced significantly.

Second, we need to address issues of wastage and post-harvest losses so that farmers can make the most from what they grow and reduce the amount of extra food they need to grow. Today, there is no shortage of food globally — the world grows enough. But in sub-Saharan Africa, between 20 and 40 per cent of crop production is lost because of poor processing and storage. We see similar problems in poor rural communities in every region where we work: Asia, Latin America, North Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.

Investing in modern storage facilities means that farmers can keep their produce safe during harvest seasons so that it can be eaten or sold at a later date. We have seen this in Timor-Leste where two-thirds of the population is considered food insecure. More than 60 per cent of the children where we work are chronically undernourished. Low crop productivity has long been a problem in Timor-Leste, but when farmers were first offered high-yield maize seeds, they hesitated. They were already losing 30 per cent of their stored maize every year to pests.

IFAD joined forces with the Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Australian government to provide better storage and better seeds, which we expect will increase food availability by 70 per cent. The secure storage also creates an incentive for farmers to adopt higher yielding varieties and should allow them to wait for the off-season when prices are higher. Secure storage also creates an opportunity for farmers to climb the value ladder, moving into alternative income activities, such as producing food for livestock. As this example shows, low production and waste are two parts of a complex, dynamic equilibrium that locks rural people into cycles of poverty. Such complex problems demand systematic solutions and strong partnerships.

Thirdly, we must ensure that knowledge and science serve agriculture. Scientific advances can improve the nutritional value of what we grow. We have seen innovations such as quality protein maize, which offers 90 per cent of the nutritional value of skimmed milk, or the bio-fortification of key crops to address micronutrient deficiencies — such as vitamin A in sweet potato. These are already making a difference to food and security but more needs to be done to help farmers grow and sell a more diverse range of foods. There are more than 50,000 edible plants in the world, but studies show that rice, maize and wheat provide 60 per cent of the world’s energy intake. Several indigenous crops are known to be more nutritious than the ones we eat today, while fruits and vegetables provide micronutrients that are vital for good health. Through science, we can improve the quality of available food, and through education, we can ensure that this translates into better nutrition.

In order to improve dietary quality for people of all ages in a community, behavioural change is necessary. That means there has to be a convergence of efforts and inclusive partnerships so that people have the nutritional knowledge as well as the resources to satisfy it. On a community level, diversified crops, more nutritious varieties and higher incomes may only amount to better harvests in the barn and money in the bank, not better meals on the table and food in children's stomachs. As we have seen, by taking spectrum of actions and increasing knowledge of care and feeding practices, household diets, and the preparation and storage of food, we can turn mere growth into real gain.

As appeared on Business Fights Poverty blog

Embracing challenges as opportunities for transformation

Posted by RimaAlcadi Friday, February 21, 2014 0 comments

By Rima Alcadi

The panel discussion on "Stories from the field : Investment in the transformation of rural people’s lives" involved 4 of our Country Programme Managers/Country Directors: Cristiana Sparacino, for Burkina Faso; Esther Kasalu-Coffin, for Haiti; Nigel Brett, for Bangladesh; and Nadine Gbossa, for Kenya. The panel was moderated by Kevin Cleaver, IFAD Associate Vice President for the Programme Management Department. The event was very useful for us to learn more about how IFAD-funded projects are transforming and having an impact on the lives of rural people. As highlighted by Kevin, IFAD overall is quite successful – with an 80%success rate. We can flaunt achievements in terms of positive impact on women, and on the environment. Our major challenges are working in fragile states, scaling up, ensuring that women have equal access to resources, and confronting environmental issues – particularly in the face of climate change. The stories from our Country Programme Managers/Country Directors are detailed below.

Burkina Faso: farmers coping with climate change

The Sahel is highly exposed to the impact of climate change and farmers in Burkina have been struggling to cope with climate change variability for decades. Because of this, they developed several agronomic practices, based on traditional land management techniques. These include soil and water conservation techniques and agro-forestry. IFAD works with farmers to improve their local techniques and support their innovations. As a result of IFAD and partners’ interventions, the phenomenon of re-greening of the Sahel is now taking place. Farmers have benefited from productivity increases in a series of nutritious, drought resistant and mainly rain-fed crops, such as sorghum, cowpea and millet. With climate change becoming more and more of an issue in the Sahel, fortunately successful agronomic practices adopted in Burkina Faso are being scaled out to other countries. What Cristiana highlighted as major ingredients contributing to success are: (a) supporting farmers’ knowledge; (b) ensuring government support; and (c) basing project design on lessons learnt from the field. Scaling out to other countries in the Sahel took place because she championed it: when she was Country Programme Manager for Mauritania, she went for a supervision mission in Burkina Faso and, when she saw farmers’ innovative agronomic practices, she promoted these in Mauritania by building these into the design of a new project.

Haiti: forging strategic partnerships to address capacity issues

Esther Kasalu-Coffin (photo by Suyun Kim)

Haiti is a country where IFAD has operated for over 35 years. Rural poverty reduction in Haiti is a challenge for several reasons, including the fragility of key public institutions. Just imagine: Haiti has experienced 10 extreme natural disasters in the past decade, amongst which the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, which shocked the entire world and devastated the country. Throughout all these hardships, public institutional capacity has suffered. Notwithstanding these difficulties, IFAD funded investment projects have directly benefited more than 500,000 people in the rural areas. Because of the erosion in capacity in public institutions, IFAD and the government of Haiti have resorted to forging strategic partnerships at the national level, for instance with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to support the process of program management, as well as at the local level, well-established NGOs in the country, such as Welthungerhilfe. IFAD partners with the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the European Union, to build the capacity of institutions in the sector, in a comprehensive manner. The out-posting of Esther Kasalu-Coffin herself is another valuable support that IFAD management is providing to the government.

Bangladesh: small fish = big difference
Bangladesh is covered with floodplains and rivers, which represent a rich ecosystems for freshwater fish. The floodplains comprise 80% of the country. Fish is essential in the Bangladeshi diet, constituting the main source of proteins and micro-nutrients in poor rural households. More than 80% of the animal protein in the Bangladeshi diet comes from fish. Yet the capture fishery is often badly managed. Productive water bodies attract the attention of powerful local elites and poor rural people often find themselves excluded and unable to benefit from this essential resource. The leasing system of these water bodies was for 3 years, providing no incentive for these resources to be managed properly. As a result, water bodies were exploited mercilessly. In 2003, the Government of Bangladesh worked with IFAD to change the leasing arrangements from 3 to 10 years and explored ways to ensure that poor fishermen could benefit from the water bodies. User groups with poor fishermen, and including women, were set up and supported to benefit from the new longer leasing arrangements. The results – from the financial, social and environmental perspectives - have been tremendous, as user groups are now investing in improving the fish production habitat of their water bodies. An evaluation of the project, by World Fish Center, noted that biodiversity and fish production increased significantly. The nutritional status of children also increased (with a notable decrease in stunting). This success is now being scaled up, with the involvement of other donors (Spanish Funds and JICA).

Kenya: the poverty reduction business

Nadine Gbossa (photo by Jean-Philippe Decraene)

In Kenya, the government worked with the EU to introduce an input subsidy scheme, whereby farmers received improved seeds, fertilizers, and training on agronomic practices that led to a 150% increase in productivity. However, these excellent results were not sustainable as, without government support, farmers could not sustain the production surplus. Government of Kenya and the European Union approached IFAD to capitalize on the experience in supporting smallholders. The agreement was scaling up what works, but going beyond increasing productivity only. Productivity was understood as only one element of the equation. A value chain approach was also needed and access to financial services was a third essential element. Because IFAD recognised that smallholders needed to access the financial sector to sustain the investment in their business, IFAD brokered a partnership with Equity Bank – a leading bank when it comes to lending to small holders. Smallholder were registered, given credit cards to access inputs, provided with training in financial literacy and access to credit – not for philanthropic reasons– but because Equity Bank recognised that the programme support will mitigate risks and that the investment was good business. Banks are usually averse to investing in agriculture as it is considered a risky business. By providing better inputs (such as quality seeds, irrigation, capacity building on agronomic practices, fertilisers and so on), IFAD, the EU and the Government of Kenya are basically helping to hedge against the risks inherent in agriculture, thus making agriculture better business for Equity Bank as well as other banks!

These 4 stories give us a taste of what are the type of challenges IFAD staff face. However, these stories above are not only stories from the field – these are also stories of successful development practitioners, who have passion for what they are doing and who are not shying away from the inevitable difficulties and challenges they face. They are also stories of leaders who work in partnerships with others to identify opportunities and achieve great goals –IFAD’s goals. Listening to our 4 colleagues, I felt that there was a lot to learn from them, and that they were quite successful development practitioners who are helping us build the reputation of IFAD as centre of excellence. I asked myself: what makes them successful? I think that it’s their unwavering commitment, persistence, resilience, and especially their ability to deal with challenges.

IFAD’s first Gender Awards honour achievements in gender equality and women’s empowerment

Posted by Timothy Ledwith Friday, October 25, 2013 0 comments

At its latest Town Hall staff meeting – held on 18 October, just a few days after the International Day for Rural Women – IFAD announced its first Gender Awards for special achievements in gender equality and women’s empowerment. While the awards single out specific IFAD-supported initiatives for recognition, hundreds of other programmes and projects are also working to ensure that both women and men participate in, and benefit from, IFAD’s investments. As Kevin Cleaver, Associate Vice President for Programmes, noted at the Town Hall meeting, women now account for 49 per cent of all rural people benefiting from IFAD-financed operations.

IFAD launched the Gender Awards this year in line with its gender policy, adopted in 2012 to guide the institution’s work on closing gender gaps and improving the economic and social status of rural women. In each of the five regions where IFAD works, the award spotlights a programme or project that has taken an innovative approach to addressing gender inequalities and empowering women. The first round of awards went to operations funded by IFAD in Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ghana, Sudan and Uganda.

Following are brief profiles of the first IFAD Gender Award winners. Space does not permit detailed explanations of why each programme or project was selected, but the profiles highlight some of their innovative features.

Participants in the Sunamganj Community Based Resource
Management Project. ©IFAD

Asia and the Pacific
Sunamganj Community Based Resource Management Project, Bangladesh
This project has established labour contracting societies for the development of rural infrastructure, creating a unique opportunity for women to earn cash income. Women account for 40 per cent of the members of these societies, and their wages, work hours and benefits are equal to those of their male colleagues. Many invest their earnings in income-generating activities, which have further improved their economic and social situation. Women also comprise 75 per cent of implementation monitoring committee members, increasing their voice in community decision-making. And lessons learned from the project were taken up by the local government’s Engineering Department after the Project Director was selected to lead a team responsible for updating the department’s gender strategy.

The project team “was very proud of being selected for the award,” said Thomas Rath, former Country Programme Manager (CPM) for Bangladesh. “The award reflects what they have actively pursued in the project and as the institutional culture of the implementing agency: promoting a more gender-balanced, equitable development path.”

Family members participating in the District Livelihoods
Support Programme. ©IFAD

East and Southern Africa
District Livelihoods Support Programme, Uganda
This programme uses household mentoring to promote social inclusion and gender equality. All adult members of poor households are mentored together, enabling joint planning and priority-setting. Such family discussions ensure that not only men and women, but also adult children, have a voice in household decisions. Mentoring leads to behaviour changes such as workload redistribution and the inclusion of women and adult children, as well as men, on land registration certificates. The programme also encourages very poor households to start near-nil investments with their own available resources as a way of taking charge of their lives, and provides them with food security grants.

Alessandro Marini, CPM for Uganda, told the programme team that the Gender Award “is definitely deserved for the excellent work you have been doing with the household mentoring approach.” Lawrence Kasinga, Programme Coordinator, noted: “It is a great honour for us to be appreciated for the work we do. We promise to continue promoting the household methodologies as means of enabling the poor to come out of poverty.”

A beneficiary of the Rural Development and Modernization
Project for the Eastern Region. ©IFAD

Latin America and the Caribbean
Rural Development and Modernization Project for the Eastern Region, El Salvador
This project extends financial services to populations that usually don’t have access to them, focusing on women but not excluding men. The financial groups design their own fund management models. To close gender gaps and improve women’s quality of life, the project also supports literacy training circles; sexual health campaigns for women, men and couples; and fuel-efficient stoves, which reduce women’s time collecting wood. The project supported the formation of a women’s network, including women’s financial groups, to engage in dialogue with government (mainly at the municipal level) on securing and managing services.

“I would like to recognize the efforts made by people in the field,” said Glayson Ferrari dos Santos, CPM for El Salvador, referring to the project’s grassroots participants. “Many times we can´t see the true challenge that gender leaders face in their communities. They are trying to change years of years of a social inequality with respect to women and men.”

A celebratory moment for the Western Sudan
Resources Management Programme. ©IFAD

Near East, North Africa and Europe
Western Sudan Resources Management Programme,
Sudan
Through community initiatives and saving and credit associations, this programme has empowered women in a particularly difficult context in North and South Kordofan. These self-sufficient associations have developed a strong savings culture amongst rural women, who account for more than 90 per cent of their membership. In addition, women now have more time to spend on income-generating activities, thanks to water supply facilities provided by the programme, and more husbands are expressing appreciation for their wives’ contributions to household income and well-being. This experience has enhanced women’s confidence in undertaking new economic activities, lifted their status and strengthened their participation in community development committees.

The Gender Award “motivates the project team to further action for gender empowerment,” said Sara Kouakou, Associate CPM for Sudan. “It encourages them to make additional efforts to scale up and share the results achieved, and to improve knowledge and understanding of gender issues among rural communities.” -

Women involved value addition activities in Ghana. ©IFAD

West and Central Africa
Northern Rural Growth Programme, Ghana
This programme supports the production of crops grown by women in the target area – particularly shea trees – and the inclusion of women in other male-dominated commodity chains. Two-thirds of programme participants are women, up from one quarter in 2009 and far exceeding the target level of 30 per cent. The programme has increased women’s access to land and other productive resources, and some have been able to triple their incomes thanks to direct linkages to international markets. Women are now represented on district-level value chain committees, as well. The programme has succeeded by using various innovative approaches, including the sensitization of traditional leaders and local District Assemblies about women’s participation and empowerment.

Niels Bossen, Associate CPM for Ghana, said staff members in the country office “were very proud and happy to receive the award.” He added: “The programme will continue its efforts working for more gender equality in rural Ghana.”

Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme

Posted by Marjolein van Gelder Wednesday, September 18, 2013 0 comments

Informal Seminar Meeting shows the importance of upscaling climate proof concepts within the rural agricultural development agenda

Climate change imposes stress on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, as their low availability and access to capital makes it difficult for them to properly deal with environmental pressure. The large impacts that climate change has and will have in the future pressures us to rethink the way of our investment. IFAD has set up the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) which aims to increase the resilience of small farmers against the impacts of climate change. An informal seminar, which was held at the 17^th of September, informed country representatives about the urgency of the programme and the objectives of ASAP.

Biogas installation Mali

ASAP was launched in 2012, with a project in Mozambique currently running, and projects in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Djibouti and Mali to be starting soon. Another nine projects are in the design process and will be implemented over the next two years.

One of the main objectives of the programme is to get climate finance to smallholders: most climate funds are now directed towards mitigation efforts, and even if they are spent on adaptation, the funding barely reaches small holders in low income countries. Besides, smallholders are very often not taking part in the climate debate. ASAP will make an effort to alter this situation. The second objective is to mainstream climate change awareness across all IFAD’s work. This will be considered successful once climate change is part of our risk and results management and when, for example, our economic analysis includes the costs of climate change. By creating mechanisms for direct finance and the mainstreaming in other investment programmes, ASAP is contributing to increasing smallholders’ resilience to climate risks.

The programme considers how smallholder farmers are affected by climate change in several ways. It aims to support farmers in reducing the losses caused by an increased variable climate, by for example financing early warning systems or creating knowledge about crop variety. But it is also taking advantage of new opportunities. When temperatures rise certain regions which have not been available for agriculture until now, such as high altitude regions, could become accessible for agriculture usage. Thus IFAD will responds to both the negative and positive impacts of climate change. In addition, ASAP, is focused on the upscaling of existing practices and technologies and the supporting of new, innovative approaches. An example of upscaling is agroforestry and watershed management, whereas early warning investments are new innovative approaches which are to be implemented and further explored.

ASAP strengthens vulnerable links in the value chains as is the case of Bangladesh, where it is financing submersible road infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events. Climate change affects all stages of the value chain: from farmer to consumer. Therefore IFAD has created a programme which considers all those aspects in order to protect smallholders against the complex impacts of climate change.

One third of all IFAD's projects will have an ASAP component. They are funded by donor money received from Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden. However, the funding needs are enormous. In many regions a critical number of smallholders are threatened by the effects of climate change. In order to garner much-needed additional resources, we must demonstrate our effectiveness in reducing climate risks.

The Big Potential of Small Fish

Posted by Sarah Hessel Tuesday, July 16, 2013 1 comments

By Evan Axelrad

Small fish species are an integral part of the diets of many living in coastal or water-rich areas of the developing world. They provide important proteins, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals to compliment the consumption of carbohydrate-rich staple foods such as rice or maize. But paradoxically, even as rural fishers are beginning to improve their livelihoods by engaging in aquaculture and commercializing their catch, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies have persisted or worsened in places like Bangladesh, where approximately half the population lives below the food poverty line.

Experts from WorldFish at IFAD

This is because commercial aquaculture has emphasized the production of more profitable large fish species such as silver carp but overlooked the nutritional contribution that small fish can make, says Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, Senior Nutrition Adviser to CGIAR’s WorldFish Center. Dr. Thilsted, along with Dr. Patrick Dugan (Deputy Director General of WorldFish), came to IFAD headquarters in Rome on Friday, July 12^th to discuss the important role which small fish can and must play in aquaculture in the developing world. During their well-attended morning presentation, they also shared some of the latest findings and successes from a relevant IFAD-supported project in Bangladesh.

Dr. Thilsted noted that official estimates of fish production and consumption tend to exclude fish caught, consumed, and traded in rural areas – therefore, the nutritional benefits of the small fish that are widely eaten in such areas remain poorly documented and largely underestimated. Additionally, preliminary data has found that fish intake in rural areas of developing countries is decreasing due to factors such as population growth, increased urbanization, and changing consumer preferences. The situation is particularly acute in Asian countries such as Bangladesh, where recent changes in rice production systems have diminished small fish habitats and affected migratory routes and breeding grounds. At the same time, pond aquaculture has become increasingly centered on the production of larger species of fish; in Bangladesh, the cultivation of these fish for markets has involved the practice of poisoning all smaller fish species in the pond, under the false notion that such small species compete with larger species for resources. All of these factors have led to decreased small fish intake – and therefore decreased nutrient intake – among the rural poor.

But research done by Dr. Thilsted and her colleagues at WorldFish is working to bring small fish back to their rightful place at the table. The research has highlighted that small fish can provide an excellent and sustainable source of both income and nutrition for poor fisher communities. Importantly, WorldFish research has also found that small fish tend to promote more equitable intra-household food allocation than do larger species, benefiting women and children. This can be particularly crucial for pregnant or breastfeeding women and their infants, who need the nutrients offered by small fish for their physical and cognitive development.

To harness the potential of aquaculture to improve nutrition and health, WorldFish has partnered with IFAD in Bangladesh on a grant-funded project, Linking Fisheries and Nutrition: Promoting Innovative Fish Production Technologies in Ponds and Wetlands with Nutrition-Rich Small Fish Species in Bangladesh. The project targets approximately 1,500 households with small fish ponds in the northwest districts of Rangpur and Dinajpur – areas that experience particularly high poverty rates and seasonal food insecurity (‘monga’) – and approximately 500 households in the northeast district of Sunamganj, an area dominated by wetlands and open water fishing. The project has focused on introducing small, nutrient-dense fish species, particularly Mola (Amblypharyngodon mola) in highly efficient, diverse polyculture systems that include high value fish such as carp and freshwater prawn. It has involved the deployment of recently developed technologies and better management practices for small fish production, including the introduction of Mola broodfish in sanctuaries, closed fishing seasons, fishing gear regulations, and market linkages for small fish commercialization. Preliminary results show that small fish productivity in the project’s ponds has increased from less than one to more than three tons per hectare, with concomitantly significant increases in household incomes and nutrition.

Fisher in Bangladesh.

As part of this project, household members involved in small fish production have also been trained on methods to effectively process and cook small fish, with a particular emphasis on nutrition education. Getting mothers to value small fish so that they are used in the household’s meal preparation is an important aim of the project, says Dr. Thilsted. Finally, so that the important role of small fish may be better understood and more widely accepted, a consumption survey will be conducted in the project’s households. This survey, the first of its kind, will seek to capture species level consumption information as well as seasonal trends in fish consumption related to micronutrient nutrition.

Through such advocacy and education, WorldFish and IFAD are working together to spread awareness of the big part that small fish can play in improving nutrition. Hopefully, the idea will “catch” on.

Estimated number of small household ponds in Bangladesh: 4 million
Estimated minimal production of Mola/pond/year: 10 kg
Estimated contribution that Mola production can make toward adequate vitamin A intake in Bangladesh: an additional 6 million children

For further information please see:

How to build sustainable business links for smallholder farmers: Value chain development in Bangladesh

Posted by Sarah Hessel Thursday, May 16, 2013 0 comments

Small farmers are always linked to the local private sector, at the time when they buy input and tools from suppliers and when they sell their produce to traders and sellers. But often these linkage are not strong enough to secure high quality input and the necessary technical knowledge, hindering small farmers to increase their productivity and diversify into higher value agriculture production meeting the market demand.

The IFAD-supported Market Infrastructure Development Project inCharland Regions (MIDPCR) addressed this by systematically building linkages among the different actors of one value chain. The project’s Rural Enterprise Component (RED), implemented by the international NGO iDE, aimed at identifying and linking small-scale producers to lucrative market opportunities and adopting a systematic approach to develop sustainable value chains in the project area, one of the most remote and poor areas of Bangladesh.

Until today, the RED activities have led to an increase in crop yield and additional income per farmer ranging from BDT3,000 (USD 40, fruit garden) to BDT21,000 (USD270, fish), strong linkages between different stakeholders of a value chain; sustainable input supply and technical assistance for farmers through to 52 private sector institutions, 4 public agencies and 2 research organisations; adaptation of more than 30 new technologies (such as pheromone traps, pond water and soil testing services, hybrid seeds, plastic crate for vegetable transport, early separation of chicks and inoculum, a bacteria that when mixed with seeds can increase production by 20% and significantly reduces the need for urea fertilizer once plant is grown). Within the two years of project implementation, successful interventions were scaled up throughout the area, increasing the outreach from 20,000 to 72,000 farmers.

Nurul Amin,
Project Manager at iDE

Nurul Amin, Project Manager at iDE, explains the approach, success factors and lessons learned of MIDPCR’s RED activities:

How did the project strengthen the market linkage and value chains?

The activities, can basically be broken down in 3 steps: First, we identified the agricultural products with the highest commercial potential in the area through field work and studies. These products were chosen based on a number of criteria, such as the potential increase in overall productivity, number of farmers/households involved in the cultivation, geographic dispersion in the project area, potential to structure and strengthen the value chain, opportunities to introduce and access new technologies to improve quantity and quality of production and potential to link with MIDPCR markets. On this basis, we defined target interventions and cluster areas.

Following this, we started to build linkages among the relevant actors of the selected value chains. While local producers normally were only in touch with local traders/sellers when the production was concluded, RED activities brought relevant actors together before the actual production started, which allowed to identify market demand, input shortages and technical assistance needs. This was done through meetings and workshops, such as pre-season planning meetings on the village level, bringing together local suppliers, producers and traders to discuss product market demand, input supply, availability of services and a production plan for the coming season as well as linkage workshops on the Upazilla [sub district] level. These workshops brought together all actors along one specific value chain -the Market Management Committees, traders, suppliers, service providers, producers and relevant government officials – aiming at building relationships among farmers, input suppliers, service providers, traders/buyers; improving the capacity of farmers to seek services from other value chain stakeholders; and creating interest of input suppliers and buyers/traders to expand their business activities.

Finally, we built the capacity of rural producers enabling them to increase their production and meet market demands by organizing technical assistance and introducing new technologies. In our trainings, we brought in the relevant actors along the value chain as experts and business service providers. In Marketing and Management Trainings, for example, farmers learned how to turn their farming into a commercial activity, about their target markets and how to develop entrepreneurial capacity. Further, together with the farmers, we identified technical issues that were hindering them from increasing their production or meet market quality standards. We then facilitated private sector led technology demonstration at local level and organized visits, for example to expert farmers who were already very successful in their production or utilized new technologies or to the main markets where one specific product is sold or to input suppliers that were known for good quality inputs. While this supported farmers to clarify specimen with main sellers, exporters and marketing managers, it also increased their market access and strengthened linkages with value chain partners.

Do you expect these linkages to be sustainable?

Yes. As those interventions created benefits for all actors along the value chain, it is to be expected, that the created links will be sustained and farmers can continue to grow their business. Also, we already see a spill-over effect: While under MIDPCR mainly farmers who were already farming a particular product, other farmers in the region, once they saw the difference in income made through a new variety or technology, adopted the approach as well.

What were critical factors leading to the success of the project?

The main success factors during the implementation of the RED component were

that we applied a market development approach to secure private sector actors’ participation – if there is a business opportunity, the project intervention will be sustainable and beneficial to all stakeholders involved;
that we followed a bottom up approach to ensure that activities were demand-driven and addressed the actual needs of farmers, rather than imposing activities and products from the project; and
that the roads and markets constructed under MIDPCR’s infrastructure component ensured an enabling environment for farmers to access markets as well as for suppliers/traders to come to the farm gate.

What are the lessons that you take away from this project?

Looking back at the RED activities, there are a number of lessons that we have learned, such as

combining value chain development activities with access to finance (as applied in MIDPCR’s NGO activities) will help farmers to adopt new technologies/varieties;
both husband and wife should participate in activities as our experience shows that both are controlling different areas within the household, and both joining in the training enables them to take a joint informed decision rather than one partner blocking it;
increasing farmers associations’ business management capacity can ensure sustainability of project interventions and increase benefits for farmers;
working with trader associations can potentially open up additional connections for farmers on quality inputs and selling channels;
competition is a key factor to ensure quality for the farmers;
the private sector should be involved from the design stage if a project is targeting increased private sector involvement.

Infrastructure development in Bangladesh: Building rural livelihoods

Posted by Sarah Hessel Friday, May 10, 2013 1 comments

Do improved roads increase the availability of medical services in remote areas? They do. In addition, they also improve the mobility of women, the availability of products and agricultural inputs in rural markets, the possibility for children to reach their schools and the connectivity of rural producers with suppliers and buyers, as the Market Infrastructure Development Project in Charland Regions (MIDPCR) shows.

Charlands in the coastal area of Bangladesh.

Jointly funded by the Government of Bangladesh, IFAD and the Government of the Netherlands, MIDPCR has been working since 2006 to improve the livelihoods of women, men and children living in the one of the most remote and poor area of Bangladesh, regularly struck by cyclones and subject to flooding. Poor road infrastructure limited access to larger markets, increased production costs due to high input and transportation costs, and lowered prices due to remoteness. With a total investment of USD43.9 million and targeting poor primary producers, small traders (both women and men), and women laborers MIDPCR constructed road and market infrastructure, created employment opportunities in construction works and providing training and access to financial services to support start-up of income generating activities.

LCS member with her ID card, enabling to sell
her produce at the market toll free.

Over the implementation period of 7 years, 432 km of road and 66 markets were constructed under MIDPCR. Instead of using regular contractors, the project worked with Labor Contracting Societies (LCS) for market infrastructure and village roads. LCS are groups of women who, after receiving training, construct roads, market infrastructure and boat landing stages. In an area where employment opportunities are scarce and women traditionally do not work outside the house, this was a rare opportunity to earn some money. The majority of group members were coming from landless households, in many cases the women were heading the household. For their work they did not only receive a salary for every day worked, they also received part of the profit made during the construction works. Upon conclusion of their works, many of the women joined MIDPCR’s partner NGOs who offered training and microcredit to support the women in taking up an income generating activity. While the women spent their daily salary on family consumption, many used the profit earned to purchase assets such as land to cultivate vegetables or livestock. So while the LCS work is a one-off opportunity, it can start a development path. Manju Rani, who is the sole income earner for herself and her little son, for example, used part of the BDT 25,000 (USD300) profit from constructing Mothertoli Bazaar to buy a milk cow and a calve. Some of the milk she uses for family consumption, the remaining milk she sells at the market. As all LCS members, Manju received a toll free card that enables her to sell her produce at the market without having to pay toll. Once she has raised

After participating in the LCS works, Irani Begum leased a shop
in the Women Market Section of Nazirpur Market.

the calve, she plans to sell it to buy a second milk cow. Ex-LCS members report that in addition to an increase in income and savings, the period of food shortage has been decreased, in some cases even eliminated, and many women used their building skills to improve their own houses. And they say, that their work and the fact that they now earn money has strengthened their self-confidence and position in the community. One ex-LCS member even decided to run in the Union Parishad elections. And won with a large majority. “We are now known as skilled persons”, said Manju, “and we know that we can stand on our own feed.”

Pharmacy at Nazirpur Market.

In addition to creating employment opportunities for women, the roads and markets built under MIDPCR had another effect: they triggered a socio-economic development in the region, benefiting the entire community. Nowadays at the markets, people can purchase more or less the same products as in bigger cities, including seeds and other agricultural input. Markets are growing by additional shops, restaurants, pharmacies that are built through private investments. Shops and tea stalls are opening up alongside the road – all this creates additional employment opportunities, particularly for landless households. Surveys, conducted in the project area, shows the impact of the improved infrastructure on the life of rural people:

Travel costs have decreased significantly, thus connecting remote villages to social services and the market. Passenger fares for motorized vehicles on project roads have decreased by 8% on market days and 38% on non-market days, while control roads show an increase of 134% and 88% respectively. A similar trend is observable for transport of goods.
Travel time has decreased as the average speed of motorized vehicles has increased by 136% during dry season and 182% during monsoon and the average speed of non-motorized vehicles has increased by 114% during dry season and 155% during monsoon.
95% stated that the access to health service has improved.
87% responded that the access to schools has become better (and some respondents added, that the quality of teachers has improved as they are now willing to be posted in this area), school enrollment in primary schools nearly doubled between 2006 and 2013.
87% answered that access to markets has strongly improved and that goods and services have become more affordable.
50% stated that mobility of women has increased, respondents also said that women can now travel alone. A large part of respondents on the other hand said, that women still not travel to nearby towns or markets. However, girls' enrollment in primary education more than tripled and women report improved access to maternal and child health care programs.
70% responded that their food security has improved, of which 40 said it has strongly improved. Respondents also mentioned the increased variety of available food.
75% indicated an increase in income since the construction of the road, with 26% mentioning a large improvement as new roads reduce travel time and increase accessibility of jobs, ultimately allowing increased income. In addition, the newly constructed roads have encouraged road based employment, such as different transportation modes and road maintenance for destitute women.
Value of land has increased, varying strongly between 7% and 900%.

Building on this experience, the Government of Bangladesh and IFAD, in partnership with ADB and KfW will scale up MIDPCR’s infrastructure component in the Coastal ClimateResilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP), which is expected to benefit 3.5 million people in selected Upazillas of 12 coastal districts.

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