IFAD social reporting blog

This week from 3-4 April I had the opportunity to join thirty-one selected individuals from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who met in Cairo to discuss the sustainability of networking activities in the Near East and North Africa region. At the crossroads between East and West, networking is nothing new in the region. The exchange of goods, technology and ideas between cultures has been going on for centuries. But starting in 2005, IFAD and the International Centre for Rural Development, (IDRC) joined hands to use networking to improve the performance of their agriculture and rural development projects in a programme called the Knowledge Access in Rural Interconnected Areas Network, or KariaNet. The KariaNet approach, including collaborative research and capacity building, takes a page from a similar initiative between IFAD and IDRC in Asia and the Pacific called Knowledge Networking for Rual Asia/Pacific, or ENRAP.

But KariaNet, like ENRAP, is a development project. And stakeholders have been clear from the start that the external investments projects bring won’t last forever. So this week’s meeting focussed on what to do when this external financing comes to an end in 2013. To focus on this topic KariaNet commissioned a study by specialists in the field of networking and knowledge sharing, Heather Creech from the International Institute for Sustainable Development and Ziad Moussa from the American University of Beirut to look at the options for KariaNet’s future.

Stakeholders at the workshop were asked to evaluate the options set out in the study and come to a consensus about what they want to do between now late 2013 to secure future collaboration. While the study was referred to as the Devolution Study, what clearly captured the imagination of the network was not the devolution of network management and support responsibilities but rather the evolution of knowledge sharing and networking.

Virtually unanimous in their determination to carry on and improve knowledge sharing – irrespective of financial support they may or not receive from IDRC and IFAD in the future - the group concluded that what made sense to them was to focus on networking at the national level. Interestingly, this fit with the conclusions of the IFAD evaluation of ENRAP after Phase II and led IFAD to design ENRAP’s final phase focussing its support on improved networking amongst IFAD country programme partners.

As much as KariaNet participants are thirsty for new ideas from abroad, their priority is to build on the immediate benefits already experienced from knowledge sharing with colleagues working in the same agro-ecosystems with similar means of production, speaking the same language, and collaborating with the same ministries. In the ideal scenario they would also like to link to one another through an international or regional organisation to serve as a secretariat.

In the implementation of the KariaNet and ENRAP programmes, IDRC has helped stakeholders to test and document a range of approaches to knowledge sharing through both capacity building and network facilitation. Over the years innovations introduced have ranged from participatory mapping, to writeshops, videography, systematisation, online discussion groups, learning alliances and learning routes. KS/KM amongst partners that have been mobilised by IDRC and IFAD in these efforts have included ICIMOD, FAO, ILEIA, ICARDA, and PROCASUR. Some are also working with IFAD stakeholders in Africa and Latin America. As networking and knowledge sharing improve within both regions, network members will be better able to share across regions.

Thanks to the initiative taken by Elaine Reinke at IFAD and her colleagues Hammou Laamrani and Layal Dandache at IDRC we could compare notes on past experiences between the two networks. An unintended outcome, was that by sharing experiences we were building the kinds of relationships and trust that makes a foundation for future networking between the networks. Connecting regional networks to make up a global community of networks amongst IFAD stakeholders once seemed quite remote. The prospects of that happening have just improved.

by President Paul Kagame and Kanayo F. Nwanze

Without the support of the world's small farmers, climate talks such as those set for the Rio+20 Summit can never translate fully into climate action, This is why, as the focus shifts to building a global green economy, Governments, other policymakers and the business community from developed as well as emerging economies must recognize the inextricable linkages between climate change, the environment and food security – and, critically, bring smallholder agriculture into discussion.

Every day, smallholder farmers in developing countries confront the real world consequences of climate change and are often first to fall prey to fickle global markets or increasingly extreme weather events.

Yet smallholders cannot be ignored when it comes to climate change solutions:  the world’s half billion small farms  provide up to 80 percent of the food in  in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

Can we really count on these farmers, many of them desperately poor, to take a leading role in addressing the twin challenges of food security and environmental sustainability?  Can they produce more food while protecting the natural environment?

We believe the answer is a resounding yes.  Real world experience shows that they can.

Critical to success is adopting environmentally sustainable techniques that preserve and enhance the soil and ground water.

Examples include terracing to prevent soil loss and degradation through erosion and flooding; minimal or zero tillage, crop rotation and the application of manure, compost or mulching, to improve soil structure and fertility; and agro forestry systems that integrate trees with crops and livestock to produce more in sustainable ways.

The recent experience in Rwanda signals hope that increased agricultural output and environmental protection really can go hand-in-hand.

In Ngororero district in the country's southwest, for  example, an IFAD-backed project has seen Rwandan farmers increase crop yields by up to 300 per cent through improved methods, including using better seeds, good planting technologies and applying fertilizer at the optimal time.

On a larger scale, farmers across Rwanda are increasing the use of manure instead of chemical fertilizers that produce greenhouse gases. In some areas of the country, smallholders are now terracing their land and using other natural techniques to improve the water-holding potential of the soil, improving soil quality and increasing their output.

And while these approaches have proliferated during the past five years, Rwanda has quadrupled its agricultural production.  Today it is now a food-secure nation – remarkable progress in just a few years.

Importantly, Rwanda’s efforts to promote climate-smart agriculture are supported by a wider policy and investment framework that seeks to ensure that every farmer, however small, has access to improved seeds, technical know-how and, crucially, a market opportunity for their farm output. This is an important lesson for every developing country.  If we are to ensure that smallholders can produce more food in sustainable ways their farming should be profitable.

Accordingly, scaling up environmentally sustainable farming among smallholders throughout the world will require a reshaping of national policies and the architecture of public and private investment so as to ensure that farmers can learn these techniques, see their value and employ them profitably.

The lesson is simple.  Identify the climate-smart farming practices and techniques that can boost agricultural production, get the relevant know-how to smallholders, support them as they make the transition, and create an enabling policy environment.

If we do this, – and national policies and international development initiatives support a transition to a climate-smart agriculture – we have no doubt that smallholders throughout the world will step up and do their part.

Paul Kagame is President of the Republic of Rwanda. Kanayo F. Nwanze is President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an international financial institution (IFI) and a specialized agency of the United Nations


Originally appeared in Project Syndicate

par Ilaria Firmian