-          IFAD’s strategic objectives aim to build the productive capacities of the rural poor, enhance their market access, and strengthen their resilience to climate change shocks.

-          How do we build resilience?

      Invest in value chains.

      Ensure inclusivity in decision making  this builds social capital, and social capital is integral determinant of people’s ability to adapt to and recover from a shock.

      Tailor-made solutions.

-          IFAD-supported projects improved income of 77 million people, the productive capacity of 62 million people, market access for 64 million people, and resilience of 38 million people.[1]

-          An assessment of IFAD’s investments after its last replenishment (2019-2021) found that project participants were 14 percent more resilient to multiple shocks (including climate change) than farmers in comparison groups.

-          The rural landscape feeds the population of the world. Investments in rural communities may positively impact food security, nutrition, and livelihoods across geographies and an urban-rural divide.

-          Support to the food systems is necessary to tackle the world’s food security crisis.

      About 29.6 percent of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022, of which about 900 million (11.3 percent of people in the world) were severely food insecure.[2]

• Worldwide, food insecurity disproportionately affects women and people living in rural areas. Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 33.3 percent of adults living in rural areas in 2022 compared with 28.8 percent in peri-urban areas and 26.0 percent in urban areas.[3]

-          Around 1.23 billion people were employed in the world’s agrifood systems in 2019, and almost half the world’s population, live in households linked to agrifood systems.

      Of these 1.23 billion people, 857 million worked in primary agricultural production, while 375 million worked in the off-farm segments of agrifood systems.[4]

• Small-scale farmers produce 30-34 per cent of global food supply on just 24 per cent of global cropland (IFAD, RIDE).[5]

-          As outlined in the IFAD Rural Development Reports of 2016 and 2021, Structural transformation starts with improvements in agricultural production, with increased efficiency helping to release labor for other productive activities in the manufacturing and service sectors. If rural people are forced to migrate to cities, we skip an essential step in the transformation process.

-          IFAD commitments (under IFAD 12) toward nutrition security as a pillar that builds the resilience of rural communities includes:

      11 million people with improved nutrition

      60% of new project designs are nutrition sensitive.

      90% of projects build adaptive capacity.

• 51 million people with improved production
• 55 million people with improved market access
• 28 million people with greater resilience

-          Key takeaways from an internal study on the Dietary diversity and food security in IFAD’s target groups:

      groups targeted by IFAD encounter significant barriers to accessing nutrient-rich food groups. Most notably, despite a positive correlation between household dietary diversity, food insecurity, and household income, especially in low-income areas, there are differences across regions.

      The analysis also emphasizes the need for a tailored approach to tackling food security and dietary diversity in fragile countries. People expect different levels of food security depending on the context they are in. Their reference points are relative and determine their responses to survey questions on food insecurity.

-          IFAD’s definition of targeting is more expansive than many other organizations because it has both strategic and operational meanings.

      Strategic, meaning IFAD is accurately allocating resources within country programs.

      Operational, meaning IFAD ensures all aspects of project design and implementation are reaching target groups.

-          IFAD uses six key approaches to targeting, all of which are used in conjunction with geographic targeting as the first layer of a targeting approach.

      Community-based targeting (CBT), using participatory approaches. This can take different forms including participatory vulnerability assessments.

      Objective indices: simple scorecards using a combination of proxies and simple weights and/or proxy means tests.

      Categorical

      Universal/geographic

      Self-targeted

-          IFAD has also responded to challenges in targeting through its recently updated targeting policy. This policy provides a clear definition of IFAD’s target group, an updated conceptual understanding of poverty, and principles to guide operations in successfully reaching its target group.