The Right to Food by Francis Adams

Author:Francis Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030602550
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Rural Development

Rural development initiatives have emphasized the expansion of non-agriculture enterprises. The Purchase-for-Progress (P4P) initiative, which is co-sponsored by WFP and FAO, provides training in a number of African countries on the process for initiating small handicrafts and other income-generating activities. Women have been the primary beneficiaries of this initiative. The profits generated from these enterprises are often reinvested to expand operations. IFAD has also provided technical and financial support for the development of agropastoral products.

Expanding access to financial services is integral to rural development initiatives. Because financial services are limited in rural areas, agricultural or small business investments often require borrowing from local lenders at excessive interest rates. When rural people have access to low cost credit, they are in a stronger position to invest in their farms and enterprises. IFAD has worked to expand financial services in a number of African countries.72 Its Rural Finance Institution Building Program (RUFIN) supports community-based financial services that are designed to meet the needs of rural communities. IFAD helped strengthen microfinance institutions and financial cooperatives in Benin, Burundi, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Sudan. In Ethiopia, IFAD provided capacity building training for members of rural savings and credit cooperatives.73 IFAD also worked with Kenyan banks to provide financial services to smallholder farmers, herders, fishers, and rural cooperatives. A range of new financial products were introduced, including savings and remittance services, community infrastructures loans, and value-chain financing.74 IFAD supported the Women Finance Trust, a microfinance institution that extends loans to low-income women seeking to establish small enterprises. In Zambia, IFAD provided technical assistance to help reform the institutional and regulatory environment for rural finance. These reforms enabled small-scale enterprises to access credit without needing land as collateral.75 Smallholder farmers and fishers in Mozambique were aided in the organization of self-managed financial associations. In Ethiopia, Lesotho, and Togo, IFAD assisted grassroots institutions tailor their financial products to the needs of small and medium size enterprises. IFAD supported development of a cashless credit model in Ghana that enables farmers to purchase seeds, fertilizers, and other agricultural inputs directly from service providers. In Chad, a joint IFAD-FAO project provided finance to women for the purchase of agricultural land.

The expansion of insurance products in rural areas has also been prioritized. WFP supported a program in Zimbabwe where farmers received weather index insurance that provides protection from drought. Farmers are reimbursed when rainfall drops to levels that correspond with drought conditions. In Ethiopia, Malawi, Senegal, and Zambia, WFP partnered with Oxfam to provide climate risk insurance to small-scale farmers. Recipients are required to engage in risk reduction activities in their communities that lessen the likelihood of weather-related losses.76

International assistance also aids small-scale farmers sell their commodities on broader markets. The WFP’s Market Access Initiative and Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) are designed to help African farmers receive fair contracts before planting and access commercial markets for their crops. WFP also finances the building of warehouses to store grain that allows farmers to bargain for better prices in commercial markets.

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