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A new agricultural research centre is helping Pacific islanders fight the effects of climate change and feed their people. Its work in crop production and soil fertility under island conditions offers benefits not just for the Pacific region, but for island groups throughout the world.

Remote Pacific Island communities face increasing socio-economic and environmental uncertainty. The breakdown of traditional community structures has removed an important social safety net. But islanders are reasserting control of their economic and social well-being and achieving spectacular results with the help of an IFAD-supported programme.

In the Pacific Islands, farmers have traditionally used organic farming methods, but because their produce was not officially certified, they were unable to enter the US$18 billion global market. Now, with the help of new regional organic standards, a growing number of island farmers are getting a good price for their produce in international markets, improving life for themselves and their families.

Two remarkable young women born in one of the driest, poorest countries in the world are showing their families and their communities the way out of poverty. Ibtsam and Sabah live in the Dhamar Governorate of Yemen, where up to 70 per cent of the population in highland villages lives on less than two dollars a day.

Increasing the knowledge and assets of poor families is an effective way to fight poverty. An innovative IFAD-supported project in the southern highlands of Peru provides grants directly to small producers and to farmers’ organizations so they can develop new income opportunities. Project activities are helping participants better manage natural resources and gain access to Internet services, financial services and insurance.

Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by human activities and climatic variations. Because of its toll on human well-being and on the environment, it ranks among the greatest development challenges of our times. The World Day to Combat Desertification focuses international attention on this growing problem. It has been observed each 17 June since 1995, the same year the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was iimplemented. Read more

“I had the wall here initially and that was destroyed by the very high tides in 2005. I built this quite some time back. Over the years that was destroyed so I rebuilt it,” explains Anote Tong, the president of Kiribati, a tiny coral island nation of 33 atolls stretching across the Pacific Ocean, with a total land area of 811 square kilometres.

Recent reports indicate that the rains have failed once again across vast swathes of Eastern Africa, putting millions of people at risk. This current regional crisis is a stark reminder to all of us that the global food security crisis of 2007 and 2008, which was marked by a sharp contraction in food supplies and food price spikes, is far from over. Food prices have come down from their peaks of 2008, but they are still at historically high levels. 
 

Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment levels are high among the 18 indigenous groups that live in Mindanao. The IFAD-funded Northern Mindanao Community Initiatives Resource Management Project has helped empower tribes to take the lead in the education of their children and in their own self-governance – two important routes to a better future.

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