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Water to combat rural poverty Water is central to meeting all but foremost the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015. Global attention is mostly focused on the MDG regarding safe drinking water and sanitation. Given that approximately 70 per cent of the world’s mobilized water resources are used for agriculture, and that about half the world’s population will be suffering water scarcity by 2025, it is surprising that the international community has hitherto spent relatively little time or energy on these issues. Attaining other MDGs improves the prospects of success in water. However, MDGs are a set of outcomes that do not represent all processes of development. There are, for example, no MDGs for peace and security, economic growth or governance. Yet these and other factors bear significantly upon prospects of success in water. This complexity means that water is not always the main point of entry into development. Poor rural people face an intricate web of deprivations. Improvements to lives and livelihoods will place water resources under increasing, and in some cases, unsustainable pressure. These twin challenges set the scene for the need to look at water in all of its contributions to development – in health, in food, in livelihoods, in energy and industry – through development that does not jeopardise the integrity of the environment, both in developing and developed countries.
Millennium Development Goal 1: The Millennium Development Goals call for reducing the proportion of people living on less than US$1 a day to half the 1990 level by 2015: from 28.3 per cent of all people in low and middle income economies to 14.2 per cent. The goals also call for halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015. Livestock and rural poverty Nearly one billion head of livestock are kept by more than 600 million small farmers and herders in rural areas around the world Most of these livestock keepers – about 95 per cent – live in extreme poverty. Even though livestock keeping offers a promising opportunity to combat poverty in many developing countries, specially as the demand for animal products such as milk and meat continues to rise, most livestock policies and services tend to favour large-scale production. In order to take advantage of emerging market demands and reduce their poverty, small farmers and herders need access to basic services and technologies, such as veterinary care, good roads and grazing lands, as well as policies that take account of their needs. All creatures great and small For poor people, there are many benefits from keeping livestock – from the largest water buffalo to the smallest insect. Livestock are a form of currency. Livestock are used to resolve conflicts, pay debts and settle scores. A family’s place in society is often measured by the amount and kind of livestock it owns. When women own livestock, their social status can be improved, empowering them to participate in decision-making. The presence of livestock reduces the need for human labour in the fields. Getting access to the right resources These services include veterinary care, grazing lands, feed grain, reliable water sources, good roads, breeding technologies and access to financial services. When a national livestock project in Training and expert advice are also important Poor people themselves need to be involved in the development and selection of livestock services. Yet their needs are often neglected. Living far from big cities and often illiterate, rural poor people are seldom asked to take part in the development of policies or the structure of services. To be effective, livestock services need to address the reality that most rural poor people lack access to vital resources such as land, water, markets, credit, health services and education. One way to ensure that poor people are given a voice in decision-making is by helping them form official producer organizations. A project in the
Indigenous people and rural poverty
There are about 350 million indigenous peoples in the world. Although they account for less than 5 per cent of the global population, they comprise about 15 per cent of all the poor people in the world. The extent and persistence of poverty in many ways depends on whether poverty among indigenous peoples can be reduced by 2015. Poverty reduction among indigenous peoples is not simply a matter of service delivery. It is about equipping them with the capabilities they need to lead the kind of life they value, to be free from fear and to enhance their role as agents in transforming their lives. Living far from centers of commerce and power, indigenous peoples may find it hard to influence the policies, laws and institutions that could improve their living conditions and shape their futures. Many of them do not have the legal right to live on the lands they depend on for survival or to use the resources they have managed on a sustainable basis for thousands of years. Resources are increasingly exploited by outsiders, with few benefits flowing to indigenous communities and with little regard for the natural environment. In the past, paternalistic development schemes often attempted to assimilate indigenous peoples into mainstream cultures. Such efforts were not only unwelcome but were also unsuccessful. To overcome poverty, indigenous peoples need special assistance that is based on their own objectives and that addresses the barriers they face and helps them protect their livelihoods, heritage and cultural identity. Most indigenous peoples are proud of their diversity and of their languages and knowledge systems. In some cases, their unique cultural assets may help them raise their standards of living. Over the millennia many indigenous cultures have come to understand the importance of shifting cultivation, of recognizing plants with healing powers and of sustainable harvesting of food, fodder and fuelwood from forests. Revitalizing this knowledge helps improve food security, raise household incomes and foster self-esteem. Creating market links between indigenous communities and external buyers can increase incomes and reduce poverty levels. National and local economies can greatly benefit from the contributions of indigenous peoples to ecotourism and environmental services. There are many ways of enabling indigenous peoples to overcome poverty. One of the most effective is to support their efforts to shape and direct their own destinies, and to seek their free, prior and informed consent. By strengthening organizations of indigenous peoples it is possible to increase their ability to negotiate successfully with others on their own behalf. More and more indigenous peoples are seeking international recognition and the right to participate in defining agreements on issues that affect them, such as global warming. The creation of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in 2000 was a milestone. It marked a success for indigenous peoples in their campaign to gain a greater voice in the international arena. The Forum is an advisory body to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and it has a mandate to foster discussions of indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. Five annual sessions have been held since it was established and they have focused, among other things, on the Millennium Development Goals. An Inter-Agency Support Group (IASG) was established to support the mandate of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues within the United Nations System. That mandate was later extended to comprise broader support related to indigenous issues. The function of IASG is to allow the United Nations System and other intergovernmental organizations to examine proposals made by the Forum and to foster comprehensive and coordinated feedback as well as to mainstream indigenous issues within individual agencies. In the past five years, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have all chaired the IASG. The group is currently chaired by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). This year is very significant for indigenous peoples. On June 29, 2006 the newly created United Nations Human Rights Council adopted the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Work on the draft declaration dates back to 1982, when the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) created the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) with a specific mandate to establish a set of minimum standards to protect indigenous peoples. In autumn 2006 the proposed declaration will be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly for adoption. The proposed declaration affirms the right of indigenous peoples to preserve and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and heritage and to continue their development in harmony with their perspectives and visions. Source: IFAD
Trade liberalization and rural poverty Globalization and trade liberalisation carry with them tremendous challenges for poor countries and poor people, especially rural poor people, within poor countries. They carry also opportunities. In order for IFAD to be able to develop effective and relevant programmes and engage in effective policy dialogue and advocacy for pro-poor changes in the context of globalization and trade liberalisation, it needs to develop a firm grasp of the circumstances and situations under which countries or communities are affected by the opportunities and risks that these two processes generate. While there have been many studies which discussed, in general, the overall negative outcomes of globalization on the poor, what has been direly lacking, however, has been the collection of local evidence and the documentation of local situations affected by factors, both in the domestic and international policy environment, which emanate from the broader processes of globalization and liberalization. To address this IFAD has entered into partnership with the Third World Network and extended its financial support to undertake some case studies (including of its own programmes) that would provide, precisely, the evidence and concrete realities that would argue for pro-poor changes in the present global order and, more specifically, in relation to the international and domestic trade regimes. Source: IFAD Rural institutions and rural poverty
Water users’ groups, agricultural producer and rural workers associations, rural credit unions, women and youth associations and other self- help groups are all examples of institutions. They have been traditionally defined as organizational entities with procedures and regulatory frameworks. Institutions can be referred to as the ‘rules of the game’, that include: (a) mandate; constitutional and environmental factors; boundaries within which actors and organizations operate; (b) the relationships between actors and organizations within a number of fields of interaction; and (c) the motivations, incentives and rewards for actors and organizations to engage and participate in a given activity. Institutions are also the formal and informal constraints on political, economic and social interactions.
Given that the majority of the poor live in rural areas, the institutional context of rural institutions is pivotal to reducing poverty and fostering development. This is particularly true for countries where diverse institutions and organizations mediate the access of the poor to assets, technologies and markets. They also usually regulate customary practices and administrative processes that determine whether the poor benefit from such access or would be affected by it. Additionally, there is overall agreement on the fact that the chance the poor have to influence rules and to help control organizations depends on their power and informed participation. Why do institutions matter that much? Both formal and informal rules of the game and organizational entities can exclude or include different members of society from any given right, service, assistance and, ultimately, benefit. Institutions also promote social cohesion and stability, reducing civil conflict and muting the adverse consequences of economic dislocation and change.
For the rural poor, good institutions and organizational entities are twice as important, as isolation and weak performing institutions impact considerably on their well-being. Additionally, the rural poor suffer from extremely limited provision of public goods, which further acts against actions aimed at reducing their poverty. Finding ways to change existing institutional situations and behaviour is not obvious; finding sustainable solutions will probably require fostering higher political development and awareness to overcome political and institutional incentives that lead to inefficiencies and exclusion. Source: IFAD (Round Table Discussions 2006)
Markets and trade for poverty reduction and rural development
The Millennium Development Goals, trade and markets 
The United Nations Millennium Declaration considers trade to be an important engine of growth, both as an earner of foreign exchange, and through its multiplier effects as a generator of income and employment. It recognizes that the main beneficiaries of trade liberalization have been the industrialized countries; that developing countries’ products continue to face significant impediments in accessing rich countries’ markets; and that it is precisely those basic products – mainly, but not exclusively, agricultural – in which developing countries are most competitive that carry the highest protection in the most advanced countries. The Millennium Declaration thus calls, among the 18 targets associated with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for “develop(ing) further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. This includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – nationally and internationally.” Among the specific strategies that it proposes for moving forward are:
The importance of markets for rural poor people Rural households have diverse livelihood strategies, encompassing a range of activities. For most, agriculture is a key element of their strategy; however, many are also engaged in non-agricultural activities, including microenterprises (agro-processing, trading and other off-farm occupations). Through these various activities, households seek both to ensure their food requirements and to generate the income they require to satisfy their immediate consumption needs, social purposes and investments. Interacting with agricultural markets is thus an important aspect of the livelihood strategies of many rural households, rich and poor alike. Markets are where, as producers, they buy their agricultural inputs and sell their products; and where, as consumers, they use their income from the sale of crops, or from their non-agricultural activities, to buy their food requirements and consumption goods. Virtually all households in rural areas are, by preference, both producers and consumers, buyers and sellers; and many sell agricultural produce and buy their food at different times of year. However, rural households that, for one reason or another, are unable to interact with these markets are prevented from adopting these diverse livelihood strategies; and indeed, in many parts of the world, rural poor people often say that one reason they cannot improve their living standards is that they face difficulties in accessing markets. For these reasons, improved market access is not an issue of consequence only to better-off producers, and it is not relevant only to cash crop, rather than food crop, production. It is of importance to all rural households, and assisting rural poor people in improving their access to markets must be a critical element of any strategy to enable them to enhance their food security and increase their incomes. If it is true that markets, and improved market access, are of critical and immediate importance to rural poor households, it is also evident that they are a prerequisite for enhancing agriculture-based economic growth and increasing rural incomes in the medium term. Rural incomes will not be substantially increased by exclusive emphasis on subsistence food crop production; rather, more market-oriented production systems are needed. These require the intensification of agricultural production systems, increased commercialization and specialization in higher-value crops. And these must be built upon the establishment of efficient and well-functioning markets and trade systems – ones that keep transaction costs low, minimize risk and extend information to all players, and that do not either exclude, or work contrary to the interests of, the poor – particularly those living in areas of marginal productivity and weak infrastructure. Source: Promoting market access for the rural poor in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, IFAD (2003) Rural poverty and desertification When fragile land in arid regions is overexploited by the demands of an expanding population, it loses its productive capacity. The results are devastating. Land degradation affects more than 1 billion people and 40 per cent of the earth’s surface. In the severest cases the land becomes infertile and useless, precipitating famine and drought. Every year 12 million ha of land are lost to desertification, and the rate is increasing. Desertification is a major environmental problem that is advancing at an alarming pace. Arid and semi-arid areas cover roughly one third of the earth’s surface. These dryland regions, which may or may not border on deserts, receive little or no rainfall. Their ecosystems are fragile and are easily stressed beyond their already limited capacity. In the past such regions were home to small groups of herders and small-scale farmers. The land was grazed intermittently and was left to lie fallow at intervals. Now dryland areas are increasingly subject to the pressures of a growing human population. The causes of desertification are many and complex, but it is essentially inappropriate and excessive human activity that initiates the process. Competition for land and limited resources lead to unsustainable land management practices. In some cases migration as a result of conflict puts undue pressure on fragile areas. In other cases it is mining that causes the initial damage. Fragile areas are deforested, overcultivated and overgrazed. Trees and bushes are stripped away to clear more land for cultivation, or to provide firewood and timber. In the process the plant cover that binds the soil is removed. Animals eat away grasses and erode topsoil with their hooves. Intensive cultivation depletes the nutrients in the soil, while poor irrigation practices waterlog the land, raising the soil’s salt content to unsustainable levels. Once soils have been rendered fragile and been depleted and plant cover has been lost, wind and water erosion aggravate the damage, carrying away topsoil and leaving behind a highly infertile mix of dust and sand. The effects of desertification are potentially devastating and in the worst cases are irreversible. Desertification reduces the land’s resilience to natural variations in climate and disrupts the natural cycle of water and nutrients. It intensifies strong winds and wildfires. Other long-term detrimental effects such as dust storms and sedimentation of waters and streams are felt at great distances from where the problem originates. The loss of agricultural land to land degradation is extremely costly, and not only in economic terms. Desertification leads to prolonged episodes of drought and famine in countries that are already impoverished and cannot sustain large agricultural losses. Rural poor people who depend on the land for survival are forced to migrate or starve. This process is repeating itself throughout the developed and the developing world. Africa is the continent most severely affected by desertification. Asia follows close behind, and China in particular has a very severe problem. Large parts of Latin America are subject to land degradation. Desertification also affects North America, Australia and parts of Europe where clearing of land, intensive cultivation and inappropriate irrigation have led to severe degradation. The world’s poorest countries, where people depend on the land for their survival, are hit hardest. Poverty, intense competition over resources and political instability in developing countries exacerbate the problem and make addressing it more difficult. In the most severe cases of desertification the land becomes unusable and degradation is irreversible. But it is possible to combat desertification by using particular techniques, and much can be done to stop land degradation from reaching the point of irreversibility. Financial resources are required, as well as a commitment on the part of governments to act to save the land. With careful management marginal lands can continue to feed the populations that depend on them. Source: IFAD
Land and rural poverty
Access to land and land tenure security are at the heart of all rural societies and agricultural economies. Having land, controlling it and using it are critical dimensions of rural livelihoods, and determine rural wealth and rural poverty. Land is not simply an economic resource. It is an important factor in the formation of social and cultural identity and in the organization of religious life. It is also an enormous political resource, defining power relations between and among individuals, families and communities under established systems of governance. In rural societies, landless or near-landless people and people with insecure tenure rights often constitute the poorest and most vulnerable groups. Poorer and marginalized groups tend to have secondary rights that rarely extend beyond use rights. And what rights they have are often unprotected and weak, especially in the case of women. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has worsened this vulnerability, particularly in Africa. Land issues have an impact on the everyday choices and prospects of poor rural people. For example, issues of land access and security of land tenure strongly influence decisions on the nature of crops grown, whether for subsistence or commercial purposes. Such issues also influence the extent to which farmers are prepared to invest (both financially and in terms of labour) in improvements in production, in sustainable natural resources management, and in the adoption of new technologies and promising innovations. They also have an impact on people’s access to financial services and on their capacity to interact and take advantage of markets. The structure and functioning of land tenure systems are important factors in determining how the benefits of agriculture-based activities are divided among various individuals and groups within households and communities. Land tenure systems can therefore have a major impact on the outcomes of externally supported projects and programmes designed to improve the livelihoods of poor rural women and men. At the same time, externally supported projects could further threaten poor people’s access to land and tenure security. For example, the introduction of new technologies or irrigation schemes often increases land values. If all existing rights, including secondary rights, group rights and multiple user arrangements, are not adequately considered, the technologies or schemes can result in the loss of access to land by poor and vulnerable groups. Similarly, the opening up of new roads to facilitate market linkages can result in the influx of new, often better-resourced settlers and an increase in social conflicts. Source: IFAD Poverty reduction strategy papers Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are at the heart of a new anti-poverty framework announced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1999. They are intended to ensure that debt relief provided under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, and concessional loans from the international financial institutions, help to reduce poverty in the poorest, most indebted Southern countries. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers describe a country's macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs to promote growth and reduce poverty, as well as associated external financing needs. PRSPs are prepared by governments through a participatory process involving civil society and development partners, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Core principles of the PRSP approach Five core principles underlie the PRSP approach. Poverty reduction strategies should be:
Sources: IMF, IUCN and World Bank Rural finance and rural poverty More than a billion poor people lack access to the basic financial services which are essential for them to manage their precarious lives.
Microfinance is one way of fighting poverty in rural areas, where most of the world’s poorest people live. It puts credit, savings, insurance and other basic financial services within the reach of poor people. Through microfinance institutions such as credit unions and some non-governmental organizations, poor people can obtain small loans, receive remittances from relatives working abroad and safeguard their savings. Accessing small amounts of credit at reasonable interest rates gives people with the willingness and knowhow an opportunity to set up a small business. Records show that poor people are a good risk, with higher repayment rates than conventional borrowers. In countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Benin and Dominica, repayment rates are as high as 97 per cent. Poor women often have the best credit ratings. In Bangladesh, for example, women default on loans less often than men, and credit extended to women has a much greater impact on household consumption and quality of life for children. Women’s status, both in their homes and communities, is improved when they are responsible for loans and for managing savings. When they generate and control their own income, women gain a level of power that means they can make decisions independently and command more respect. Source: Microfinance: macro benefits, IFAD (2004) Gender and rural poverty The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reflect the multiple dimensions of poverty. In establishing these goals, the development community also recognized the link between poverty and the situation of women by making the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women one of the main goals. Four indicators – relating to education, literacy, wage employment and political representation – are used to monitor progress. Eliminating gender disparities in education is given special importance, since education is seen not only as an instrument of empowerment, but also as an indication of the value society assigns to women. However, the relevance of women's advancement to the achievement of the MDGs goes beyond the explicit gender-related goal. Meeting the targets related to nutrition; maternal, infant and child mortality; reproductive health; and HIV/AIDS – and even those related to the sustainable management of natural resources – is directly affected by women’s roles as mothers, caregivers and natural resource managers, as well as by prevailing gender relations. Gender inequality perpetuates and deepens poverty
Despite the essential economic and caregiving roles they perform, women have significantly less access to financial, physical and social assets than men do; fewer opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills; and less voice in public decision-making. Women own less than 2 per cent of all land, and receive only 5 per cent of extension services worldwide. It is estimated that women in Africa receive less than 10 per cent of all credit going to small farmers and a mere 1 per cent of the total credit going to the agricultural sector. The most extreme manifestation of gender inequality and the disregard of women’s human rights is the fact that at least 60 million girls are ‘missing’, mostly in Asia, due to female infanticide or sex-selective abortions. Added to these are an estimated 5,000 women murdered each year in ‘honour killings’. The HIV/AIDS crisis, which is already reversing the economic gains achieved in some developing countries, affects women disproportionately, both as individuals and in their roles as mothers and carergivers. Over the next decade, the epidemic is expected to spread even further in developing countries, with one in four women and one in five men becoming infected. The epidemic is fuelled by cultural stereotypes, according to which men are expected to dominate and women to be passive in taking decisions about relationships. The need for women to care for sick family members, coupled with cuts in social spending, limits women’s ability to engage in productive and income-earning activities that determine not only their families’ wellbeing but also their own social and economic status. Thus HIV/AIDS is driven by gender inequality, and it also entrenches gender inequalities. Overall, the neglect of women’s needs and rights undermines the potential of entire communities to grow and develop. Poverty is therefore deeply rooted in the glaring imbalance between what women do and what they have – in terms of both assets and rights. As women’s status increases, so do the benefits to society. Studies have shown, for instance, that the major contributing factor to improved child nutrition is women’s socio-economic status, particularly their educational levels. In addition, the countries that have closed the gender gap in education the fastest have experienced the fastest economic growth. Other studies have concluded that when women farmers have direct access to knowledge and technologies, crop yields increase significantly. A World Bank review found that 74 per cent of 54 completed agricultural projects with gender-related action were rated satisfactory for overall outcome, compared with 65 per cent for the 81 projects with no gender-related action. An often-quoted study estimated that a specific project focus on gender increased agricultural productivity and output by more than 20 per cent. Data also reveal that HIV infection rates are higher where gender gaps in literacy are larger.
The Monterrey Consensus recognizes the need to “mainstream the gender perspective into development policies at all levels and in all sectors” in order “to strengthen the effectiveness of the global economic system’s support for development”. The centrality of gender equality and women's empowerment goals is also recognized in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The plan stresses the importance of enhancing “the role of women at all levels and in all aspects of rural development, agriculture and food security”. Similarly it recognizes that to effect needed changes, “women should be able to participate fully and equally in policy formulation and decision-making”. The reiteration of international commitments to gender equality and to the empowerment of women contrasts sharply with the inadequate progress that has been made in reducing gender gaps.Undoubtedly, persisting gender gaps are one of the reasons that poverty-reduction targets for the year 2000 were not met. If the new targets are to be reached, efforts and resources must be significantly scaled up and better coordinated in the future. Past experience shows that doing more of the same will not be enough. Nor will economic growth be sufficient if women continue to be denied opportunities. There is in fact a mounting body of evidence pointing to the need to expand women’s rights and representation, and to bring about cultural changes in order to reap the full benefits of economic growth. Individual countries, with the help of the development community, must trive to reach the MDGs in a context of globalization and increasing resource disparities. Globalization undoubtedly presents enormous opportunities in terms of increased access to knowledge (made possible by new information technologies) and to new markets and employment possibilities. However, it also poses special challenges for the more marginal groups. (Indeed, in an increasingly globalized world, income and Source: Women as Agents of Change, IFAD (2003). A community-driven development approach to fighting rural poverty What is community-driven development? Efforts to reduce rural poverty in the past tended to focus on increasing the income and food security of rural poor people. Increasingly, there has been a greater emphasis on the human and social factors that cause poverty. This broader understanding of the factors affecting poverty in rural areas has been reflected in many IFAD projects since the mid-1990s. Project design has stressed peoples’ participation and empowerment, enhanced social capital, demand-driven development and a community-driven development approach. Community-driven development (CDD) involves a degree of devolution of responsibility to communities for managing their development, including the design and implementation of projects. This requires that the communities themselves have the capacity to assume responsibility. It also requires a culture of public administration that views communities as development partners in their own right, rather than as simply recipients of benefits through public expenditure. The extent to which communities can shape their own development priorities within a project context defines the extent to which the project is applying a community-driven development approach. The CDD approach Community-driven development is a way to manage development, including the design and implementation of policies and projects, that facilitates access by poor rural people to social human and physical capital. CDD achieves this by creating the conditions for:
This approach emphasizes that CDD refers to the way a policy or a project is designed and implemented, not to the content of a policy or project component. It is concerned with community-based civil society and private sector organizations and with decentralization. Source: IFAD Learning and adapting Learning from the experiences of ongoing and completed operations is crucial to increasing the impact of rural development strategies, programmes and projects. Reliable feedback from operations provides rural development partners with the knowledge they need to analyse strategic implications, improve processes and results and, ultimately, learn how to do better in the future. The learning process should not only generate knowledge for rural development partners but it should also ensure that knowledge can and will be applied in practical and immediate ways. How experiences can be transformed into systematic, operations-oriented learning exercises is the theme of the Learning and adapting section. |
Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples On 13 September 2007, the General Assembly adopted a landmark declaration outlining the rights of the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous people and outlawing discrimination against them – a move that followed more than two decades of debate.
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African Development Bank Group (AfDB) African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) African Institute for Community-Driven Development (Khanya-aicdd) African Water Facility African Water Investment Strategies Asian Development Bank (ADB) Blackwell Sinergy (BS) Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) European Commission (EC) European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD) Fidafrique Fidamerica Foncier & Développement Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Freshwater Action Network Hub Rural and LandNet West Africa Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD)
International Land Coalition (ILC) International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Knowledge Networking for Rural Development in Asia and the Pacific Region (ENRAP) Land Tenure Centre (LTC) Linking Learners Livelihoods Connect Movimento dos trabalhadores rurais sem terra (MST) Multiple Use water Services Group (MUS) National Resources Institute (NRI) PROCASUR PRSP Watch Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) Progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Research Programme Consortium Soil and Water Management Research Network (SWMnet) Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) United Nations (UN) United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Economic And Social Commission For Asia And The Pacific (UNESCAP) United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) United Nations Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Via Campesina Water Footprint WaterAid West-African Market Information Network World Bank (WB) World Meteorological Organization (WMO) World Resources Institute (WRI) eCommunityLink to Bridge the Digital Divide
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Multilaterals
Amazon Alliance (AA) Asian Development Bank (ADB) European Union (EU) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Intellectual Property Rights and Sustainable Development Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal People of the Tropical Forest International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) International Labour Organization (ILO) International Work Group for Indigenous Affair Office of the United Nations High Commisioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Survival International United Nations (UN) United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) United Nations Human Rights Council United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigeneous People (UNPFII) World Bank (WB)
Bilaterals
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Norwegian Agency for Develop Cooperation(NORAD)
Research institutes, foundations and non-governmental organizations
Forest Peoples Programme(FPP) Indigenous Peoples International Centre for Policy Research and Education (TEBTEBBA) Indigenous Peoples’ Center for Documentation International Funders for Indigenous People(IFIP) Rainforest Foundation
Indigenous organizations
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Good management of even the smallest assets can be crucial to very poor people, who live in precarious conditions, threatened by lack of income, shelter and food. To overcome poverty, they need to be able to borrow, save and invest, and to protect their families against risk. But with little income or collateral, poor people are seldom able to obtain loans from banks and other formal financial institutions. And even when they do have income or collateral, the amounts they require are often too small to appeal to banks.
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