'In the 21st century, agriculture continues to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction. Three of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas—2.1 billion living on less than $2 a day and 880 million on less than $1 a day—and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Given, where they are and what they do best, promoting agriculture is imperative for meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 201 more...

This review by Geopolicity Inc. provides the theoretical framework for any research on food security and social protection through Employment Generation Schemes. It presents a ‘conceptual geography’ of important works of literature related to the latest evidence and informed by the best international experience. The subject of hunger can be tackled from rights, economic, social, environmental, agricultural and political based perspectives and therefore a combination of different factors are more...

This paper takes as a starting point an international conference, held in New York in April 2008, organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Global Policy Forum. The conference considered the right to food and the role of the United Nations in responding to the global food crisis. Seventy experts from more than thirty countries attended. This paper is not a formal account of the conference proceedings. Rather, it starts from the main themes discussed and tries to take the debate further – more...

This paper was prepared by World Food Program, which called for a twin-track approach combining long term development with direct intervention to broaden access to food.

'After two decades of indefensible neglect, agriculture is back on the agenda. The World Bank’s publication of the ‘World Development Report 2008: Agriculture For Development’ (hereafter WDR), the first WDR on agriculture since 1982, reflects this renewed interest in the sector’s potential to reduce rural poverty and inequality.

The context is now vastly changed: as the Report outlines, agriculture faces new challenges, from natural resource degradation, and climate change to trade an more...

'This short paper highlights the issues surrounding the availability of rural and agricultural financial services, through the formal financial system, in Peru. It notes that the formal financial system in Peru provides very limited rural and agricultural finance (RAF) services and most financial institutions focus uniquely on serving urban clients. If financial institutions lend to agriculture at all, it is primarily to large agro-processors or input suppliers, rather than to farmers directly. more...

Conservation through Poverty Alleviation International (CPALI) is a US- based non-profit organization that works to identify, develop and implement new means of income generation for poor farmers living in areas of high biodiversity or conservation value. CPALI's goal is to build broad-based partnerships among conservation and development organizations businesses, governments and local communities that work to introduce new ways that rural farmers can profit from sustainable use of natural resou more...

'This report is a shorter account of the results of the FAO study, Agriculture:
towards 2015/30. It presents the latest FAO assessment of long-term
developments in world food, nutrition and agriculture, including the forestry
and fisheries sectors.'

Northern Bangladesh is home to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable rural people. The area, like the rest of the country, is frequently hit by floods and cyclones. Its smallholder farmers are trapped in poverty, largely excluded from borrowing and knowledge of farming practices that could help improve their lives and protect them from potential risks. An IFAD-supported project in the north-west and north-central regions of the country has introduced financial services customized to more...

The purpose of this toolkit is to provide practical guidance in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the environmental and social sustainability of Agricultural and Rural Development (ARD) programs and projects. The primary audience is agriculture and rural project managers, specifically field personnel, communities, client governments, other stakeholders, and World Bank Task Teams.