Importance of smallholder agriculture in poverty reduction and food security in Africa

Since the the poor and food insecure in Africa live in rural areas, most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. More than 30 percent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa are chronically hungry and are small farmers. Experts predict that the population in Africa will double by 2050, and African nations will have to double their food production just to keep pace with population growth. For the last 20 years, however, food production in Africa has lagged behind population growth, and the source of the problem has been low productivity on Africa’s farms. Link to full article available here.

Africa wants more say in aid spending

Recently, Africa turned the tables by insisting that "aid effectiveness" should become "development effectiveness" and it looks like it has won the debate. This is not a matter of semantics. Africa insists Africa should lead in decisions about where, how and when aid should be applied. It also insists that "no country in the world has developed by targeting poverty", which has been the predominant tendency in foreign aid. Africa’s new confidence in the international arena also comes from new developments on the continent. First, there has been a substantial improvement in financial governance. Second, most commodity prices have risen a great deal on international markets, accounting for impressive growth. Third, there are new partners in China, India and Brazil, whose economies are thirsty for Africa’s resources. Full report available on the NEPAD website.

IFAD’s Strategic Framework Responds to Persistent Problems and Major Changes

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has released its Strategic Framework for 2011-2015. One of the five strategic objectives of the Framework ia about improving resiliency for rural populations to environmental degradation and market transformation, with a focus on both climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Framework, a response to a global context characterized by persistent problems and major changes, including volatile food prices, growing commercial investment in agriculture and increases in agro-based biofuels. It highlights climate change as one of a number of new elements in the global environment that must be considered for rural poverty reduction. These efforts will be guided by IFAD's Climate Change Strategy.

Utilising Tourism Potential in Combating the Spread of HIV/AIDS through Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas of Botswana

The paper analyses the potential of tourism in contributing towards poverty alleviation since it is a viable sector in minimising the spread of HIV/AIDS.The author maintains that tourism has the potential to alleviate poverty among people living in the rural areas of Botswana. It concludes that poverty alleviation is imperative in the fight against HIV/AIDS and tourism being an important economic activity in Botswana, has the potential to alleviate poverty in the country, since it creates employment, earns foreign exchange, attracts foreign investment and contributes to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Full report available here.

The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change

The last century has seen a sustained decline in the proportion of people living in poverty in the world. However, there is an increasing concern that climate change could slow or possibly even reverse poverty reduction progress. Given the complexities involved in analyzing climate change impacts on poverty, different approaches can be helpful; this note surveys the results of recent research on climate change impacts on poverty. Access this article at:http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPREMNET/Resources/EP51_v4.pdf