Development Themes
Agriculture
Agriculture continues to be the mainstay of rural livelihood in most Project countries. A number of community development initiatives have been undertaken to improve rural livelihoods in a sustainable manner such as natural resources management, upland areas development, entrepreneurship development programmes, pest and crop management etc. Resources related to these and much more is available in this section.
Poverty Alleviation
The ultimate objective of ENRAP III is enhanced knowledge sharing and information technology applications for rural poverty reduction. After creating enough physical networks for knowledge sharing in the first two phases, the third phase attempts to build upon this to strengthen network sustainability and develop a body of evidence on the use of ICTs to improve livelihoods in the region. This section provides resources relating to poverty alleviation such as case studies, experiences and learning from different project countries, links to some ongoing poverty alleviation projects, and much more…..
Indigenous People
ENRAP addresses the needs and issues of Indigenous People through multiple projects in partnership with local and international partners. These relate to tribal development activities, their empowerment, livelihoods issues, community development programmes, etc
Natural Resource Management
Natural Resources Management is an integral part of the IFAD Project focusing on creating sustainable rural livelihood options. Besides, sharing of experiences and knowledge from other IFAD supported projects, the section highlights the Value Chain approach pursued heavily in IFAD projects for improving rural livelihoods.
Micro-credit
Lack of credit availability at affordable interest rates to the rural poor limits their sources of livelihood and makes it difficult for them to come out of the poverty trap. Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Natural Resource Management Groups (NaRM-Gs) under the Project have helped improve the access to credit at affordable rates of interest to enable villagers to invest in micro and group enterprises such as weaving, dairy, etc including village development works. Resources related to micro finance initiatives under the Project are highlighted here.
Rural Communication
Resources covered include why and how traditional and new information and communication technologies (ICTs) contribute to improving livelihoods of people in developing world, gender centric case studies from various countries where women made use of opportunities offered by ICTs for their economic well being, experiences gained from school-on-air program in Philippines to disseminate information among farmers, Toolkit for setting up of Rural Knowledge Centers (telecentres), IFAD newsletters etc
Participation
Resources include activities and programmes that helped in building self confidence among people to initiate economic ventures to help them get out of poverty trap. These include training programmes for skills improvement and capacity building, imparting of education, formation of self help groups, group monitoring of micro credit repayments, innovative development practices for self improvement as use of Vetever grass to inhibit erosion, water resource development and management for survival of agricultural crops and so on
ICTs for Development
Information and knowledge are critical components of poverty alleviation strategies, and ICTs offer the promise of easy access to huge amounts of information useful for the poor. ICTs not only refer to computers and internet but also traditional and often more common technologies of radio, television, telephones, public address systems and newspapers. Resources covered here are case studies, lessons learned from several implementation efforts which have to take into account wide variety of factors that are critical for success, workshop/meeting details, reports etc
Knowledge Management
Strengthening KM and KS is critical for the success of programmes like IFAD which aim at poverty alleviation in developing world. Resources related to building the capacity of project staff in knowledge management as workshop details and agenda on KM, experiences gained from other IFAD teams in knowledge management, training programmes, case studies, reports and documents are shared here.
Knowledge Networking
Sharing of good practices in documenting and sharing lessons learnt is extremely important for the project staff. Resources related to building capacity of project staff in documenting practices, web-based content management so that they are able to train others in their own and other projects is documented in this section. Also includes annual progress reports, workshop reports and meetings details.
Digital Video Documentation
Resources on strengthening digital video skills of the project staff working with the rural poor in remote and inaccessible areas to document project experiences and share with others for learning, workshop/training programme documents, reports, newsletters etc are available here
Monitoring and Evaluation
Resources are dedicated to documents concerning project management, monitoring and evaluation. Also included are guidelines or resource kit to ensure that M&E has a greater impact at the project level. The objective of the guide is to facilitate the development, installation and use of effective project-level M&E systems as tools for impact-oriented management. Besides this, problems faced in understanding, setting up and implementing M&E systems for IFAD projects is also covered.
Gender & Development
Section contains gender checklists for agriculture, livestock, and rural enterprise where focus is on the household economy and women and men’s different and complementary roles. They are quite useful to draw on ideas. It also has some practical tips on gender analysis in value-chain projects, gender and development field examples from Asia and the Pacific such as the role of women's SHGs in improving the living conditions of poor households and the surrounding environment, gender mainstreaming strategy papers from ENRAP partners and so on.
Systematization
Systemization is a methodology which facilitates the ongoing description, analysis and documentation of the processes and results of a development project in a participatory way. This process leads to the generation of new knowledge, which is then fed back and used to make decisions and improve performance. Resources included are Booklet on Documentation, Systematization & Capitalization: A compilation of methods and approaches, manuals, books and documents.
Value Chain
The Value Chain approach to improving rural livelihoods has been consciously pursued in IFAD projects with the hope of turning a new leaf in tackling poverty in some of the most inaccessible areas. Consequently, value chains have been identified and located across projects at varying degrees of implementation and success. The experiences and knowledge emanating thereof have been considered valuable in building cross-learning on value chains across projects. Resources on value chain, value chain mapping, case studies etc can be found here.
