Strategic work of FAO to reduce rural poverty

1 Strategic work of FAO to CONTENTS. PAGES 4-5. REDUCING rural poverty . FOR INCLUSIVE, EQUITABLE. AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH. PAGES 6-17. A BROAD APPROACH TO. reduce rural poverty . PAGES 18-27. ACHIEVING RESULTS AND. SHOWING IMPACT. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE Strategic . WORK OF FAO TO reduce rural poverty . CONTACT. TUNISIA. Tunisian fishermen repairing nets on the dock. 2 FAO/Giulio Napolitano KEY MESSAGES. FAO helps countries achieve their productivity and income FAO helps countries build on SDG 1 (No poverty ) and SDG 2 in the context of mitigation and synergies among social protection, (Zero hunger) by improving the adaptation to climate change. food security and nutrition, and livelihoods of poor and extreme small-scale agriculture with a view poor rural people, including FAO works to empower the to strengthening the resilience smallholders and family farmers.

2 rural poor and strengthen rural of rural livelihoods and reducing institutions, including family poverty . FAO supports governments farmers' organizations, producer in the design of pro-poor policies, organizations and cooperatives, FAO supports countries in the strategies and programmes to enable them to influence the collection and analysis of rural that promote inclusive and formulation of rural development poverty and development trends, sustainable agriculture, policies that affect their as well as knowledge generation income diversification, decent livelihoods. on approaches with a proven employment, access to social poverty reduction impact, and protection and people's FAO assists countries in contributes to monitoring the empowerment in rural areas.

3 The design of policies and Sustainable Development Goals programmes that promote related to rural poverty . FAO helps countries improve decent employment creation and access to technologies, services entrepreneurship among the rural and markets, as well as access to poor, especially family farmers, and sustainable management of women and youth, including by natural resources for poor rural addressing the root causes of people, including smallholders and family farmers, to increase distress migration. BY SUPPORTING. FAMILY FARMING. WE CAN. TRANSFORM A. SECTOR THAT HAS. BEEN NEGATIVELY. ASSOCIATED. TO THE PROBLEM. OF HUNGER. INTO BEING PART. OF THE. SOLUTION.". Jos Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General 3.

4 Strategic WORK OF FAO TO reduce RUR AL poverty . REDUCING rural . poverty FOR INCLUSIVE, EQUITABLE AND. SUSTAINABLE GROWTH. poverty is one of the regions, ethnic groups and In many low and middle- biggest obstacles to between men and women. income countries, poverty and its consequences malnutrition human development and Most of the world's poorest and hunger are aggravated by economic growth. people (some 75 percent) live global challenges such as fast in rural areas and depend on population growth and climate Although progress has been agriculture for their livelihoods change, which exacerbate the made in reducing the number and food security. Yet, they are vulnerability of poor people and of the poor in the past decades, often constrained by limited hinder rural development.

5 About 767 million people access to resources, services, continue to live in extreme technologies, markets and With the adoption of the new poverty and inequalities are still economic opportunities, which 2030 Agenda for Sustainable pervasive, between economic lower agricultural productivity Development, countries have classes, rural and urban areas, and income in rural areas. renewed their commitment to fight against poverty , hunger and malnutrition, recognising that inclusive, equitable and QUICK FACTS sustainable growth is key for achieving sustainable development > Worldwide, there are around billion poor people, and > Most of the rural poor are smallholders and family and moving people out of poverty .

6 767 million still live in extreme farmers. Worldwide, the As part of its mandate, poverty . Of these, nearly 475 million small farms of up FAO through its Strategic 75 percent live in rural areas and to 2 hectares account for more Programme 3 is supporting depend on agriculture for their than 80 percent of all farms but countries to achieve the goals subsistence (World Bank, 2016). cover only about 12 percent of poverty reduction by making of the world's farmland (FAO ongoing processes of structural > Ninety five percent of the rural poor live in East Asia, South SOFA, 2014). transformation and rural transformation more pro-poor Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and inclusive, to make sure that (World Bank, 2016).

7 No one is left behind. 4. PATHWAYS OUT. OF poverty . Evidence shows that in low-income countries in particular, investing in agriculture - especially in small-scale agriculture - has a greater impact on reducing poverty than investing in other sectors, as it offers the most direct route for rural people to benefit from land and labour, their main assets. KYRGYZSTAN Yet, investing in agriculture is This set of policies and interventions not enough to reduce poverty should foster inclusive structural Women farmers harvesting corn in Kyrgyzstan. because the rural poor are often transformation and growth, FAO/Sergey Kozmin engaged in multiple economic enabling the poor to actively activities.

8 While pro-poor participate in and significantly growth starts in agriculture, benefit from economic activity. reducing rural poverty requires increasing productivity of small- scale agriculture, creating jobs, fostering economic diversification REDUCING rural . and investing in people. poverty . Through the process of rural transformation, households have REQUIRES A. three pathways out of poverty : MULTI-SECTORAL. they can either specialize in agriculture, combine agricultural APPROACH THAT. activities with other forms of higher return non-agricultural ADDRESSES THE. activities (self-employment, SOCIAL, service provision, wage labour and transfers, including ECONOMIC, migration), or they can leave agriculture completely for non- POLITICAL.

9 Agricultural activities. CHALLENGES THAT. MONGOLIA Reducing rural poverty requires POOR rural . Mongolian foresters a multi-sectoral approach that addresses the social, economic, PEOPLE FACE. cutting up wood before loading it onto vehicles. political challenges that poor rural FAO/Sean Gallagher people face. 5. Strategic WORK OF FAO TO reduce RUR AL poverty . A BROAD APPROACH. TO reduce rural . poverty . Recognizing the access to natural resources by fostering entrepreneurship diverse spectrum of and other assets; improve and providing occupational their capacity to manage skills;. poor rural households, risks and increase their FAO proposes a productivity; and link small- Buildand scale-up social broad approach scale agriculture to markets protection systems.

10 And food systems;. with differentiated Build rural infrastructure, strategies to help Createdecent off-farm especially in energy, transport, employment for the poor water and sanitation;. the rural poor move in agriculture and the rural from low labour non-farm economy, including Buildhuman capital, in status and low levels particular access to basic social services such as health of productivity FAO WORKS WITH and education, as well as ( subsistence occupational skills and agriculture, casual GOVERNMENTS organization capacity;. paid labour) to a high AND OTHER Strengthen rural institutions labour status and DEVELOPMENT and local government to foster their participation in policy high productivity PARTNERS TO dialogue and decision-making; and (good employment conditions).