Introduction

Since IFAD's inception grants have been a key instrument in alleviating rural poverty. Over the past 29 years, IFAD has committed approximately US$0.5 billion in grants to support research-for-development programmes. Many of these programmes have had an impact on small-scale agriculture throughout the developing world. Through its support to the global agricultural research system, IFAD has succeeded in drawing attention to the priority concerns of poor rural people. It has also furthered understanding of the difficulties faced by people who live in resource-poor areas and who produce traditional crops and commodities under difficult rainfall conditions.

In December 2003, IFAD's Executive Board approved a Policy on Grant Financing, which was updated in September 2005. The policy included new strategic objectives, allocation modalities and implementation procedures. Grant proposals are country-specific, regional or international, depending on the nature of the potential innovation and impact.

Context

The rapid changes triggered by globalization, the development imperatives following the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) pledge, and the new challenges and opportunities posed by emergent technologies and associated products (and the policies that influence their markets) call for further and deeper exploration of fresh, innovative options for addressing rural poverty. Development and dissemination of sustainable agricultural technologies directly relevant to IFAD's target groups is a major objective of the grant programme. Improved farming systems require that technology focus on conservation and, where feasible, on upgrading the natural resources used by poor people. IFAD-financed research is addressing the challenge of developing technologies and institutional arrangements that provide income opportunities and better nutrition for poor rural people without mining their natural resource base.

Grants also have the potential to strengthen IFAD's capacity to engage in strategic and catalytic activities in the areas of knowledge management, partnership and policy dialogue and analysis. Small grants for piloting innovative approaches in alleviating rural poverty can later be up-scaled through loans.

Core principles

Drawing on the success of past investments in multi-location, international agricultural research, IFAD's strategy is to support initiatives in adaptive research and related capacity building. This global and regional research strategy is based on three related core principles.

• The local institutional and technological problems faced by poor rural people in marginal, resource-poor areas are similar, although local specificities are distinct.They can best be addressed through multi-location research with a community participatory approach and through sharing knowledge across the sites.
• Many poverty-relevant research and development (R&D) issues require human and capital resource mobilization beyond the capacity of local and national organizations. For example, networks of national research systems linked to international agricultural research centres have proved to be better equipped and generally more effective in addressing a common set of problems.
• Cross-country and cross-regional learning is essential to reap the benefits of replicable practical innovations, building on the rich diversity of local knowledge and practices in rural communities.

In recognition of this potential, IFAD's grant portfolio continues to support the development of innovative R&D approaches to issues affecting poor rural people. Such approaches are increasingly relevant in the context of national poverty reduction strategies and in efforts to harness science and technology for the purpose of realizing them.

Activities eligible for country-specific grants are directly aligned with country strategies, as articulated in Results-based Country Strategic Opportunities Programme , and they support and complement IFAD's loan portfolio while responding to issues deriving from country assessments under the Performance Based Allocation System (PBAS). The focus is on development of innovative approaches to technical and institutional issues confronting poor rural people. The issues are increasingly in the area of organizational and institutional development in non-agricultural areas, and they include rural finance, market linkages and pro-poor policy development. They involve mobilization and strengthening of the institutional capacities of both national and civil society organizations to address national and local issues and to support partnership formation, establishment of policy-dialogue platforms and pro-poor institutional transformation.

IFAD's role in supporting the Global Agricultural Research System

In the context of IFAD's leadership in promoting pro-poor research, in 1996 the organization helped establish the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). GFAR facilitates cost-effective partnerships and strategic alliances with the aim of reducing poverty, achieving food security and conserving and managing biodiversity and natural resources. GFAR brings together the key participants in global agricultural research from seven constituencies:

As stipulated under the Grant policy, the grant programme represents up to 10 per cent of the proposed IFAD Programme of Work.

• Developing-country national agricultural research systems (NARS).
• Advanced research institutions (ARIs) and universities.
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Farmers' organizations. The private sector. International agricultural research centres (IARCs) (including the CGIAR Centres).
• The donor community and IFAD.

IFAD chairs the GFAR Support Group. In this role the organization helps mobilize support from the international donor community for the GFAR agenda. But IFAD's engagement with the GFAR initiative goes far beyond mobilizing resources. IFAD continues to foster a progressive paradigm shift in agricultural research for development towards holistic knowledge-intensive agriculture accessible to poor small-scale farmers. Among the elements that IFAD has introduced in GFAR operations are the principles of.

Bottom-up decision making complementarity. Demand-driven research implemented through equal partnerships among stakeholders. Research agenda priorities with a focus on the perspectives of farmers and rural communities. Multi-functionality and regional heterogeneity of farming and livelihood systems. Participatory research design and technology diffusion.

IFAD grant policy

The Policy on Grant Financing, updated in September 2005, included new strategic objectives, allocation modalities and implementation procedures. The grant programme has two strategic objectives, representing priority areas for IFAD's regular grant resources.

• Promoting pro-poor research on innovative community-based approaches and technological options to enhance field-level impact.
• Building pro-poor capacities of partner institutions, including community-based organizations and NGOs.

Agricultural research that benefits poor people remains a significant component, building on the success of IFAD's past investments in this area. Grants support greater devolution and decentralization of research. The objective is to enable poor communities to form partnerships with researchers from formal scientific institutions, building on farmer innovation, local knowledge systems and informal science within participatory research programmes. The grant programme has the aim of broadening the impact of IFAD's activities by promoting replication and scaling up of successful approaches in rural poverty reduction. This is achieved by.

• Supporting participatory monitoring and evaluation of successful approaches to capture insights and lessons learned.
• Using evaluation exercises as institutional learning methodology and fostering professional exchange between IFAD and its partner institutions.
• Enhancing partnership-building processes to strengthen the participatory design, implementation and impact assessment of results from IFAD's loan and grant programmes.

To increase IFAD's influence on the poverty reduction efforts of the international development community, specific emphasis is placed on.

• Strengthening partnerships with country-level institutions at the field investment and policy levels, especially with those institutions providing direct assistance to poor rural people.
• Providing support to communication and learning among participants, people working in rural development, and relevant networks.
• Supporting advocacy for rural poor people, both nationally and internationally.

As stipulated under the Grant policy, the grant programme represents up to 10 per cent of the proposed IFAD Programme of Work.