NEWS. ARTICLES. INTERVIEWS.

Articles tagged with: research

OneWorld South Asia: What kind of knowledge management activities are carried out by IFAD in terms of the work done by the organisation in the development sector including India?

Josefina Stubbs: IFAD has experiences in 192 countries of the world in the rural sector. Our knowledge activities are fundamental for us to understand the patterns of problems and the innovative solutions that people are bringing to certain problems.

We have seen different models with similar resource base in South East Asia, Latin America and Africa. So, our purpose is to learn from various experiences so that we can form policies, like the self help groups in India engaged in the task of empowering women.

We look at what we have learned from all those practices so that the knowledge can be transferred to the smallest of the farmers.

In Asia we have the ‘Learning Roots’ an initiative that brings farmers together to learn from each other. We do believe that apart from the processing of knowledge at higher levels that we do to inform policies, farmers also have a lot of knowledge. We need to open the opportunities for the farmers to exchange their knowledge.

OneWorld South Asia: How is knowledge management crucial for sustainable farming in the Indian context?

Stubbs: The world is looking for innovations and India is also looking for innovations. We are inclined to work with India to see how we can help the country to increase the availability of food, and at the same time empower the farmers especially the smaller farmers by increasing their income.

OWSA: Do you believe that knowledge management is crucial for adopting a sustainable approach for small holder farming and for policies makers?

Stubbs: Let me say that knowledge is also what farmers are doing, well, for centuries. We appreciate more and more, some of the varieties of crops that farmers have been maintaining for many years and some of which have proven to be resistant to climate change. But knowledge is also bringing new varieties that can make crops more resistant in view of the changes in climate.

This is to say that first we acknowledge, recognize, and value the knowledge in the hands of farmers. For instance, for many years farmers have been building terraces to do better water management, to control erosion. Some of those techniques have to be rescued and expanded.

We believe that a lot of knowledge has to come from agricultural research. It has to come also from technological advances that countries like India have in a phenomenal way. Like not only how to use technology to transfer that knowledge and to make it available to small farmers but also how to transfer that knowledge.

There is a need to combine the old tradition, when it works, with new tradition and the new knowledge so that we can enhance the lives of millions of poor.

OWSA: How can the implementation of SDGs benefit from IFAD experience?

Stubbs: First of all by bringing communities into development work. Bringing communities, organising communities, supporting communities, empowering men, women and young people in the communities is the foundation for achieving SDGs.

In North East India, farmers are combining sustainable natural resource management with economic activities. It was wonderful to see how farmers are maintaining the fish varieties of the community by creating sanctuaries in some streams of the river that not only increases fish production but also helps in environment conservation. This helps the women in making money by selling fish and also improves the nutritional intake of the community.

The SDGs can be realized combining economic activities with environmental protection with capacity building and then trying to scale-up and reaching as many people as you can.

OWSA: How do you think knowledge from Community Radio Stations make a difference?

Stubbs: The phenomenal developments in the areas of Information Technology should continue to be a platform for spreading knowledge, the knowledge that comes from the community.

Community IT based platforms that can be accessed by community leaders are spreading people’s views, people’s experiences, people’s recommendations about works and what doesn’t work.

So you see it’s when the bottom up and top down can meet so that policies can bring more people into them but also the policies can get better because they have people giving them suggestions as to how to improve them.

There is an enormous potential in this country. If India can make it, the world will make it in terms of the SDGs, aspiring technologies and in terms of finding innovations that can be scale up.

India being a global partner can show the way to many of the countries that are looking for innovations to for one and forever not have extreme poverty and hungry people.

Videos

Rural Development Report 2016
Rural Development Report 2016
Interview with Josefina Stubbs from UN on World Humanitarian Summit
Interview with Josefina Stubbs from UN on World Humanitarian Summit
Josefina Stubbs directora del FIDA Se fortalecerá las relaciones para mejorar los proyectos
Josefina Stubbs directora del FIDA Se fortalecerá las relaciones para mejorar los proyectos

See more on YouTube.

Articles

11.02.17
Mario Osava et Baher Kamal s'entretiennent avec Josefina Stubbs, IPS News.

FIDA 2017 - Place aux femmes dans le développement rural


07.02.17
Por Mario Osava e Baher Kamal, da IPS, IPS Notícias.

É tempo das mulheres no setor rural


06.02.17
Mario Osava y Baher Kamal entrevistan a Josefina Stubbs, IPS Noticias.

FIDA 2017 – Tiempo de las mujeres en el desarrollo rural


06.02.17
Mario Osava and Baher Kamal interview Josefina Stubbs, IPS News.

IFAD 2017 – It’s women’s turn in rural development


02.02.17
Josefina Stubbs, LinkedIn.

Investing in poor rural communities makes business sense


25.01.17
Josefina Stubbs, IPS Noticias.

La paz se siembra con el desarrollo rural


25.01.17
Josefina Stubbs, IPS News.

Récolter la paix: comment le développement rural fonctionne pour la prévention des conflits


23.01.17
Josefina Stubbs, IPS News.

Harvesting peace: how rural development works for conflict prevention


09.01.17
Josefina Stubbs, LinkedIn.

How a changing climate affects what makes it onto your plate


21.12.16
Josefina Stubbs, LinkedIn.

Food for the soul – a recipe for transforming poor rural communities


25.11.16
Josefina Stubbs, LinkedIn.

Powerless and bruised: why violence against women hurts development


25.11.16
Antonio Pita, El País.

Dar oportunidades al mundo rural es la única manera de regular la migración


17.11.16
Josefina Stubbs and David Lewis, IPS News.

Thriving rural communities is a recipe for healthy cities


17.11.16
Josefina Stubbs y David Lewis, IPS Noticias.

Las ciudades saludables requieren comunidades rurales prósperas


17.11.16
Josefina Stubbs et David Lewis, IPS News.

Les communautés rurales florissantes sont une recette pour des villes saines


23.05.16
Ashok Kumar, OneWorld South Asia.

World will make it in terms of SDGs only if India can: Josefina Stubbs, IFAD


20.05.16
Baher Kamal, IPS News.

We cannot keep jumping from crisis to crisis


25.08.15
Elena L. Pasquini, Devex News.

IFAD VP: Career success isn’t a mystery, it’s hard work


26.06.15
Massimo Latini & Nicola Nosengo, Rai EXPO Milano 2015.

Stubbs: “1 more billion people out of poverty” Interview with Associate Vice-president of Ifad about the ‘Millennium goals’, to be reached within 2015


News releases

14.02.17

The Government of the Dominican Republic decides to join forces with Togo in the last round of the elections and support its candidate.


11.02.17

Minister of Agriculture Ángel Estévez will travel to Rome to support the Dominican Republic Candidate Josefina Stubbs to the Presidency of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)


Publications

  • Rural Development Report 2016. IFAD (Stubbs, J. and Binswanger, H., eds.)
  • MÁS ALLÁ DE LOS PROMEDIOS: Afrodescendientes en América Latina. By Ponce, J. (Josefina Stubbs & Hiska N. Reyes ed.). (2006). The World Bank.
  • Gender in Development: A Long Haul-But We’re Getting There! By Stubbs, J. (2000). Development in Practice.
 
 
 

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