The IFAD-GEF Advantage II - Linking smallholders and global environmental benefits
In 2014, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) released a report celebrating achievements through its partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Since then, the world has been responding to critical environmental and climate challenges. In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were endorsed, confirming a new development paradigm that aims to move on from silos to integrated approaches, and significantly stepping up ambitions to eliminate rather than only reduce hunger, poverty and other global challenges. The Paris Agreement at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) also bound countries to take urgent actions to reduce global warming.
The Opportunity of the Commons
All life on Earth depends on clean air and water, biodiversity, and healthy forests, land, oceans and a stable climate. These global commons—the ecosystems, biomes and processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system—are the very foundation of our global economy and modern society. Today, they are facing an all-too familiar tragedy of over-exploitation and rapid degradation.
