The context

Côte d'Ivoire is located on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, with Ghana to the east and Liberia to the west. It has a dynamic economy and fast-growing, youthful population, estimated at 23.2 million in 2012, of whom 40.6 per cent were under the age of 15.

After a political crisis in the wake of its 2011 elections, the economy has regained its former vitality, growing at an average of 8.5 per cent a year between 2012 and 2015.

Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest cocoa exporter, and agriculture remains the engine of economic growth, generating more than 22 per cent of GDP in 2014.

Recovery has been helped by favourable world prices for agricultural commodities, and by public and private investment underpinned by structural reforms within the 2016-2020 National Development Plan.

Poverty is estimated to have surged from 10 per cent in 1985 to peak at 51 per cent in 2011. It eased to an estimated 46 per cent in 2015, remaining higher in rural areas. About 15 per cent of rural households are vulnerable to food insecurity, and rural women and youth are the most vulnerable.  

Farming, livestock and fishing together employ close to 46 per cent of the active population, and provide the main source of income for two-thirds of households.

The country has enormous agricultural potential, with scope for increased output from its wetlands (bas-fonds) and plateaux.

The strategy

In Côte d’Ivoire, IFAD loans work to reduce poverty by promoting household food security in poor rural communities.

Our programmes and projects in Côte d'Ivoire help farmers' organizations improve marketing of agricultural products, with a focus on rural finance, technology development and transfer, and rural infrastructure.

Key activities are aimed at helping rural people sustain access to food in the long term, and at stabilizing households' access to food across seasons and despite shortages.

IFAD also seeks to improve the wider well-being of rural household members, including better health, sanitation and nutrition.

IFAD works in close partnership with the government. Our main partner is the Ministry of Agriculture’s Directorate for Programming. IFAD has also developed longstanding alliances in Côte d’Ivoire with the World Bank and the West African Development Bank.