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Southern Sudan Livelihoods Development Project
The project will be IFAD’s first operation in Southern Sudan since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in January 2005. Its aim is to increase food security and incomes through improved agricultural productivity and marketing. It will operate in a total of six counties in two phases. The first phase, of the duration of two years, will serve to launch the project in three counties and test implementation arrangements. In a second phase the project will expand activities into three other counties. IFAD will directly supervise its investment in support of the project, working closely with government Ministries and NGOs, as well as with other programmes and projects in The Sudan and with the Government of the Netherlands, which is IFAD’s major co-financing partner in the project. The project will adopt a community outreach approach. It will:
The target groups comprise people engaged in three main livelihood activities: farming, herding and fishing. The project will focus particularly on the most vulnerable people within those groups, including women, households headed by women, and households that were displaced by conflict and have returned to their home counties. It is estimated that the people who will benefit directly from the project comprise 80 per cent of the rural population in the three counties. Working at the level of the boma, a cluster of villages, the project will engage boma development committees (BDCs) in a participatory process to identify community needs and productive activities that can help poor and vulnerable people improve their living standards. The project will contract qualified national and international NGOs to provide technical assistance to the BDCs. By building the capacity of the BDCs, the project will enable them to plan and mobilize support for agricultural and business development that will benefit the community. This will include technical and financial support to agricultural microprojects. The project will also promote rural infrastructure and market facilities to improve food security and generate higher incomes from agricultural activities. The project will draw on successful NGO experiences in community-driven development in the region and elsewhere in The Sudan, and it will adapt them to the challenging circumstances in Southern Sudan. The fact that project implementation is led mainly by community organizations and lower tiers of the government is an innovation in the area. Source: IFAD |
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