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IFAD
in Syria
Since 1982 IFAD has supported seven projects in Syria, investing a total of US$126.2 million in loans for projects with a total value of US$474.0 million. The organization has also financed a number of grants, including technical assistance grants for women’s empowerment. IFAD works in partnership with the government, other donors, NGOs, local institutions and civil society organizations. It finances operations enabling rural poor people in Syria ’s agricultural settlement zones to improve their incomes and living conditions. Land reclamation, a key to rural development in Syria, was a feature of IFAD’s very first project in the country. IFAD-supported programmes and projects to open up new areas of land for cultivation through de-rocking have had a huge impact. IFAD’s initial operations in the country supported the two phases of the Southern Region Agricultural Development Project. Investments contributed to development of an effective de-rocking technique and reclamation of a total of almost 70,000 ha for agriculture, leading to an increase in crop and livestock production. De-rocking was an important activity of the recently completed Jebel al-Hoss Agricultural Development Project, which reclaimed 22,000 ha for fruit trees and food crops. The Coastal/Midland Agricultural Development Project supported the de-rocking of about 80,000 ha and introduced terrace cultivation. The Idleb Rural Development Project introduced an innovative process of bottom-up participation and is working to expand areas of arable land, improve access to water and introduce more efficient and sustainable farming and water management practices. The Badia Rural Development Project, which includes parts of the country’s poorest provinces, has the goal of re-establishing the Badia area’s productive capacity, mainly in livestock, to improve the living conditions of Bedouin herders and their households. The North Eastern Region Rural Development Project, will improve the living conditions of the poorest rural households in the provinces of Deir Ezzor, Hassaka and Raqqa in the north-eastern region. The target group includes poor smallholders, tenant farmers, landless people, rural women and unemployed young people. The diverse groups of people who will benefit from the project will participate directly in activities through the formation of interest groups such as water users’ associations, milk and wool producers’ associations and womens’ groups. The project will:
IFAD’s strategy in Syria The objective of IFAD’s operations is to enable rural poor people to improve their incomes and living conditions. To achieve that goal in Syria , IFAD focuses on enabling poor farmers to improve rainfed agriculture and manage natural resources more effectively, and on promoting off-farm income-generating activities. Investments are directed mainly towards expanding cultivable areas and increasing production through land reclamation, particularly through the de-rocking of areas with a high potential for agriculture. The results of nationwide surveys and poverty studies carried out recently by the government with UNDP support and independently by IFAD show the regional dimension in Syria , and they indicate that IFAD is justified in directing its attention to the needs and potentials of the semi-arid eastern region, where there is a high concentration of poverty. IFAD’s strategy in Syria conforms to the government’s strategy for reducing poverty, as articulated in the Tenth Five-Year Plan 2006-2010.
Source: IFAD |
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Ongoing IFAD operations
