Press release No. IFAD/43/2001

Rome, 6 December 2001 –The 74th Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) that met at the Headquarters in Rome, approved loans for 12 development projects for a total worth of USD 204.9 million. The projects approved are for Benin, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Nepal, Philippines, Viet Nam, El Salvador, Panama and Algeria. The Executive Board also approved two Technical Assistance Grants worth USD 2.5 million.

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Country: Benin
Project: Participatory Artisanal Fisheries Development Support Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 25.6 million
IFAD Loan: USD 10.0 million

In Southern Benin, the marine and inland fish stocks are at risk from overfishing and threatened as well by organic and chemical pollution, erosion and silting due to deforestation of the banks of rivers and lagoons. The population living in the inland fisheries zones, accounts for the majority of the target group (600 000 people) and are identified as the poorest in the country. The main objective of the eight-year IFAD initiated Development Support Programme is to support the efforts of the Government to reduce rural poverty by providing the resources required to promote rehabilitation and introduce environmentally sound use of the natural resource base of the fishing communities. This is expected to enhance the local living conditions, thus improving their livelihoods.

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Country: Ghana
Project: Northern Region Poverty Reduction Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 59.6 million
IFAD Loan: USD 12.3 million

The six-year project initiated by IFAD is expected to empower the vulnerable poor rural communities of the Northern Region of Ghana, where poverty is widespread. Poverty is exacerbated as a result of high dependence on agriculture, with low outputs, marginal products, and an erratic climate. The programme constitutes a partnership between the Government of Ghana and other partners in development in addressing rural poverty by targeting the poorer communities and vulnerable groups.

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Country: Ethiopia
Project: Rural Financial Intermediation Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 88.7 million
IFAD Loan: USD 25.7 million

The beneficiaries of this programme are 1.5 million poor rural households who will gain access to improved and reliable financial services either as clients of microfinance institutions or as members of rural savings and credit cooperative societies. Poverty in this area can be attributed to: limited asset holdings, lack of access to reliable financial services, frequent droughts and lack of access to rural and social infrastructure. The Rural Financial Intermediation Programme aims at enhancing access by beneficiaries to regular and reliable financial services so that they may, inter alia, adopt improved agricultural production technologies and undertake off-farm and non-farm income-generating activities with a view to improving food security and family incomes.

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Country: Rwanda
Project: Umutara Community Resource and Infrastructure Development Twin Project
Total Project Cost: USD 24.2 million
IFAD Loan: USD 12.0 million

The twin project area is both resource-poor and densely populated. The principal causes of poverty include lack of water supply, low crop and animal productivity, fragile soils and overexploited grazing resources. The target group about 40 000 household includes all the poor rural people living at the poverty threshold. This IFAD initiated five-year project is expected to generate tangible and non-tangible benefits. The most important project benefit expected would be better governance. Tangible benefits will accrue to people in the form of improved water supply, better access to markets and a more effective process of technology generation and transfer based on participatory analysis of farmers’ problems.

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Country:Swaziland
Project: Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project – Phase 1
Total Project Cost: USD 116.5 million
IFAD Loan: 15.0 million

This eight-year project is designed to create secure access for poor smallholders to a vital resource previously accessed mainly by the large-scale private sector – water. The semi-arid conditions and frequent drought occurrence in the Usuthu River Basin area, coupled with the constraints of water, land and capital, do not permit involvement of beneficiaries in intensive crop production. At a fully developed stage, the objectives of the irrigation project will have changed the balance by providing smallholders wide access to scare water resource. The beneficiaries are among the poorest in the country and belong to about 2 600 households of smallholders who are mainly involved in sugar cane production, and some cotton cultivation.

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Country: United Republic of Tanzania
Project: Agricultural Marketing Systems Development Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 42.3 million
IFAD Loan: USD 16.3 million

4.4 million smallholder producers, traders and processors live in poverty in the United Republic of Tanzania. The country lacks a conducive marketing policy environment, inadequate market infrastructures and transportation. Lack of market information systems and shortage of both investment and working capital. The programme will largely benefit small farmers. However, small and itinerant traders, mostly rural women, will also benefit from the programme; The programme will assist the Government in bringing about a comprehensive change in the agricultural marketing subsector with the objective of making rural markets work better and empowering the smallholders.

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Country: Nepal
Project: Western Uplands Poverty Alleviation Project
Total Project Cost: USD 32.6 million
IFAD Loan: USD 20.0 million

The high incidence of poverty in the western Uplands of Nepal is attributed mainly to a very harsh climate and terrain, remoteness, lack of services and poor communications. In addressing these constraints, the project will seek to mitigate the target group’s vulnerability by improving access to essential services and resources; promoting diverse livelihood components and support empowerment through mainstreaming gender and human rights activities. By the time the project ends, some 115 000 households will have benefited from the project.

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Country: Philippines
Project: Northern Mindanao Community Initiatives and Resource Management Project
Total Project Cost: USD 21.6 million
IFAD Loan: USD 14.2 million

This six-year IFAD initiated project aims at reaching about 58 500 poor households living in 270 of the poorest villages of Northern Mindanao. The project targets the poor and disenfranchised groups, including indigenous peoples, fisher families, agrarian reform beneficiaries, landless workers, upland dwellers and rural women. The majority of the households are extremely vulnerable due to limited assets and lack of social infrastructure. The project’s objectives are to reduce vulnerability, improve access to essential services and support diverse livelihoods.

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Country: VietNam
Project: Rural Income Diversification Project in Tuyen Quang Province
Total Project Cost: USD 30.4 million
IFAD Loan: USD 20.9 million

The project will focus on a number of priority needs including increased training in agriculture and animal husbandry, credit, marketing, food storage and processing, gender issues, health and child care, access to credit and marketing opportunities. Poverty in the project area relates to insufficient productive resources due to small landholdings and lack of capital. The primary target group is poor households in the upland areas of Tuyen Quang Province with particular emphasis on ethnic minorities, women and destitute households. About 49 000 households living in 66 of the poorest communes of the province from the target group of the project.

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Country: El Salvador
Project: Reconstruction and Rural Modernization Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 30.5 million
IFAD Loan: USD 20.0 million

This six-year IFAD initiated programme will target about 233 000 people. The extreme poverty of most rural inhabitants in El Salvador reinforces the need for IFAD to continue focusing on smallholders, landless farmers and rural women. Due to El Niño, Hurricane Mitch and the recent earthquakes, poverty has increased by 10%. The 12-year civil war added to the deterioration of income and living conditions. The reconstruction component will provide support to the target population so that they can recover and improve the social and productive infrastructure damaged by the earthquakes. It will also improve their income-generating capacities through better access to markets and demand-led technical assistance and investments.

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Country: Panama
Project: Sustainable Rural Development Project for Ngöbe-Buglé Groups and Poor Small Farmers of the Western Provinces
Total Project Cost: USD 33.0 million
IFAD Loan: USD 25.0 million

Historical prejudices, present-day social and economic exclusion and geographical isolation are the primary causes of extreme poverty among the indigenous communities. Therefore the indigenous ethnic communities of Panama are primary IFAD target groups while the non-indigenous rural poor constitute the secondary target group. The project will address the needs of 30 000 rural poor located in the western provinces of Panama and promote sustainable income-generating activities in a context of rational use of natural resources. One innovative aspect of the project is to promote the integration of indigenous and non-indigenous beneficiaries, thus increasing the potential for an integrated local economic development process and for improved income opportunities for beneficiaries.

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Country: Algeria
Project: Pilot Project for the Development of Mountain Agriculture
Total Project Cost: USD 24.1 million
IFAD Loan: USD 13.5 million

Poverty in the project area is mainly due to inadequate socio-economic services, poor infrastructure, and limited income opportunities because of a degraded resource base. Poor households tend to have many children. The project will benefit both directly and indirectly, 23 600 rural inhabitants of the project area. Implementation will be over seven years and will focus on strengthening participatory programming and capacity building of grass-roots organizations. Provincial local public administrations will be strengthened through the promotion of local groups and associations. Technicians will be trained in participatory development and socio-economic and productive assets will be accessible by the beneficiaries.

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IFAD is a specialised agency of the United Nations with the specific mandate of combating hunger and poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Since 1978 IFAD has financed 584 projects in 114 recipient countries and in the West Bank and Gaza for a total commitment of approximately USD 7.2 billion in loans and grants. Through these projects, about 250 million rural people have had a chance to move out of poverty. IFAD makes the greater part of its resources available to low-income countries on very favourable terms, with up to 40 years for repayment and including a grace period of up to ten years and a service charge of 0.75% per year.