Press release number: IFAD 41/02

Rome, Tuesday 8 October 2002 – A USD 44.3 million project in the Republic of Tunisia, the ‘Agropastoral Development and Local Initiatives Promotion Programme for the South-East’, will receive a USD 18.7 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). A loan agreement was signed today at the Fund’s Headquarters by Mr Mohamed Jegham, Ambassador of Tunisia in Rome and Mr. Lennart Båge, President of IFAD.

The proposed programme comprises the Tataouine Governorate and part of the Douz Delegation in the Kebili Governorate; it is located in the ‘lower arid’ and ‘Saharan’ areas. In Tunisia, poverty is essentially a rural phenomenon; poverty levels in rural areas can be as high as 13%, almost twice the national average. In the south-east, poverty is endemic as a result of the harsh natural conditions and climatic hazards. Small and medium scale agropastoralists who are the most vulnerable to recurrent droughts, are among the poorest people, along with women and youth in particular, as they have no economic autonomy.

The programme will benefit about 66 000 people in Tataouine and 7 000 people in Douz, through its income-generating and diversification activities, the programme will address the needs of about 17 000 young rural men and women who have little access to land and other productive assets.

The programme mainly aims at initiating a process of sustainable development by tackling the main sources of economic vulnerability. To this end, it will establish institutional instruments and provide complementary resources and means to a) support the rehabilitation and sustainable management of natural pastures and improvement of the most viable part of agriculture; and b) support microenterprise promotion by financing access to information, training and assistance services to support the creation of 350 microenterprises. Such enterprises will involve a large range of agricultural and non-agricultural initiatives from weaving, leather working, jewelry, bread baking and spice milling to ecotourism and commercially oriented rehabilitation of regional architectural assets.

With the project, IFAD will have financed nine projects in the Republic of Tunisia, for a total loan amount of USD 114 million.

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IFAD is a specialized 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 603 projects in 115 recipient countries and in the West Bank and Gaza for a total commitment of approximately USD 7.3 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 favorable 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.