Press release number: IFAD 46/02

Rome, 12 December 2002 –The 77th Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) met at its Headquarters in Rome, and approved loans for 11 development and poverty reduction projects for a total of USD 170.68 million. The projects approved are for China, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Indonesia, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda and Syria. In addition, IFAD is supporting four Technical Assistance Grants for a total of USD 4.93 million.

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Country: People’s Republic of China

Project: Environment Conservation and Poverty-Reduction Programme in Ningxia and Shanxi
Total Project Cost: USD 90.30 million
IFAD Loan: USD 28.97 million

The project is expected to bring relief to some 300 000 households in the Ningxia Hui Region and Shanxi Province of western China. The rural poor in this part of the country live in particularly harsh conditions as the area is isolated, with a serious lack of access roads. Droughts and flooding often compound problems; the people here have now set their own priorities for the programme – immediate access to safe drinking water, generation of income and health and education facilities are among the most important issues on their agenda.

Country: Dominican Republic
Project: Social and Economic Development Programme for Vulnerable Populations in the Border Region
Total Project Cost: USD 24.0 million
IFAD Loan: USD 14 million

The rural poor in the Dominican Republic include small rural producers, landless farmers, seasonal labourers, agricultural workers, micro entrepreneurs and small traders. Particularly vulnerable segments of the population are rural inhabitants of Haitian origin. The target group is estimated at 105 000 people. The programme aims at strengthening organizations of rural poor and their human, social and economic resources as pillars of sustainable social and economic development in the border region.

Country: Arab Republic of Egypt
Project: Second Matruh Resources Management Project
Total Project Cost: USD 44.8 million
IFAD Loan: USD 12.7 million

The project area has a very fragile resource base with low rainfall and recurrent drought, in addition, due to the sedentarization of the Bedouins, a cycle of resource degradation and rural poverty has been created. This project is the second phase of the WB project that will build on earlier achievements and extend benefits to the population that was not reached (50%). Agricultural opportunities were increased by water harvesting and halting/reversing the accelerating resource degradation. As a result there were substantial increases in crop and animal production and increased incomes.

Country: Republic of Kenya
Project: Mount Kenya East Pilot Project for Natural Resource Management
Total Project Cost: USD 25.7 million
IFAD Loan: USD 16.7 million

On the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya, land degradation has led to poor yields for the farming families. Periodic drought and flooding, soil erosion and a drop in global coffee prices have adversely affected the 360 000 people living in the five districts. The project intends to help these rural people to reverse the land degradation process and to take measures toward a better water efficiency. They will also be assisted in their efforts to reduce silt load in the rivers.

Country: Republic of Indonesia
Project: East Kalimantan Local Communities Empowerment Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 26.47 million
IFAD Loan: USD 19.96 million

The project will focus on the 39 000 households in 240 of the poorest villages of East Kalimantan province. The local communities will help develop strong self-reliant village institutions, which will serve as the foundation for various economic and social development activities. The project will assist the rural population in increasing food security, securing land tenure, establishing health and education facilities and introducing diversified income generating activities.

Country: Republic of Niger
Project: Promotion of Local Initiative for Development in Aguié Project
Total Project Cost: USD 17.56 million
IFAD Loan: USD 10.00 million

This project seeks to improve the incomes and livelihood standards of the beneficiaries (30 000 rural families) placing a special emphasis on women and young adults. Poverty is closely tied to food insecurity among other risk factors. The objective is to strengthen target group capacities to develop initiatives that could reduce their poverty, vulnerability and improve their food security.

Country: Republic of Nigeria
Project: Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme
Total Project Cost: USD 82.2 million
IFAD Loan: USD 15.0 million

Poverty is prevalent among farmers rural women and youth with small areas of land and artisanal fishermen with rudimentary equipment. These groups are exposed to environmental shocks and are faced with food insecurity. The beneficiaries are among rural communities in the Niger Delta States. This programme aims at supporting the Government’s efforts in addressing rural poverty by targeting the most vulnerable and empowering them to participate in rural development and natural resource management activities which will focus on capacity building.

Country: Republic of Peru
Project: Market Strengthening and Livelihood Diversification in the Southern Highlands Project
Total Project Cost: USD 21.7 million
IFAD Loan: USD 16.0 million

Poverty in the project area is mainly due to harsh agro-ecological conditions, excessive land fragmentation, limited access to technologies and credit and lack of information and adaptation to growing market opportunities. The project will directly benefit 15 000 households who are mostly Quechua or Aymara indigenous people – all come from indigenous peasant communities, and are high-altitude herders, small-scale farmers and micro and small-scale entrepreneurs in the smaller cities and villages. The project will assist peasant communities to upgrade their physical assets while recognizing their knowledge and rewarding achievements.

Country: Rwandese Republic
Project: Smallholder Cash and Export Crops Development Project
Total Project Cost: USD 25.09 million
IFAD Loan: USD 16.26 million

The intended beneficiaries of this project are about 28 000 cash crop producer families in selected rural districts of four Rwanda provinces. All are very poor people who work small plots or produce cash crops to supplement staple production to achieve basic food security. The project will assist smallholder coffee growers to establish primary cooperative societies and produce high quality arabica coffee. It will also support the development of modern coffee processing facilities. For tea producers, the project will help privatize a large government industrial tea estate by sharing it out among poor smallholders and will support for the construction of a tea processing plant to be owned by smallholder tea cooperatives. The project will link the smallholder tea and coffee producers with fair trade ‘ethically minded’ traders of the international markets.

Country: Republic of Djibouti
Project: Microfinance and Microenterprise Development Project
Total Project Cost: USD 3.94 million
IFAD Loan: USD 3.59 million

This project will improve beneficiaries’ access to regular, reliable financial resources so that they may, adopt improved technologies and undertake a wider range of income-generating activities in rural, peri-ruban and urban areas, thereby improving their household incomes. Political/social unrest, limited assets base, lack of access to financial services and rural and social infrastructure, drought are just a few of the factors that have contributed to poverty in this area. 200 000 people are the target group for this project, which is almost one third of the national population.

Country: Syrian Arab Republic
Project: Idleb Agricultural Development Project
Total Project Cost: USD 46.1 million
IFAD Loan: USD 17.5 million

The project’s objectives to name just a few are reclamation of 20 000 ha of rocky land; establishment of about 12 000 ha of orchards, extension services and improved research-extension linkages, on-farm soil and off-farm water conservation treatments, construction of 25 small earth dams and rehabilitation of 14 wells. There will be a first and second priority target group, the first being 290 000 people living in the 106 surrounding villages, the second will be the rest of the population (130 000) living in 46 villages in Idleb governorate.

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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.