Press release number: IFAD 24/03

A loan agreement was signed today at IFAD headquarters by Mr. Adam Maiga Zakariaou, Councellor at the Embassy of Niger, and by the IFAD President, Mr. Lennart Båge. The USD 10 million loan will help finance the Aguié Local Innovation Promotion Project in the Republic of Niger, which will have a total cost of about USD 17.6 million. Cofinancing will be provided by the Belgian Survival Fund for about USD 3.8 million.

The goal of the eight-year project is to improve the incomes and living standards of the rural poor in the department of Aguié, with a high emphasis on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable groups, particularly women and youth. The project will build on lessons learned from a first phase project and will focus on the consolidation and the strengthening of local capacity for planning, funding, implementing and evaluating local development initiatives. Sustainability of the natural resource base will be an overriding factor in the selection of activities and technologies to be supported by the project. A grant has already been provided by IFAD to help mainstream gender issues and concerns in all project interventions. Implementation will be based on local partnership between farmer and community organizations, public sector institutions and private sector service providers. In this regard, its flexible design will help take into account the emerging decentralized institutions as key actors in local development.

The project area is in the southern part of the Maradi region, on the border with Nigeria. Project interventions will benefit about 30,000 of the poorest families in the area, for a total of about 180,000 people, representing 85% of Aguié’s population, and will focus on poor women and households headed by women, as well as on unemployed and underemployed youth.

With this project, IFAD will have financed six projects in the Republic of Niger for a total loan amount of USD 75 million.

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IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to combating rural poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Since 1978, IFAD has financed 625 projects in 115 countries and in the West Bank and Gaza for a total commitment of approximately USD 7.9 billion in loans and grants. Through these projects, about 250 million rural people have been supported in their efforts to overcome poverty.