Press release number: IFAD 01/04

Rome, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 – The poorest families of the Gash Delta and its surrounding rangelands in Sudan’s eastern state of Kassala will benefit from a new project designed to provide more stable sources of food and income, as well as secure and reliable access to land and water.

The USD 39 million Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration project will be financed largely by a USD 24.9 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The loan agreement was signed today in the city of Kassala by Mr Abdelmajid Slama, Director of the Near East and North Africa Division of IFAD, and by Mr Sheikh Mohammed Elmak, Director of International Cooperation, Ministry of Finance and International Cooperation of Sudan.

The Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project brings hope of greater economic and social stability to communities struggling with rapid growth and shrinking resources. Drought and civil unrest have pushed tens of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees to the Gash Delta area in search of vital resources, particularly water and food. The number of people living near the seasonal Gash River is estimated to have increased sevenfold in the past 20 years. This population boom has reduced the land available for farming by half, and put other important resources under increasing strain.

The project, which will benefit about 350 000 of the 480 000 people living in the Gash area, aims to improve food security, income levels and sustainability by making resources and services more available to poor people – especially women. Many small farmers, including landless farmers, will acquire the right to viable and secure landholdings, and assistance in establishing an irrigation system for their crops.

Small livestock owners will gain access to improved animal breeds and veterinary care, and participate in land and water management activities to ensure that rangelands remain hospitable to their herds. In addition, a financing institution will be established to offer small loans to poor individuals in order to help them start generating better incomes through cash crops, livestock or off-farm activities. Credit will also be used by water users’ associations and producers’ groups to finance maintenance of the irrigation systems and agro-processing industries.
Central to the project and critical to its success is the devolution of land and water management to users’ groups. The project stresses the importance of equity, transparency and accountability – principles that will be fundamental to the relationships it establishes both within and among community organizations and partner agencies. The project will help community groups learn to better manage local resources, and to deliver more efficient agricultural and social services to their constituents in the future.
The Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project is the first such initiative designed and approved on the basis of IFAD’s Country Strategic Opportunities Paper for Sudan. IFAD will work closely with the Government of Sudan to address the structural causes of rural poverty and to strengthen peace initiatives that will contribute to local development.

With this loan, IFAD will have financed 13 projects in Sudan, totaling USD 161 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 invested USD 8.1 billion in 653 rural development projects and programmes in 115 countries and territories. Through these projects and programmes, about 250 million rural people have been supported in their efforts to overcome poverty.