Release number IFAD/48/06

Rome, 15 December 2006 – Over 200,000 Eritrean families affected by recent border wars and long periods of drought will participate in a new agricultural and livestock development programme designed to raise productivity and boost rural incomes.

The US$23.12 million Post-crisis Rural Recovery and Development Programme will be partly financed by a US$12.24 million loan and a US$343,000 grant from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). The financing agreement for the loan and grant was signed today by Zemede Tekle Woldetatios, Ambassador of Eritrea to Italy, and IFAD President Lennart Båge at IFAD’s headquarters.

The Government of Eritrea will contribute US$1.04 million to finance the programme. The Global Environment Facility will provide US$7.28 million to finance the natural resource management component of the programme while the rest of the funding will be made available by programme participants.

''The programme will work closely with farmers’ groups to promote the development of conservation-based agriculture,'' said IFAD’s Country Programme Manager for Eritrea, Abla Benhammouche. “The goal is to increase productivity and reconstruct rural livelihoods while safeguarding the environment.”

A significant portion of the programme’s resources will be dedicated to improving the capacity of local communities to plan and implement development activities themselves – in other words, to take charge of their own development. Technical support will be given to farmers working over 200,000 hectares of dry land, while tens of thousands of hectares of rangeland and degraded watersheds will be improved or rehabilitated. The programme will also work to enhance local breeding of livestock, such as cows, goats and sheep, and distribute beekeeping equipment to farmers.

Programme activities will take place in Dedub and Gash Barka — the country’s hardest hit regions during armed conflicts with Ethiopia in the late 1990s. Over 80 per cent of the population in these regions is poor and food insecure. Thousands of households cultivate plots of no more than one hectare and have no livestock. The programme will reach out to the communities’ most vulnerable families, including those headed by women, returnees and internally displaced people. 

''The populations of these two regions have paid a massive price to wars and droughts,'' said Benhammouche. “Many have been displaced; many have lost their belongings and family members. Armed conflict is one of the single greatest obstacles to achieving sustainable development – and not just in Eritrea.”

In recent years, IFAD has increased its presence in war-torn countries. “We believe that by working in areas hit by conflict, IFAD can make a valuable contribution to building trust and to laying the foundations for lasting peace,” says Båge.

Since 1995, IFAD has financed 188 programmes and projects in conflict-affected countries around the world for a total investment of about US$2.8 billion. These programmes and projects contributed significantly to enhancing the resilience of poorer households and communities and enabling them to rebuild their dignity, livelihoods and economies.

With this loan and grant, IFAD will have helped finance three programmes in Eritrea since 1995, totalling US$35.26 million.

---

IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. Through low-interest loans and grants, it develops and finances projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 196 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totalling US$6.6 billion. IFAD has invested more than US$3.1 billion in these initiatives. Cofinancing has been provided by governments, beneficiaries, multilateral and bilateral donors and other partners. At full development, these programmes will help nearly 89 million rural poor women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.5 billion in 732 programmes and projects that have helped more than 300 million poor rural men and women achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Governments and other financing sources in the recipient countries, including project participants, have contributed US$9.0 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors have provided another US$7.1 billion in cofinancing.