Release number IFAD/14/08

Rome, 13 February 2008 – A US$11.6 million programme in Djibouti will help improve the living conditions of pastoral communities through better management of natural resources in the regions of Tadjourah, Dikhil and Arta.

IFAD will cofinance the Programme for the Mobilization of Surface Water and Sustainable Land Management with a US$3 million grant. The grant agreement was signed in Rome today by Mohamed Moussa Chehem, the Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti to Belgium, and Kanayo Nwanze, the Vice-President of IFAD. 

Djibouti is affected by recurrent droughts. About 50 per cent of the rural population have no access to water for drinking and for livestock needs. Underground water capacity has been used up and, as an alternative to drilling boreholes, the Ministry of Agriculture is launching an ambitious strategy for mobilizing more efficient capture and use of surface water. The new programme helps implement this national strategy.

With a combined investment of US$2.5 million from the government and project participants, the programme will help tackle water scarcity by developing infrastructure and facilities for capture and delivery of surface water for human and livestock consumption. The capacity of rangelands to feed more livestock will be improved along with national capacity for the institutional, technical and social management of natural resources. 

The programme will reach 6,000 households and will introduce two different surface-water mobilization techniques. The first includes construction of small dams in 10 selected sites spread over the five regions of Djibouti. The second includes construction of cisterns, earth tanks and corollary works for soil and water conservation, range resting, reseeding and regeneration of the area of Day Forest and its periphery. The programme will also support vocational training in the manufacture of forestry products involving the poorest and most food-aid-dependent households.

It is expected that targeted households will be able to satisfy their drinking water and livestock water needs, particularly during the dry season and increase their average incomes by 20 per cent. It is also expected that nutritional standards will improve as a result of increased milk consumption.

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IFAD was created 30 years ago to tackle rural poverty, a key consequence of the droughts and famines of the early 1970s. Since 1978, IFAD has invested almost US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped more than 300 million very poor rural women and men increase their incomes and provide for their families.
IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency. It is a global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. Today, IFAD supports more than 200 programmes and projects in 84 developing countries.