Successful Dom Helder Camara project transformed the lives of thousands of poor rural people

Rome, 22 November 2010­ – The Brazilian government’s Sustainable Rural Development Project for Agrarian Reform Settlements in the Semi-Arid North-East of Brazil, better known as Dom Helder Camara, will close this year after improving the lives and livelihoods of thousands of poor rural people.

Made possible with a US$25 million loan from the United Nations’ rural poverty agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the ten-year US$93.5 million programme provided better opportunities for poor Brazilians in the states of Ceara, Paraiaba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe.

“Working with local governments in Brazil’s poor semi-arid North-East region, Dom Helder Camara has helped poor rural people living in this area to make significant steps forward in institution building, food security, training, marketing and environmental stewardship,” said Iván Cossío, IFAD’s Country Programme Manager for Brazil. “The Brazilian government has also made commitments to continue the project’s important work in a second phase.”  

The IFAD funding in the area provided more than 15,000 households with technical training that has allowed them to improve crop yields and incomes. Over 4,500 people learned to read, 500 rural libraries were created, and two-year scholarships were extended for over 250 young people to study advanced farming techniques at a regional agro-technical college.

“The most important results in this project is that the people have learned new skills and training institutions have been set up to help people move out of poverty on their own,” said Cossío. “The project also helped some 14,000 women have their Brazilian citizenship recognized, guaranteeing their access to services, credit and land tenure”.

By providing technical assistance and improved access to credit, the Dom Helder Camara project also increased market access for smallholder farmers in the area.

Water and natural resource management have been key in this semi-arid region, ensuring higher yields, increasing marketability and profitability, and mitigating environmental risks for project participants.

The Dom Helder Camara project also benefited from a US$5.9 million grant from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to ensure sustainable land management. The GEF component of the Dom Helder Camara project will close in 2013.

“Before [the project was introduced in this area], we thought of this semi-arid region as a place where it is almost impossible to survive,” said Naelson Medeiros, a project participant from the small community of Sombras Grandes. “Today, we have changed this idea, and we see our land as full of potential. We are happy to see that it is worth investing and staying here. We do not need to migrate anymore”.

Future IFAD Funding

Brazil’s North-East will continue to benefit from the IFAD-supported Rural Communities Development Project (known locally as Gente de Valor). This large-scale poverty reduction project has been operational since December 2006, with a total cost of US$60 million – $30 million of which is coming from IFAD. It is now operating in 34 municipalities in the region, and hopes to better the lives of over 10,000 households. 

The IFAD Executive Board has also approved two new sustainable rural development projects for Brazil.

“We expect that the new projects prepared jointly between IFAD and the governments of the states of Piauí and Paraíba will be authorized by the Brazilian Government in the next few months, and that we’ll be able to launch them early next year. This will mean an additional US$88 million in funding for rural poverty reduction in Brazil, with some US$45 million coming from IFAD,” said Cossío. “We also have a project under design for Sergipe as well as a knowledge-management grant that will ensure the learnings from successful projects like Dom Helder Camara and Gente de Valor can be shared across Brazil and with the rest of the world”.

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Press release No.: IFAD/76/2010

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 360 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 165 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).