Mounif Nourallah joined the group with field visits focusing on Territorial Development and discusses his views based on his experience of programmes/projects under his supervision in the NEN Division.

Territorial Development as a tool for combating rural poverty

From the field visits undertaken during the retreat, it became clear that TD can be a mechanism for geographic targeting. Regions or specific zones with a high incidence of poverty can be defined or “délimité” for specific interventions of poverty reduction or for an overarching rural development programme which addresses various facets for the improvement of living conditions of a particular population.

A tool for multilevel targeting

TD can also be used for fine-tuning targeting approaches to attain IFAD objectives of reaching the poorest of the poor. The approach which has been used in the Country Programmes of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia consists of a 3-level targeting mechanism. It consists of focusing on the geographical regions with the highest incidence of poverty. Within this region, the poorest communities are identified on the basis of a selected number of criteria or poverty indices. Last but not least, project interventions are designed to interest, without being exclusive, the most marginalised households in the identified communities as the third level of fine-tuning.

A tool in value chain development

Most of the field visits during the retreat demonstrated that TD is an effective tool for the development of specific economic or agricultural activities. In particular, TD can focus on the development of specific value chain which has the largest impact on the poorest segments of the population.

Overall, the NEN Retreat was a real learning event and a good exposure to European experiences in TD and other themes, with an important potential for linkages and partnership building with NEN countries. The event also allowed for the capitalisation of IFAD’s presence in Italy, a major European economic power, in exploring its potential and experiences in agricultural and rural development.

Way forward

I strongly recommend repeating this experience every other year in other regions of Italy or EU countries.