Opening remarks from the Director of the Near East and North Africa Division
The goal defined by the IFAD Strategic Framework 2007-2010 is to empower poor rural women and men in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved food security. IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division seeks to reach this goal by investing in poor rural people in the region. It works with them and with other partners to help them address more effectively the challenges they face in overcoming poverty.
According to a recent study undertaken by the division, in collaboration with the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, rural poverty in the region has declined over the years at a much slower rate than urban poverty. The study indicates that the incidence of poverty in urban areas has declined to an average of 18 per cent during the last 10 years. At the same time, it has been as high as 34 per cent in rural areas.
Rural unemployment has increased significantly, particularly among the young, leading to greater poverty. Migration from non-oil-producing countries in the region to the oil-producing Gulf states, which once absorbed some of the unemployed, has levelled off during the same period, and so have the related remittances. Significantly, unemployment is about 50 per cent higher among young women than young men.
Promoting income-earning on- and off-farm employment opportunities among young women and men in rural areas has been identified as a priority action for IFAD's interventions in the region. Constraints, such as a lack of marketing infrastructure and skills; limited access to rural finance, business services and improved technology; water scarcity and climate change are slowing the impact of poverty reduction efforts. To tackle these constraints, IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division has been working with many national and regional partners during the first three quarters of 2007 to design and implement a number of country programmes and projects. These initiatives will benefit poor rural areas in Egypt, Morocco, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and Yemen. The programmes include components to boost the production and marketing of labour-intensive, water-efficient, high-value crops. They also involve the introduction of innovative rural finance mechanisms to support employment generation in small and medium rural enterprises and to promote the efficient utilization and management of natural resources, including water resources.
While focusing its efforts on the economic aspects of employment generation, IFAD takes into consideration the dynamics of the large informal rural labour market in the region. It also supports actions that aim to mitigate the significant vulnerability of women employed in this sector. This issue of Rural Echoes presents to its readers some of the joint efforts we and our national and regional partners are undertaking in these critical areas. We are confident that these efforts will make a difference in the lives of poor rural people in the region.
Mona Bishay, Director, Near East and North Africa Division
Kuwait pledges an increased contribution to the Seventh Replenishment of IFAD's Resources
IFAD received US$8 million from the State of Kuwait in September as a contribution to the Seventh 
Replenishment of its regular resources. The contribution represents a 60 per cent increase over Kuwait's contribution of US$5 million to the Sixth Replenishment.
Hesham Al-Waqayan, Member of IFAD’s Executive Board for Kuwait and Deputy Director-General of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), confirmed his country’s pledge through a letter to the President of IFAD, Lennart Båge. The pledge followed intensive interactions with the Government of Kuwait over the past two years, including President Båge's visit to the country in February.
During his visit to Kuwait, President Båge and his delegation, including Matthew Wyatt, Assistant President for External Relations, and Mona Bishay, Director, Near East and North Africa Division, met with Bader Al-Humaidhi, Minister of Finance, Khaled Al-Jarallah, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Abdelwahab Al-Bader, Director-General of KFAED. The visit provided an opportunity to consolidate the special relationship that Kuwait and IFAD have maintained for many years. Kuwait played a key role in formulating IFAD’s Agreement of Establishment in the mid-1970s and was one of the first signatories of that agreement. Kuwait was also a founding member of IFAD.
Commenting on Kuwait’s contribution to the Seventh Replenishment, President Båge said he was very pleased by Kuwait’s renewed expressions of support for IFAD and by its strong commitment to helping to end hunger and rural poverty.
Over the years, Kuwait has played a crucial role in supporting IFAD’s policies and operations and provided substantial contributions to the Fund’s resources. Kuwait’s paid contributions to IFAD now total US$176 million.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
Algeria and Saudi Arabia sponsor conference rooms in IFAD's new headquarters
Algeria and Saudi Arabia were among the first seven Member States to sponsor meeting rooms in IFAD’s new headquarters this summer. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced a pledge of €100,000 for the loan-signing room on the seventh floor. The announcement was made in a letter addressed to the President of IFAD, Lennart Båge, by Bandar Shalhoub, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to IFAD.
For its part, Algeria pledged €75,000 for a large meeting room on the fifth floor of the new building. The pledge was concluded in an agreement signed by the President of IFAD and the Ambassador of Algeria, Rachid Marif, in May.
Bangladesh, China, Ghana, Greece and Pakistan have also announced their commitments to sponsor meeting rooms in IFAD’s new building. Several other countries have expressed interest in sponsoring the remaining facilities.
Spain backs IFAD’s efforts to secure social protection rights and employment opportunities for rural women in North Africa
Spain has recently extended a grant of US$950,000 in support of an IFAD project to help secure “equitable social protection rights and employment opportunities for rural women” in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The project will assist in orienting national policymaking and legislative and executive processes towards the development of appropriate mechanisms to mitigate the social risks associated with women’s employment in the informal sector. It will also build a strong knowledge base on women’s employment in the informal sector and associated social risks. Overall, the project will contribute to the creation of decent, productive work for rural women and to IFAD’s ultimate goal of eradicating rural poverty.
The Near East and North Africa region has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the world, ranging from 20 per cent in Morocco to 40 per cent in Yemen. Moreover, unemployment is about 50 per cent higher among young women than among young men. The need for more jobs, combined with privatization policies in recent years, has contributed to the growth of the informal employment prevalent in rural areas.
Rural women are more likely than men to find employment in the informal sector or to remain unemployed. In Egypt, for instance, 57 per cent of employed rural women work in the agricultural sector compared with 33 per cent of men employed in the sector. Women are more likely to work in family-run farms or businesses, often without pay. This situation is changing, however; rural women are increasingly seeking more diverse paid employment opportunities, usually in home-based industries or as wage labourers in on- or off-farm activities.
Addressing the high rates of rural unemployment has been identified as a priority in IFAD’s investments in the Near East and North Africa. IFAD’s efforts have focused on the economic aspects of employment generation, but will also take into consideration the dynamics of the labour market, which is likely to see an expansion in the informal sector and greater vulnerability among women employed in this sector.
To pave the way for IFAD’s intervention in the area of women’s employment, particularly in the informal sector, and provide a robust foundation for future support for the unemployed, the IFAD project supported by Spain will address the issues of appropriate social protection for rural women working in the informal sector. It will assist IFAD and its national partners in the region to come into line with the decent work agenda promoted by the sister agency of the United Nations, the International Labour Organization. The “decent work” principle of the International Labour Organization encompasses people’s aspirations to have access to job opportunities that deliver fair incomes, workplace security, gender equality and social protection for families.
In this context, the challenge of combating unemployment to reduce poverty in the region entails creating jobs within effective labour markets, efficient social protection regimes and an enabling environment for social dialogue. Therefore, the project will include the design of social security schemes and field-testing of social protection models in areas covered by IFAD-supported projects in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
The insights gained and the lessons learned through research studies and the pilot-testing of social protection schemes will be used to demonstrate the links between social protection, economic growth, rural poverty reduction and gender equity. They will also be used to advocate for the need to mitigate the social risks associated with women’s employment in the informal sector either by extending the coverage of social protection schemes to this group or establishing appropriate new schemes. The project will also seek the involvement of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization in advocacy partnerships to promote policy dialogue on employment, labour markets and social protection schemes in the region.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
Regional themes
IFAD to release a new assessment of rural poverty in the Near East and North Africa region
The region has witnessed a substantial acceleration in economic growth over the past five years according to a new IFAD report on the state of rural poverty in the region. The “Status of Rural Poverty in the Near East and North Africa” has been produced by IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division and the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for release in autumn 2007. It presents an update of IFAD’s “Rural Poverty Assessment in the Near East and North Africa,” which was published in February 2003.
The report underlines the importance of economic growth, which averaged 5.3 per cent in 2005 compared with an annual average of 4.5 per cent during 1999-2005. Economic growth is creating a favourable environment for poverty reduction, but the region does not seem to have taken full advantage of this. The report affirms that the Near East and North Africa region has made progress in reducing poverty over the past decade, but this progress has been slow. This is due to sluggish policy reforms and trade liberalization, conflicts, lack of effective decentralization and low public and private investments in areas with a high concentration of poverty, typically rural areas.
The contribution of agriculture to total gross domestic product in the region stands at 12.6 per cent, a decline from the 15 per cent in 2000. Public investments in rural areas have followed a downward trend since the 1980s. Net investment in agriculture declined from an annual average of US$6.1 billion in 1986-1990 to US$1.9 billion in 1996-2000. Of the total estimated economically active population of 126 million, 47.6 million people, or 37.8 per cent of the population, are engaged in agriculture, down from 47.8 per cent in the 1990s. Given the relatively low contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product, this demonstrates that, despite some improvements, the agricultural sector is still not very productive.
Economic growth in recent years has not kept pace with the high population growth rates throughout most of the region. This has resulted in a steady rise in unemployment, particularly among young new entrants to the job market. This adds more difficulties to an already saturated labour market, which has a limited capacity to absorb the newcomers seeking employment every year.
Ranging from 25.6 to 53 per cent, youth unemployment rates in the Near East and North Africa region are the highest relative to all other regions of the world. The decrease in employment opportunities, especially in the rural sector, represents a growing challenge to rural poverty reduction.
In addition, conflicts and adverse climatic conditions, such as drought and floods, in many areas are causing severe food deficits, loss of livelihoods and population displacements. According to the official estimates of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the total number of displaced people in the Near East and North Africa amounts to 3 million people, but actual numbers are much higher. They constitute an important proportion of the most vulnerable population groups in rural areas.
Poverty in the Near East and North Africa region remains a rural phenomenon; 58 per cent of the region’s poor people live in rural areas. Despite migration and urbanization, the rural population in the region increased by 17 million between 2000 and 2004. About 34 per cent of the total rural population is poor compared with 18 per cent of the urban population.
Covering 13 highly diverse countries and territories in the region, the new IFAD report measures the progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and targets relative to five indicators. These range from the proportion of the population living below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption to the percentage of the population using improved sanitation facilities. Based on their performance against these indicators, the 13 countries are divided into the following three groups:
- Group I: Countries with relatively good indicators that show progress in line with the Millennium Development Goal targets: Egypt, Morocco, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and Turkey.
- Group II: Countries with relatively good indicators that show limited progress below Millennium Development Goal targets: Algeria, Jordan and Lebanon.
- Group III: Countries with poor indicators that show progress far below Millennium Development Goal targets: Djibouti, Somalia, The Sudan, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority.
The performance of the third group demonstrates a particularly worrying trend because these countries are also classified as the poorest and least developed countries of the region. Those countries most in need of improvement are showing the least progress towards the achievement of the MDGs.
In analytical terms, the report explains the root causes of the poor performance and the specific dimensions of rural poverty in the region. The causes and dimensions include trends in rural unemployment, migration, health, literacy and education, access to basic rural infrastructure, food security and nutrition, gender inequality, civil strife and conflict, trade liberalization, the investment climate and the role of remittances.
The new report is based on a desk review of recent literature about rural poverty reduction and on a synthesis and analysis of existing secondary data sources. It will contribute to a better understanding of the rural poverty situation and the related dynamics within the framework of the recent socio-economic and institutional changes in the region. Certain country situations are illustrated as examples of poverty dimensions or specific constraints prevalent in some areas. Some of these examples highlight differences in rural poverty conditions among the countries of the region.
The report will also contribute to IFAD’s internal process to develop strategic directions on a subregional or country-group basis. The specific characteristics of each country and each local area in terms of tailoring actions to meet the needs of different rural target groups have been analysed in depth in the country strategic opportunities programmes or at the level of individual IFAD projects.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
Boosting the production and exportation of aromatic and medicinal plants
A regional workshop on the role of herbs and medicinal and aromatic plants in improving the livelihoods of poor rural people in the Near East and North Africa was held in Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, on 10-12 July 2007. The workshop was organized by IFAD and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The participants included some 40 experts and representatives of regional and international research and financial institutions.
“Supporting small farmers in growing and marketing non-traditional agricultural commodities, such as medicinal plants and herbs, has a very positive impact on agricultural growth and rural employment and leads to poverty reduction in rural areas,” said Mona Bishay, the Director of IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division, in her opening statement at the workshop. “But for this to happen,” she continued, “collectors and growers must have greater access to local and international markets.” She mentioned several obstacles hindering the full exploitation of the potential of herbal, medicinal and aromatic plants in reducing poverty and improving the livelihoods of rural people in the region. “The most important handicaps are lack of access to resources, inadequate extension and training services, lack of improved technology and business skills, and insufficient marketing information and local organizational skills.”
Mahmoud Solh, the Director General of the ICARDA said it was regrettable that the indigenous knowledge of herbal, medicinal and aromatic plants was not backed up by the adequate use of modern technology. He underlined the region’s huge potential for growth and exports in quality products that can compete with other suppliers. “New science and technology can be deployed to understand new potential uses for processing, transforming, and adding value to natural products with the purpose of generating income for poor farmers.”
More than 80 per cent of the world’s population uses traditional plant-based medicines in primary health care according to the World Health Organization. Demand is growing worldwide for medicinal plants, as well as herbs and aromatic plants. Global trade in these plants is estimated at US$60 billion annually and is expected to grow by 10-15 per cent per year over the next five years.
The countries of the Near East and North Africa may take advantage of this window of opportunity to generate revenues and reduce rural poverty by more effectively exploiting their immense wealth in plant biodiversity. The regional flora includes more than 23,000 plant species. Among these species, the region is known for its production of a wide variety of, for example, acacia, rumex and citrullus to cure diabetes; aloe, tamarindus and ziziphus for bone fractures; trigonella and peganum for lung infections and asthmatic illnesses; artemisia herba alba for stomach ache and skin diseases; thymus capitatus for disinfecting injuries, burns and urinary infections;thymus vulgaris for insect bites and so forth. The region is also home to a large number of other herbal species, including cumin, coriander, fennel, thyme, mint and sage, as well as essential oils extracted from citrus, peppermint, spearmint, geranium and lemongrass.
The improved management of these natural resources might make a greater contribution to local economies, subsistence health needs and biodiversity conservation. A balanced approach in exploiting this resource would satisfy the need to take advantage of a promising economic development opportunity, while conserving the immense wealth in plant biodiversity.
However, despite the huge export potential, the region enjoys only a small share of the world’s market in herbs and medicinal and aromatic plants. This share was estimated at only 3 per cent in 1991-2000. Yet, herbs, medicinal and aromatic plants continue to provide essential foods and nutrition, medicine, fodder, mulch, fuel and construction materials for the generation of non-farm income. Poor collectors and growers – especially women – have an excellent opportunity to add product value through the relatively simple processes involved in grading, purifying, processing and storing these products.
Herbs and medicinal and aromatic plants are particularly promising in efforts to reduce rural poverty in the Near East and North Africa region because of their higher water use efficiency and higher economic return per unit of area relative to traditional crops. In addition, the massive cultivation of these plants can fortify anti-desertification measures because it would guarantee greater carbon dioxide absorption and contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change. The Aleppo workshop was able to:
- Identify and discuss the constraints on and opportunities for the sustainable collection and cultivation of herbs and medicinal and aromatic plants and for linking and integrating small collectors and growers to domestic and international markets
- Examine success stories and lessons learned in Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Morocco, Oman, Somalia, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and other countries in the production and marketing of herbs and medicinal and aromatic plants and derived products
- Identify the strategic approaches, priority interventions and partnerships necessary for taking full advantage of herbs and medicinal and aromatic plants in improving the livelihoods of the rural poor in the Near East and North Africa region
For further information, contact: [email protected]
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Country programme features
Expanding IFAD's programme in Yemen to help improve the management of natural resources and adaptation to climate change
The latest IFAD-supported intervention in Yemen, one of the largest recipients of IFAD assistance, will be launched in early 2008. The new Rainfed Agriculture and Livestock Project was approved by IFAD’s Executive Board in September 2007. The project will help reduce rural poverty and improve natural resource management in five of the most deprived areas of the governorates of Al-Mahweet, Hajjah, Hodeidah, Lahej and Sana'a. IFAD will invest US$16.6 million in the new project, which will be cofinanced by the International Development Association (IDA). The project will have three components. IDA will exclusively finance the first two components, covering all five governorates. The third component will be implemented in 23 targeted districts and cofinanced by IFAD and IDA. At a total cost of US$42.2 million, the project aims, through participatory natural resource management initiatives, to halt and reverse the accelerating trend towards resource degradation.
A rapidly increasing population, with greater demands and expectations, is causing greater stress on natural resources. Because the local economy is based predominantly on rainfed agriculture and livestock, the project seeks to:
- Upgrade and diversify production, while, through participatory natural resource management initiatives, halting and reversing the accelerating trend towards resource degradation
- Help small farmers, herders, poor landless people and woman-headed households strengthen their processing and marketing systems, protect their assets (soil, water, rangelands, seeds and animals) and increase their off-farm household incomes
- Help introduce microfinance services and promote the development of new microenterprises, income-generating activities, greater access to markets and more partnerships with the private sector
Targeting about 185,000 households in the 23 selected districts, IFAD’s intervention will also make soil conservation and water harvesting more effective in the uplands. It will empower rural poor people to participate in and gain benefit from community-based development planning and project execution. Through capacity-building and the formulation of rural producer groups and committees, these people will improve their access to public and private services and to input and output markets.
The project is one of the Government’s public investment programme priorities under the Third Socio-economic Development Plan for Poverty Reduction (2006-2010). It will introduce a major innovation in rural development in Yemen, namely, the financing and implementation of rural production activities and infrastructure through the Social Fund for Development, an institution the Government created specifically to fight poverty in the country.
The project will also help address the vulnerability and adaptation to climate change on the basis of improvement in agriculture’s adaptive capacity. Activities under the project’s farmer-based seed management system will involve farmers in the selection of drought-resistant local seed varieties and produce these varieties for commercial use by other farmers. In addition, the project’s programme of terrace rehabilitation and water harvesting will improve the ability of farmers to cope with climate change. IFAD is currently holding discussions with the Global Environmental Facility to secure additional funding for some of the project activities of relevance to the climate.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
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Boosting local economies in the mountain zones of Morocco
During its ninety-first session, held in September 2007, IFAD’s Executive Board approved a soft loan of US$18.3 million and a grant of US$0.5 million to finance the Rural Development Project in the Mountain Zones of Errachidia Province of Morocco. The new project will help about 140,000 poor rural people benefit from improved vocational skills and training designed to help them start on- and off-farm microenterprises and boost agricultural production. The total cost of US$27 million includes co-financing by the Government of Morocco and the beneficiaries in the Province of Errachidia, which is part of the Meknès-Tafilalet Region and one of the country's poorest provinces.
The project's overall goal is to improve living conditions and incomes among poor households in the mountain zones of Errachidia Province. It will help tackle the root causes of rural poverty, which include inadequate social and economic services, poor infrastructure, mismanagement of land and water resources, and high illiteracy rates. The project will also promote soil and water conservation and encourage income diversification by providing sustainable access to local financial and business counselling services. The project will endeavour to reach its goals by focusing on:
- Strengthening participatory programming and building the capacities of grass-roots organizations and provincial and local public administrations through the promotion of local pro-poor institutions and the training of institutional staff and board members in participatory development;
- Creating socio-economic and productive assets, which will involve rehabilitating small-scale irrigation infrastructure, improving accessibility, supplying clean drinking water, promoting soil and water conservation and intensifying and diversifying agricultural production; and
- Diversifying income sources by providing sustainable access to local financial services and business counselling services.
The project will enhance the outreach of rural financial infrastructure in the delivery of credit and will promote the development of new financial and non-financial products adapted to the needs of poor rural people. Through the National Initiative for Human Development, which was launched by Morocco in eight communes in the project area in May 2005, an IFAD grant will finance income-generating activities among women and young people in ecotourism, aromatic and medicinal plants and artisanal production. It will attempt to address the problems of poverty and marginalization in this mountainous area and to make an overall impact in the region. IFAD’s intervention is part of a long-term poverty reduction programme for the mountain areas of Morocco and will be implemented in full synergy and complementarity with the country’s envisaged Millennium Challenge Corporation Programme in the project area.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
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Helping Iraq's small farmers reduce their country's reliance on food imports
A new IFAD grant-financed programme will help small farmers reduce Iraq’s basic food imports, which are expected to reach US$3.5 billion during the next decade. Upon approval of the Executive Board in December 2007, IFAD will provide US$1.2 million in support of the new programme aimed at “improved livelihoods of small farmers in Iraq through integrated management of pests and organic fertilization”. The programme will help realize substantial and rapid increases in the production of dates, cereals and legumes through massive adoption by farmers of improved technology packages.
Iraq had almost reached food self-sufficiency before the first Gulf war in 1991 thanks to a strong agricultural sector, which employed about 40 per cent of the population. But the years of wars, sanctions and instability that followed have devastated the sector, with drastic effects on food security and on the livelihoods of farming communities.
The production of dates, wheat and legumes has reached record lows in the past few years due to a proliferation of agricultural pests and inefficient farming practices and techniques. In southern Iraq, the average yield of dates is estimated at 35 kilograms per tree compared with 81 kilograms per tree in central Iraq. However, both figures are considered low relative to tree productivity in neighboring countries. The production of wheat, barley and legumes in northern Iraq has also witnessed a major setback in recent years due to the spread of transboundary diseases and insect pests and to obsolete farming practices. Infestations by one pest, the sunn pest, for example, cover around 500,000 hectares annually, often resulting in total crop loss. About US$3 million is spent each year only on pesticides in areas prone to the sunn pest.
The agricultural sector is now under increasing pressure to feed a population that is estimated at 26 million and is growing at an annual rate of more than 2.8 per cent. In its efforts to enhance agricultural development and accelerate food production, the Ministry of Agriculture has identified key priority areas for immediate intervention. These include insect pest management and soil fertility improvement. A study carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2003 indicated that the use of organic fertilizers and integrated pest management would be highly beneficial. It also recommended crop diversification, the revitalization of research and extension, and capacity-building, which will also be tackled under this programme.
IFAD’s new programme, which will be implemented by National Agriculture Research and Extension Systems of Iraq, with the support of ICARDA covers the priority areas of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. It seeks to achieve the following objectives:
- Introduce integrated pest management and technological options organic fertilizer that will improve the livelihoods of rural poor people and ensure household food security in three major farming areas in Iraq (north, centre and south);
- Strengthen networking through farmer field schools and participatory approaches to improve the access of farmers to new technologies;
- Build the capacity of extension and research institutions by enhancing technology dissemination; and
- Strengthen partnerships among the Government, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
Knowledge management and capacity-building
Expanding KariaNet connectivity in Jordan
The village of Harta in Jordan’s Bani Kenana Commune joined IFAD’s Knowledge Access in Rural Interconnected Areas Network (KariaNet) in July 2007 as a pilot gateway for connectivity with rural areas in the rest of the Near East and North Africa region. The Harta electronic hub has been established under the IFAD-supported Yarmouk Agricultural Resources Development Project with the help of local village authorities, non-governmental organizations and community members.
The facility will help local farmers and rural women connect with their peers in other villages in the country and in other countries of the Near East and North Africa for online exchanges of information and knowledge. Through IFAD-supported projects, a number of villages in four other countries of the Near East and North Africa – Egypt, Morocco, the Sudan and Tunisia – are interconnected through KariaNet.
Awni Shdefat, Manager of the Yarmouk project, has said that “the facility will foster a greater awareness among members of the local community, both men and women, of best farming practices that can be exchanged online to help them increase their productivity.” He adds that “building the capacities of local communities through the use of information and communication technology is the main goal of KariaNet.”
IFAD’s Yarmouk Agricultural Resources Development Project in Jordan was launched in 2000 to improve the food security and incomes of the target group by arresting degradation and restoring soil fertility, thus allowing rural poor people to use land and water resources more sustainably. The project has been providing technical and financial support to the target group, which encompasses the entire population of selected priority areas in the Yarmouk Valley, where poor farmers are in the majority.
The project has enabled farmers to adopt soil and water conservation measures and to improve agricultural production practices. It has also promoted and funded credit for on- and off-farm enterprises and strengthened the capacities of the agricultural directorates in the project area to provide the required technical support and extension services. As a result, some 2,480 households have increased their incomes and their quality of life. Income-generating programmes are assisting some 800 women in developing small-scale business enterprises. An estimated 7,950 additional households are receiving direct benefits from credit and technology transfer programmes, including connectivity through KariaNet.
The network was established in 2004 through a partnership of IFAD, the International Development Research Centre, and IFAD-funded projects in the Near East and North Africa region. It connects IFAD-funded projects and their beneficiaries with each other and with the outside world so that they may share knowledge and exchange information and experiences. It also provides support for training and capacity-building programmes among IFAD projects in the region to help increase productivity and reduce rural poverty.
For further information, contact: [email protected]
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Empowering rural Somali women to overcome poverty
“I earn more money now because I can buy and sell more milk,” said a 30-year-old milk-collector, Faiza Hassan Ahmed, in the Somaliland region of Wooqoyi-Galbeed. Faiza explained that, thanks to a small loan she had received, she was able to purchase more containers and bottles, which she needed for collecting milk from herders and reselling it to villagers who needed it. Her milk collection capacity was only 20 litres per day. With the help of the credit provided through the Northwestern Integrated Community Development Programme (NWICDP), which is funded by the IFAD-Belgian Survival Fund Joint Programme (BSF-JP), Safia increased her capacity to 200 litres per day. But she still needed to know how to read and write and how to manage her business properly.
Faiza and other poor rural women were attending lessons at a training facility in the district of Gabiley, when Alessandra Pani, a staff member at the BSF-JP, visited the facility in August. The visit, which was part of an IFAD baseline survey mission, provided an opportunity to interview Faiza and her companions.
Training at the Gabiley facility is carried out under the NWICDP gender mainstreaming component. The NWICDP started activities in 2001 and is financed through a €5.3 million grant from the IFAD-Belgian Survival Fund Joint Programme. It covers two regions of Somaliland, Awdal and Wooqoyi-Galbeed, including nine districts. It aims to provide rural communities with access to sufficient goods and services to satisfy their basic needs in food, water, health and income by:
- Building the capacity of local service providers to improve basic health services and provide clean, safe water;
- Helping farmers and herders increase their agricultural and livestock production; and
- Developing sustainable mechanisms to provide microcredit services for on- and off-farm income-generating activities in rural areas.
The gender mainstreaming component was developed in 2004 to help women overcome difficulties such as inadequate health care and the lack of access to credit and training.
Although rural women in Somaliland take important decisions regarding the health and nutritional status of their families, their access to education, resources, decision-making and opportunities to enhance social status remain limited. The NWICDP gender mainstreaming component ensures that women are given the chance to participate in other programme activities, such as agriculture, rural water facilities, rural health services and local capacity-building. To facilitate this process, the NWICDP has supported the establishment of women’s groups in 41 communities in the two Somaliland regions of Awdal and Wooqoyi-Galbeed.
Literacy classes are organized to address the high rate of illiteracy among women in the region. Women learn how to read and write before initiating training in business management, microbusiness and marketing. Attending such training courses has a direct impact on their livelihoods and household incomes. Women who have benefited from NWICDP training activities now feel they have a role in society and are empowered to achieve a better future for themselves and their families.
Faiza has seen her income grow, and her customers are now more satisfied. Her family’s living standards have improved gradually. She is also able to keep up on her loan repayments. Faiza said the combination of receiving both microfinance and knowledge through training has changed her life. “The women from the village would like to learn more about income-generating handicrafts, sewing, and management,” she said.
As in the case of training activities, the NWICDP has also been able to improve the standards of health care and sanitation in the two regions it covers. At the Gabiley Health Centre, basic courses in health and refresher courses are given to traditional midwives on reproductive health, menstruation, pregnancy, health examinations for pregnant women, safe delivery, the examination of newborn babies and postnatal complications. Training also includes immunization against tuberculosis, tetanus, measles, polio, diphtheria and other recurrent diseases.
Some 120 new traditional birth attendants (TBAs) have taken basic training since the beginning of the NWICDP. In addition, 271 already trained TBAs have taken refresher training. One of them, Asha Abdi Ali, an experienced 45-year-old midwife explained that, thanks to training, she is now able to diagnose a risky pregnancy and refer poor women to the hospital in Hargeisa. She also learned that it is extremely important to take care of the health of pregnant women, a subject that was once neglected. Lack of access and unaffordable hospitalization costs lead Somaliland women to deliver at home, sometimes in very poor conditions. This renders the role of traditional birth attendants extremely important. Asha said she helped most of the women at the centre where she was interviewed to deliver their children.
This health centre is visited every month by about 50 pregnant women. In the event of an emergency, a delivery can be performed at the centre. Asha emphasized the need to provide more training sessions. She underlined how important it is to train rural women in her region. Asha also emphasized the importance of training among men for family planning purposes. Frequent pregnancies double the hardships facing women, who also spend long hours farming, herding, or performing other income-generating activities. “If new generations of men were properly trained, women’s burden could be lighter,” she said.
A second NWICDP phase is expected to follow upon the completion of the current programme in 2008. The new phase, which is due to start over the next few months, may include larger training and family planning components. This will help emancipate rural poor women in Somaliland, enabling them to lead more healthy and productive lives.
For further information, contact: [email protected] and [email protected]
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In brief
Syrian Arab Republic and IFAD sign a US$20 million loan agreement to finance a new intervention against water shortages and unemployment
A new US$58 million project in Syrian Arab Republic will create employment opportunities and reduce water shortages among about 190,000 poor rural families living in the north-eastern provinces of Deir Ezur, Hassake and Raqqa. With a rapidly increasing population, the three provinces are suffering from diminishing water supplies, decreasing agricultural production and growing unemployment.
IFAD’s North-eastern Regional Rural Development Project will be financed partly through a low-interest IFAD loan of US$20 million. The loan agreement was signed by Samir AL-Kassir, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic to Italy, and Lennart Båge, President of IFAD. This investment will be matched by a loan of US$17 million from the OPEC Fund for International Development and a contribution of US$20 million from the Syrian Government.
“The project will help small farmers to manage their resources sustainably and launch small businesses,” said Hamid Abdouli, IFAD’s Country Programme Manager for the Syrian Arab Republic. “We will address the severe water deficit and promote microfinance, microenterprise development, marketing and partnerships with the private sector.”
The project will help local communities form marketing associations among farmers and craft workers. It will also help small farmers modernize old and inefficient irrigation systems and establish sustainable water users associations. The project will provide credit and advice to help young entrepreneurs develop business plans. It will also help the Savings Bank of Syria establish a sustainable microfinance system for poor rural people.
Near East and North Africa Division to hold year-end regional workshop on rural finance and monitoring and evaluation systems
To maximize the development effectiveness of IFAD-supported projects and improve knowledge sharing among these projects, the Near East and North Africa Division is organizing a year-end regional project implementation workshop in Amman, Jordan in October 2007. With the participation of managers and staff of IFAD projects and government counterparts from the Near East (Mashreq) region, the workshop will discuss common constraints and successes in project implementation.
The workshop will address outreach and the targeting of rural financial services to the rural poor in accordance with IFAD’s strategic objective of improving the access of the rural poor to financial markets. It will highlight best practices and case studies and review the effectiveness of ongoing interventions in this area.
The workshop will also help project staff learn how to monitor and evaluate various project interventions more effectively in a results-oriented manner geared towards poverty reduction and gender equity. It will familiarize project staff with various tools to measure results and impacts and expose them to successful implementation experiences within the region and among countries outside the region.