Rural Echoes in Near East and North Africa IFAD

Issue number 4: January/March 2008

Opening remarks from the Director of the Near East and North Africa Division

There is increasing consensus that climate change will have far-reaching consequences for agriculture and that it will disproportionately affect the poor.  Many regions already feel this impact, but nowhere more so than in dry areas. The Near East and North Africa (NENA) region is among the drier regions of the world and, as such, is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Such change is likely to pose a number of threats to agriculture and rural livelihoods including increased water scarcity, lower and more erratic rainfalls and harvests, higher vulnerability of crops and livestock to diseases and pests, and poorer-quality natural resources – all of which will increase the vulnerability of small farmers and pastoralists.

While several countries in the region are implementing ambitious economic reforms with positive results, the progress made could be jeopardized by climate change. Income and employment could be lost to more frequent droughts in rural areas and to floods in coastal areas. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns could damage traditional crops and others with growth potential. Climate-induced degradation of natural resources could trigger conflicts over water and rangelands. Poor people in the region would be most affected because of their limited capacity to cope with dramatic changes in their natural resource base.

Given the historic vulnerability of the NENA region to climatic shocks (especially droughts), IFAD has always worked with its Member States there to support the rural poor in adapting to climate variability, especially in the areas of agricultural production and natural resource management. This support has provided solutions to increased environmental stress at the local level. Recently the Fund has been investigating ways to develop a more comprehensive approach, with best practices in adapting land and water management to climate change and in mitigating its impact wherever possible.

Since 2006, and building on its past experience, IFAD has supported NENA countries in their efforts to address climate change and has fully integrated the objective of reducing vulnerability to climate change into the agricultural and rural development programmes it supports. Moreover, it has promoted agricultural investment options that reduce such vulnerability. This includes according high priority to improved water demand management and water use efficiency, conservation and agroforestry technology, agriculture diversification and supply chain development, market linkages for water-efficient high-value crops, and rural financial services enabling the rural poor to surmount barriers to adaptation measures. Capacity-building for implementing these priorities and risk management strategies are essential dimensions of the Fund’s support to adaptation efforts. IFAD is also focusing attention on countries in the region that are specifically vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including Djibouti, the Sudan and Yemen; and it is pursuing opportunities to provide support to adaptation and mitigation in Gulf countries within the framework of IFAD’s technical assistance programme for agricultural research.

During 2007, IFAD’s new concessional loans and grants to the NENA region amounted to US$64 million and will support programmes in Djibouti, Morocco, Somalia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen. This brings the total value of IFAD’s ongoing portfolio in the region to US$584 million. In addition, new country strategic opportunities programmes were formulated for Jordan and Yemen, defining the strategic framework for IFAD’s future collaboration with these Governments and other partners. All of these programmes and country strategies have components and approaches for adapting and reducing vulnerability to climate change.

This issue of Rural Echoes presents readers with a synthesis of the joint efforts that IFAD and its national and regional partners made in 2007 – and plan to make in the future – to address the emerging challenge of climate change and its impact on the rural poor.

Mona Bishay, Director, Near East and North Africa Division

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IFAD and the United Arab Emirates to enhance cooperation in the field of water scarcity and technology transfer

IFAD and the United Arab Emirates have pledged to enhance their cooperation in tackling the impact of climate change and the degradation of the natural resource base in the Near East and North Africa region (NENA) and beyond. The pledge was made during talks between Mohammed Saeed Al Kindi, the United Arab Emirates Minister for Environment and Water, and IFAD President Lennart Båge at the Fund’s headquarters in Rome on 21 November 2007.

The Minister expressed his Government’s determination to increase investments to counter the negative impact of drought and water scarcity, the result of global warming stress in the country, the region and other developing countries. IFAD’s knowledge and expertise are important assets for developing effective mitigation and adaptation programmes in these areas, he said. Moreover, the resources generated through his ministry and channelled through the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) enable affected countries to initiate programmes and projects responding to the challenges posed by climate change. He invited IFAD to work closer with OFID and other development organizations and financial institutions in developing and implementing such interventions. President Båge underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation between IFAD and the Ministry of Environment and Water through greater interaction between officials and experts of the two sides.

The President and Minister also discussed the progress made by a number of IFAD-supported programmes under implementation by the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). These programmes benefit the entire region including the United Arab Emirates. Among them is a pioneering intervention to address water scarcity, the Programme for Saving Freshwater Resources with Salt-Tolerant Forage Production in Marginal Areas of the West Asia and North Africa Region. Launched in 2005, the programme is introducing improved technologies for the use of saline water in the mass cultivation of salt-tolerant forage crops and horticulture in the region. Also discussed was the Integrated Pest Management Programme for the Control of the Date Palm Red Weevil, Stem Borer and Grubs in the Near East and South Asia, which has made a significant contribution to averting a deadly threat to traditional Arab date production.

The President informed the Minister of the progress made in establishing an IFAD regional representation aimed at fostering greater cooperation between IFAD and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The talks also touched upon the special contributions provided by a number of IFAD Member States, including GCC members, to sponsor conference facilities in IFAD’s new headquarters building in Rome.

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For further information, contact: [email protected]

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Regional themes

Highlighting the achievements of the IFAD-ICARDA partnership in support of agricultural research

IFAD President, Lennart Båge, and the Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas, Mahmoud Solh, addressed a half-day seminar on the “Achievements of IFAD-ICARDA’s Support to Agricultural Research for Improving Livelihoods of the Rural Poor in Dry Areas”. The seminar was held at IFAD’s headquarters in Rome on 14 December 2007 and was attended by a large number of IFAD, FAO and ICARDA staff. The Executive Board Director of France, François Marion also participated in the meeting.

Welcoming the Director General of ICARDA and his accompanying delegation of scientists and experts, President Båge spoke of the importance of the longstanding collaboration between IFAD and ICARDA in developing and implementing a research agenda that was highly relevant to the livelihoods of rural poor people. The President also pointed out the challenges that dry areas faced in adapting to climate change and expressed the hope that the discussions would help identify core priorities for the limited amount of IFAD funding available. In this context he commended, ICARDA’s new Strategic Plan 2007-2016 specifically its new emphasis on a demand driven people oriented approach in setting the agriculture research agenda. He called for a strengthened partnership between IFAD and ICARDA that would focus research on results that can be disseminated to and used by national systems and the rural poor. He stressed the importance of such partnership to address the challenge of rural poverty and food security in the region, recently exacerbated by climate change, use of food grains for biofuels and increasing oil prices.

On his part, the Director General thanked the President and IFAD for their continued emphasis on the need to focus and tailor agricultural research to ensure that it effectively served the needs of resource-poor people. He presented an overview of the 30 years of IFAD-ICARDA collaboration and the concrete results obtained. He also outlined strategic directions for a consolidated partnership focusing on core priorities and results.

Organized by IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division (PN) and chaired by Kanayo Nwanze, Vice President of IFAD, the seminar included a series of presentations on the achievements and impact of a large number of agricultural research programmes financed by IFAD and carried out by ICARDA. In addressing the seminar, Mona Bishay, Director of PN, stressed that these achievements were especially valuable as they translated, in concrete terms, into increased incomes for small farmers. She also emphasized the increasingly diversified scope of work with ICARDA and the importance of gearing the research agenda towards addressing the likely consequences of climate change. In addition, Bishay commended the recent emphasis of ICARDA on assessing the impact of agricultural research on poor communities and stressed the importance of linking IFAD’s support to agricultural research to it’s country programmes in the region.

In their presentations, ICARDA’s experts emphasized the impact of research grants on the rural poor in the Nile Valley, West Asia and North Africa region and the Arabian Peninsula. They singled out, in particular, the achievements of fava bean research in the Nile Valley Project; the experience of the regional Mashreq-Maghreb project, the lessons learnt from  Integrating Crop/Livestock Production Systems in the Low-Rainfall Areas of West Asia and North Africa, the impact of the integrated Durum Wheat Research Network in NENA and the achievements of the ongoing Water Benchmark and Natural Resources Management research projects.

In his concluding statement IFAD’s Vice President, Kanayo Nwanze commended ICARDA’s work and stressed the need for a well orchestrated public awareness to improve and better publicize the outcomes of IFAD/ICARDA partnerships, including joint publications. Finally, he urged the concerned divisions in IFAD to work closely with ICARDA in further promoting this partnership to the benefit of the rural poor.

For further information, contact: [email protected]

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The Tunis Declaration and Action Plan provide insights for integrating climate change in the development strategies of NENA countries

The Tunis Declaration and Action Plan – endorsed by the International Solidarity Conference on Climate Change Strategies for the African and Mediterranean Regions held in Tunis from 18-20 November 2007 – provide important recommendations for integrating climate change into the development strategies of NENA countries, according to IFAD’s Regional Economist for NENA, Mylène Kherallah, a member of IFAD’s delegation to the conference.

Representing a common position of States in Africa and the Mediterranean region, the Tunis Declaration and Action Plan were presented to the 13th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bali, Indonesia, from 3-14 December 2007. The two documents were endorsed in Tunis by Government representatives – including 13 ministers for the environment from both developing countries and member states of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development – international financial institutions, United Nations organizations, NGOs and academics.

Because of its high dependence on rainfed agriculture, NENA is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, as was clearly highlighted in the deliberations of the conference. Climate change is likely to cause reduced rainfall in arid areas, more frequent droughts and floods, and higher rates of desertification and soil degradation. Severe water scarcity was recognized as the single most important threat to agriculture in the region. In its fourth assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates an average temperature rise in the region of up to two degrees in the next 15-20 years and over four degrees by the end of the century. In addition, the latest scientific assessments provide unequivocal evidence of increasingly lower precipitation, with water run-off projected to drop by 20-30 per cent in most of NENA by 2050.

The Tunis Declaration calls for international solidarity aimed at protecting Africa and the Mediterranean region against the adverse effects of climate change. It commits its signatories, among others, to:

Signatories also asked that developed countries, in view of their major contribution to global warming, finance the additional cost required for Africa and the Mediterranean region to pursue green development; and that the United Nations be given responsibility for establishing guidelines for the development and implementation of biofuel production in Africa.

The Action Plan aims to help African and Mediterranean countries take appropriate steps to ensure effective implementation of their national adaptation plans (NAPAs) in the context of international solidarity and with a focus on priority aspects to help, through a set of actions, attain the Millennium Development Goals. The main steps outlined in the Action Plan include, among others:

The combined effect of higher temperature and reduced precipitation will increase the occurrence of droughts, as has already happened in the Maghreb countries. With an increased drought frequency of from one event every ten years at the beginning of the 20th century to five or six events every ten years at present, the need for a radical adjustment of water management is more pressing in the NENA region than elsewhere.

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For further information, contact: [email protected]

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Country programme features

A new country strategic opportunities programme lays greater emphasis on human and enterprise development in rural Yemen

The Executive Board of IFAD approved the new country strategic opportunities programme (COSOP) for Yemen in December 2007. Covering the period 2008-2013, the COSOP was developed in consultation with the main stakeholders involved in rural poverty reduction in Yemen. It will help the country to effectively pursue its poverty reduction strategies aimed at the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The new COSOP is guided by the IFAD Strategic Framework 2007-2010 and aligned with Yemen’s Strategic Vision 2025 and its Development Plan for Poverty Reduction 2006-2010. It maps the current state of rural poverty in Yemen, analyses lessons learned from IFAD’s experience in the country and outlines a new country strategic framework.

A country of 21 million people, Yemen has a per capita income of US$630 (2006) and is one of the poorest countries in the world. Poverty is generalized and severe, with about 42 per cent of the population living below the poverty line.

Roughly 50 per cent of the rural population of 16 million are classified as poor compared with 31 per cent of the urban population. Among the major determinants of rural poverty in Yemen are the prevalence of smallholdings and low yields, leading to high rates of food insecurity; the deterioration of infrastructure such as terraces; and increasing environmental stress with less rain more drought and scarcer groundwater. Off-farm non-agricultural employment is constrained by the lack of technical and managerial skills and poor access to finance in rural areas where private-sector investments are generally scarce.

In the new COSOP, IFAD’s response to the challenges facing agriculture and rural poverty is outlined in three strategic objectives: empowering rural communities by strengthening the social and economic institutions of the rural poor; promoting sustainable rural financial services and pro-poor rural small and medium-sized enterprises; and enhancing food security for poor households by restoring and increasing the productive capacity of the agricultural and natural resource base.

Popular participation, gender balance and environmental sustainability will be cross-cutting issues in all IFAD initiatives. In addition, working with partners to achieve synergies and complementarity will be a key ingredient of IFAD’s strategy in Yemen.

Within the framework of the new strategy, four project proposals were elaborated. They are the Al Baida Development Project, the South-west Coastal Zone Development Project, the Lahij Area Development Project and the Taiz Rural Development Project. One or more of these projects will be funded during the COSOP period in accordance with Government priorities and Yemen’s share of IFAD resources under the performance-based allocation system.

For further information, contact: [email protected]

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Supporting national efforts to tackle water scarcity and develop rangelands in Djibouti

The latest IFAD-supported programme in Djibouti, the Programme for the Mobilization of Surface Water and Sustainable Land Management, was approved by the Fund’s Executive Board in December 2007 and will be launched during the first quarter of 2008. It aims to improve the living conditions of pastoral communities through better management of natural resources in the regions of Tadjourah, Dikhil and Arta.

At a total cost of US$11.64 million – including IFAD grant financing of US$3 million and a Government and beneficiary investment of US$2.46 million – the programme will mobilize surface water for human and livestock consumption, improve the capacity of rangelands to feed more livestock and build national capacity for the institutional, technical and social management of natural resources. The programme was designed and will be implemented in collaboration with the French Global Environment Facility, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme and the African Water Facility.

Djibouti is affected by recurrent droughts, and an estimated 50 per cent of the rural population have no access to water for drinking and for livestock uses. Underground water capacity appears to have been fully used and, as an alternative to borehole drilling, the Ministry of Agriculture is launching an ambitious strategy for mobilizing surface water. It will equip public institutions with the capacity, approach, techniques and necessary scientific guidelines to harness surface water in a way that is environmentally sustainable. The programme will support this effort and help develop the capacity of local communities, organized in committees, to manage natural resources efficiently. More specifically, committee members will be trained in analyzing, planning, managing and monitoring the development of communal natural resources.

To the benefit of some 6,000 households, the programme will introduce two different surface-water mobilization techniques:

The programme will also support water supply for livestock use and range and forest management, including activities such as the storing of potable water in cisterns, vocational training in the manufacture of forestry products, and food-for-work programmes involving the poorest and most food-aid-dependent households.

As result of the programme, it is expected that targeted households will be able to satisfy their drinking water and livestock water needs (particularly during the dry season), increase their livestock productivity, raise their average incomes by 20 per cent and improve their nutritional standards thanks to increased milk consumption. The burden on women to fetch water will be greatly alleviated. Environmental benefits relate to the conservation of the Day Forest and its unique vegetative cover.

For further information, contact: [email protected]

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IFAD's new country strategic opportunities programme for Jordan to boost adaptation to climate change and rural microfinance outreach

A results-based COSOP for Jordan, the second since IFAD’s establishment, was approved by the Fund’s Executive Board in December 2007. The new programme, which covers the period 2008-2012, sets the strategic directions for IFAD’s future interventions in the context of the country’s strategic priorities to eradicate poverty, tackle its chronic water scarcity problems and reinvigorate the rural economy.

The vulnerability of Jordan’s agriculture to water availability and climate change was starkly demonstrated by recurring droughts, the worst in 50 years, between 1998 and 2001. Annual average rainfall decreased by some 18 per cent between 1994 and 2004, severely affecting agricultural production, especially in rainfed areas. For Jordan’s farmers, little or no rainfall means severely reduced cultivation and production – and consequently lower incomes and food security.

The new COSOP was developed in partnership with the national Country Programme Management Team chaired by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and composed of select ministries, Government agencies and NGOs active in rural and agricultural development. It was discussed by these partners at a Strategy Consultation Workshop held in Amman last summer. The workshop was opened by Mustafa Qurunfleh, Minister of Agriculture of Jordan, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Luc Stephens, and IFAD’s Regional Economist for NENA, Mylène Kherallah. Government officials, NGOs and farmer organizations and representatives of bilateral donors also contributed to the consultation. The COSOP reviews the current state of rural poverty in the country and national strategic plans for poverty reduction; analyses lessons learned from IFAD’s experience and previous interventions; maps a new country strategic framework; and highlights the main components of the Fund’s country programme over the next five years.

Around 20 per cent of Jordanians live in rural areas, but 19 per cent of the rural inhabitants live below the official poverty line of US$1.40 per day. An additional 15 per cent (or a total of 34 per cent) live on less than US$2 per day. Most of the 25 poorest subdistricts are in isolated and remote rural areas.

Although agriculture remains a critical livelihood source for nomads, smallholder farmers and even landless rural households, poor rural households have reduced their dependence on it due to chronic water shortages and deteriorating natural resources, reduced fodder subsidies and diminished livestock holdings. There are serious concerns that increased climate variability will aggravate the situation by further diminishing water availability, bringing about additional threats to health, food security, productivity and human security. The ability of Jordan to adapt to increased water scarcity induced by climate change will be crucial to sustaining its human development achievements and growth.

IFAD will support Jordan’s efforts to assess the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the health, nutrition and livelihood security of the rural poor. It will also support the development and testing of adaptation strategies for wide-scale adoption and the building of national adaptation capacities.

IFAD’s approach to natural resource management will be closely linked with the priorities set out in the National Strategy for Agricultural Development 2002-2010. These are to promote the application of advanced technologies, develop innovative rural finance delivery mechanisms, encourage linkages between crop and animal production, promote agricultural processing and marketing, ensure food safety and improve food security.

In line with IFAD's comparative advantages, the new COSOP outlines the following strategic objectives:

Within the framework of the new COSOP, three project proposals were elaborated for possible financing in the period from 2008-2012. They are the Rural Livelihoods Diversification in the Pockets of Poverty; the Rangeland Rehabilitation Programme – Phase II; and the Rural and Agricultural Enterprise Development Programme. They will focus on areas with high rates of rural poverty and active farming communities. Project areas will be selected in different ecological zones in order to capture relevant and replicable lessons for poverty reduction in other rural poor areas in the country.

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For further information, contact: [email protected]

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Voices from the field

Empowering poor rural women in Jordan

“Our cheese and yogurt products are being sold in Amman and have even been taken by travellers to Italy,” Aida Kanaan said proudly. A 50-year-old-dairy producer in the village of Samar in Jordan’s northern Bani Kanana district, she is one of more than 800 poor rural women who have received microcredit to develop small-scale business enterprises thanks to IFAD’s Yarmouk Agricultural Resources Development Project.

Aida and her retired husband Ismael are now running a flourishing business, making and selling cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, ghee and jameed (dried yogurt). They have their own small milk-processing workshop, where they produce and package their dairy products in strict observance of the sanitary and quality standards set by the Ministry of Health. With the help of their two sons and their daughter, they also run two shops for direct sale to customers. In addition, they have contracts with supply-chain dealers who buy and re-sell the products to retail stores in the province of Irbid and in Amman.

“We are not rich, but we are no longer poor,” Aida told reporters of “Rural Echoes” during a field visit to the Yarmouk project site in October 2007. The family was totally dependent on Ismael’s meager pension and Aida’s little home-made cheese-making, when in 2001 she decided to join a group set up by the Yarmouk project and benefit from the microfinance opportunities it offered to start her own income- generating activity. With a loan of JOD2,000 (equivalent to US$2,820) from the Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC), which extends microfinance under the project’s income-generation activities, she was able to start buying milk and make cheese and yogurt at her rented house. She then sold her products to neighbours and in the local marketplace. With her increasing profit, Aida managed to repay her loan on monthly installments of about JOD100 over three years and still increase her household income by 50 per cent.

As the number of customers grew and profit became regular and consistent, Aida decided to move her milk-processing activity to a rented workshop. Given her initial success, she borrowed JOD3,000 from ACC in 2006 to help her cover the high expenses of processing equipment and packaging materials, and to meet production standards. She also received training on processing techniques, learning, for instance, how to measure the temperature, humidity and density of her products. Aida said her workshop was regularly visited by Ministry of Health officials, who took samples of her products for examination in state laboratories to ensure that all hygienic and quality standards for national-level commercialization were respected.

Aida has become a community food supplier and a significant contributor to local economic growth. This has encouraged other rural women in the area to use microfinance as a way out of poverty to a more prosperous future.

Sahira Obeidat, a 35-year-old honey producer, is one of the local women replicating Aida’s success story. In 2004, she received an ACC loan of JOD1,000 to launch her own small business. Choosing the Islamic banking system, under which borrowers do not directly receive cash loans and are not charged a monthly interest fee, Sahira purchased 10 beehives.  ACC paid the vendor for the beehives directly; and Sahira was able set up the new beehives at her family’s olive farm and to start a successful beekeeping activity with the help of her family.

“With my first ten beehives, I produced about 100 kilos of honey in the first year,” she said. Sahira was keen to mention that her family, including three children and her elderly father-  and mother in-law, had consumed 11 kilos, but she had managed to sell the rest.  “I sold my first season’s honey for JOD10 per kilo, earning almost JOD900,” she said. With a four-year loan, repayable in monthly installments of JOD28, including a profit surcharge equivalent to 3.5 per cent of the loan, Sahira had settled half of her debt by 2006. But then she decided to expand the business and took out a second loan of JOD3,000 to purchase more beehives.

“Now I have 35 beehives and produce enough to satisfy my household honey consumption, pay my debts and cover part of the household expenses,” she said “As a military staff member, my husband earns only JOD110, so the money we earn from beekeeping is an important part of our income,” she added.

The success of the women-targeted income-generation component of the Yarmouk project is complementing the major achievements of other components in enhancing food security, raising incomes, arresting environmental degradation, restoring soil fertility and increasing the rational use of water resources in the project area.

For further information, contact: [email protected] and [email protected]

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Knowledge management and capacity-building

Enhancing pro-poor rural microfinance and results-based monitoring and evaluation systems in the Near East

Focusing on rural microfinance and on monitoring and evaluation, a regional workshop on implementation of IFAD-financed projects in the Near East was held in Amman, Jordan, from 21 to 24 October 2007. Mustafa Qurunfleh, Jordan’s Minister for Agriculture, Mona Bishay, IFAD’s Director of the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Division and Ghaleb Tuffaha, Deputy Director of the Regional Centre for Agricultural Reform in the Near East and North Africa (CARDNE), opened the workshop.

Organized by IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division, the Ministry of Agriculture of Jordan and CARDNE, the workshop was attended by some 70 participants representing 20 IFAD-financed projects in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, and the Palestinian Territories. The participants included managers and officers in charge of rural microfinance and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities. A number of international experts and IFAD staff members also participated.

In his opening statement, the Jordanian Minister underlined the importance of giving priority to the achievement of food security and rural poverty reduction within a comprehensive rural development framework that integrates all socio-economic and environmental aspects. On her part, Bishay highlighted the most daunting challenges facing the region, including high rural poverty rates, deteriorating climatic conditions and slow economic growth with growing unemployment rates, especially among rural youth. She emphasized IFAD’s experience in facing these challenges and pointed out that, by building project staff’s capacities, the workshop aimed to address the pressing need for improved project performance in rural microfinance and M&E. The Deputy Director of CARDNE concurred that better performance in these two areas was crucial to activities aimed at enabling poor rural people to develop their own successful income-generating projects.

The first two days of the workshop were dedicated to an extensive exchange of experiences, knowledge-sharing and identification of best and tested solutions to address implementation problems in the areas of pro-poor microfinance and M&E. Once in working groups, participants had the opportunity to review and discuss best practices with a view to improving the effectiveness, outreach and sustainability of M&E and rural finance operations.

In the area of microfinance, participants reached consensus on, among others, the need for:

Participants also identified some of the challenges in this area, including the extent of coverage of rural areas; the sustainability of services; gender equity; the possible introduction of the principle of quotas in some cases; and selection of models most appropriate for each community.

In the area of M&E, participants stressed the importance of, among others, the following approaches:

For further information, contact: [email protected] and [email protected]

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In brief

A new programme to improve the livelihoods of Iraq's small producers

At its ninety-second session held in December 2007, IFAD’s Executive Board approved a US$1.1 million grant to cofinance the Improved Livelihoods of Small Producers in Iraq through Integrated Pest Management and Organic Fertilization Programme. The programme’s goal is to empower small farmers and improve their living conditions by promoting sustainable agricultural production systems and building the capacities of local communities and agricultural development institutions. Covering some of the poorest areas in the south, centre and north of Iraq, the programme targets poor people who rely mainly on crop production for their livelihoods and have limited access to technological developments. It will be implemented by the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with ICARDA and IFAD. The four year programme is expected to develop:

Launching IFAD's Upper Egypt Rural Development Project

A project start-up workshop for the Upper Egypt Rural Development Project took place in Cairo from12-13 November 2007. About 60 participants from Egypt’s Social Fund for Development (SFD), the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Governorates of Assiut and Quena attended the workshop. The Ministry of Agriculture, SFD and IFAD presented their respective development strategies relating to the project. Participants discussed various technical, financial and fiduciary aspects of the project, whose aim is to reduce poverty and unemployment in Assiut and Qena. Over an eight-year period, the project will enable 44,000 microentrepreneurs and 200 small businesses to have access to financial services. IFAD is financing the project through a soft loan of US$15 million equivalent and a grant of US$0.95 million.

Expanding microfinance services in southern Sudan through BRAC

IFAD has extended a grant of US$0.20 million to the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), one of the world’s largest non-governmental providers of microfinance, to cover operational expenses for expanding its microfinance branches in southern Sudan. The new initiative will provide poor people in rural and severely underserved areas with increased access to microcredit. It will also build on the successful operation of BRAC in the southern Sudanese region of Juba. Because of its pioneering work in southern Sudan, BRAC has been awarded the innovation award from the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor.

The initiative will complement the IFAD co-financed Southern Sudan Livelihoods Development Project and help unleash the productive capacities of farming households in the targeted counties of Terekeka, Magwi and Bor in the states of Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria and Jonglei respectively.

Formulation of a new intervention in Lebanon nearing completion

Formulation of Lebanon’s Hilly Areas Sustainable Agriculture Development Project has reached an advanced phase following the completion of fieldwork undertaken by IFAD, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Green Plan in Lebanon, with the technical support of the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in November 2007.

The project, which will be presented to IFAD’s Executive Board in September 2008 for approval, aims to reduce poverty of rural people who suffered direct and indirect losses from the 2006 hostilities. This will be achieved through increased agriculture productivity, improved water use efficiency and better marketing of perishable agricultural commodities. The project’s poverty targeting strategy is based on the findings of the livelihoods and gender assessment of the war damage commissioned by IFAD and undertaken by the FAO Investment Centre and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2007.

IFAD and Spain to help Egyptian farmers adapt to climate change

IFAD will assist small Egyptian farmers in adapting to climate change as part of a climate change initiative approved by the Management Board of the Spanish Millennium Development Goal Fund on 17 December 2007. The initiative involves a number of United Nations agencies, each in accordance with its respective comparative advantage and mandate, in supporting the Government of Egypt’s efforts to address the challenge of climate change. Working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and its research centres, IFAD will focus on improving water management and on providing drought-resistant and heat-tolerant crops to cope with the increased temperatures.

Improving rural water supply in one of Somalia’s most arid zones

IFAD has approved a new grant of US$73,000 to deliver water to poor rural communities in the arid Burtinle district of Puntland, north of Somalia. The grant will finance equipment and pipelines needed for water distribution to some 17,000 beneficiaries. It will also support the establishment of a water and sanitation company to ensure the sustainability of water supplies. The grant follows the completion of borehole drilling in the first phase of IFAD’s Burtinle Water Supply Project, which was financed by an Italian grant of US$214,000 and an IFAD grant of US$80, 000. The first phase also included installation of a water pump, pipelines and other necessary borehole and sanitation equipment.