Project area: The project area consists of 50 municipalities of the Mixteca Region and two additional municipalities of the Mazahua zone. This first region is located in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla, which comprise most of the Mixtecos indigenous population. The second region corresponds to a zone in the State of Mexico with high concentration of Mazahua indigenous people.

Target group: The project aims to offer services to 17,500 families and 3,000 women and young people. Another 10,000 rural families will improve their quality of life through easier access to water for household consumption.

Project objectives: The Project objective is that poor rural and indigenous families of the Mixteca region and the Mazahua zone increase their income and employment, while strengthening their social fabric and rural economies through their organisation for rural business development. The Project will contribute to develop the human and organisational capacities of members of associations with economic objectives, to rehabilitate the natural resource base, and increase the productive assets of the target group.

Project description: The Project seeks to achieve its development objective through four components, a Project Management Component and three operational components. The Project Management Component will be responsible for the achievement of the project objectives through planning and activity coordination, monitoring of progress made, evaluation of actual achievements, experience systematisation/knowledge management, and financial administration and management. The operational components are as follows:

• Development of Human and Social Capacities Component. The component will focus on the promotion and strengthening of economic interest groups, for social and entrepreneurial management as well as sustainable production, and will develop capacities for these purposes.
• Sustainable Production Component. The component will focus on the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of rural/agricultural production with a market orientation.
• Access to Markets and Rural Businesses Component. The component foresees to develop entrepreneurial linkages and rural microenterprises which access markets competitively and sustainably. This will imply the implementation of Business Plans that take into account viable production and commercial alternatives.

Important features: The project responds to the interest of the Government of Mexico for a wider presence of IFAD in the country, as a key partner in its efforts to reducing poverty and promoting rural development. It will promote the incorporation of rural and indigenous women and young people to the project-supported rural business initiatives, through the development of relevant capacities to the establishment, operation and management of rural micro-enterprises which will meet local demand. The gender and youth strategy will be applied in all project activities/investments, while key intervention instruments will involve: scholarships for technical and professional formation; capitalisation funds to establish rural micro-enterprises; and social investments to facilitate the incorporation of women into training activities and production.

The project is aligned with the Government’s objectives, as reflected in the Mexico Results-Based Country Strategic Opportunities Programme. It will be integrated with the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food’s
other institutional programmes in the Mixteca region, and will permit to boost the achievements already accomplished in terms of food security and water provision.

Potential cofinanciers and domestic contribution: The Project’s total cost, over six years of execution, is US$47.5 million. This will be financed as follows: (a) the Government of Mexico, US$7.0 million; (b) a loan from IFAD, of US$18.7 million; (c) a grant from IFAD, of US$2.0 million; (d) a loan (to be confirmed) from the Spanish Food Security Cofinancing Facility Trust Fund of US$15.0 million; and (e) the project beneficiaries, whose contribution in labour and local materials was estimated in US$4.8 million.