Project area. The project will be located in the Province of Veraguas, in central Panama. It will cover the five poorest districts of the province (Cañazas, Las Palmas, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Soná). Target group. The target group includes: (i) poor small-scale farmers with agricultural and non-agricultural productive potential, with access to 2-5 hectares of land; (ii) poor and extremely poor, indigenous and non-indigenous, landless and rural labourers; (iii) indigenous and non-indigenous women heads of household; and (iv) extremely poor rural households with young people who are presently unemployed. The project expects to benefit directly 10,000 poor or extremely poor people. Approximately 31 per cent of the beneficiaries will be women and 12 per cent will be indigenous people. Project objectives. The project objective is to improve the social, economic and living conditions of men, women and young people in rural poor communities through an environmentally sustainable and participative social and economic development process with gender equity. Specific objectives are: (i) empowerment of poor rural inhabitants and their grass-roots organizations to enable them effectively to participate in local development processes; (ii) improvement of the target population’s income-generating capacity; (iii) establishment of a knowledge management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system capable of systematizing and disseminating best practices and methodologies; and (iv) reduction of gender disparities in economic activities. Project description. In addition to project coordination, the project will have three components:
Important features. The proposed project is in line with the strategic objectives of the recently completed country strategic opportunities programme for Panama, namely: increasing income opportunities for the rural poor and reducing ethnic and gender-based inequalities through improved access to productive support services, infrastructure and markets; and improving local government and social empowerment - with special attention to indigenous and ethnic groups. The project also expects to add value to the Government’s rural poverty reduction and development policies and programmes (as set forth in the country’s National Development Plan 2004-2009, poverty reduction strategies and other key policy documents) and to the activities of other development partners. The project’s approach is innovative in the country context in that it links equitable participation by vulnerable groups in decentralized rural social and economic development with demand-led market-oriented enterprise development. Organization and human capacity development/strengthening and affirmative action are both a means and an end to the empowerment of the rural poor and extremely poor. The project will also adopt an innovative approach to knowledge management and participatory learning throughout the implementation period. Potential cofinanciers and domestic contribution. The OPEC Fund for International Development is expected to provide US$1.8 million (on a parallel basis). The Government will provide US$6.0 million and beneficiaries US$0.3 million. |
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