Project ID: 1133
Executive Board Document: EB-2000-69-R-19-Rev-1

Small Horticultural Producer Support Project

The goal of this eight-year IFAD-initiated project is to enhance the institutional, organizational and technical capacities of farmers groups, the private sector, NGOs and public agencies to develop small and microirrigation in selected regions. This will be achieved by:

(i) providing technical and organizational assistance to farmers groups to solicit and oversee irrigation and related technical services from service providers;

(ii) enhancing the capacity of farmers and service providers to construct, operate and maintain low-cost microschemes efficiently and sustainably; and

(iii) establishing a fund for the provision of irrigation services for farmers associations.

Project interventions will mainly focus on the Savannah zone, which has the highest concentration of poverty. An estimated 35 000 persons will be assisted directly, and an additional 65 000 indirectly. Women and youth will constitute the projects main target groups, thus contributing to increasing womens participation in development and arresting the exodus of rural youth to the cities. Benefits will be in the form of increased and more stable incomes for targeted smallholders, as well as strengthened capacity of grass-roots organizations to procure technical support services and manage small irrigation infrastructure. Farm-level productivity will be enhanced and the expansion of dry-season vegetable production will boost rural employment and lead to diversification of income sources.

Innovative features:

The project has a number of innovative aspects. First, this is IFADs first thematic project on small irrigation related primarily to vegetable production and marketing in West Africa. Second, a systematic effort has been made to build synergie s wi th existing national and regional projects operating in the project zone. At the village level, the project builds on planning exercises mounted within the context of several other ongoing projects funded by France, Germany and the World Bank as well as IFAD. Linkages with microfinance networks and national functional literacy programmes will also be developed. The project will, moreover, create linkages with an IFAD grant-financed regional programme managed by WARDA. In addition, experience gained during implementation will enable IFAD to be a credible contributor to the ongoing process of formulating a national small-irrigation strategy. Third, to maximize the responsiveness of service providers, a competitive bidding system will be introduced for as many project activities as possible. Activities that have in the past simply been assigned to public agencies will be contracted out and periodically assessed for performance. A system will be put in place to involve project beneficiaries in the selection of service providers and subsequent approval of their work.

Loan amount:

SDR 8.3 million (approximately USD 11.2 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total project costs:

Estimated at USD 14.0 million, of which USD 1.7 million will be provided by the Government and USD 1.1 million by the beneficiaries.

Cooperating institution:

UNOPS.

Project ID: 1081
Executive Board Document: EB-98-64-R-17-Rev-1

Rural Development Project in the Zanzan Regon

This six-year IFAD-initiated project will cover the three departements of the Zanzan Region (previously known as the North-East Region, covering the departements of Bondoukou, Bouna and Tanda). The target group comprises smallholders, with particular emphasis on women and youth. Of the approximately 500000 rural dwellers in the region, it is expected that about 100 000, or 20% of the population, will receive benefits from at least one of the project interventions. All priority interventions will contribute to the general goal of increasing food security in the region (including both increased income and improved health status). Proposed interventions include:

(i) installation of microirrigation infrastructure, with appropriate technical and organizational support to small groups of farmers;

(ii) establishment of new potable water points and rehabilitation/ repair of existing sites, with accompanying health and sanitation sensitization for women's groups;

(iii) rehabilitation and spot repair of selected feeder roads with the greatest market-access potential; and

(iv) creation of a credit and savings network of 12 mutualist cooperatives and 160 village banks targeting primarily a female clientele via a solidarity-based lending strategy.

The project will be managed by a small project coordination unit under the general supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources.

Innovative Features:

The combination of mutualistic and "Grameen-type" approaches in the same micro finance institution is designed to reach a variety of clients through the development of financial services di rectly tailored to their specific needs and financial capabilities. To ensure that the network is properly supervised and that network agents receive necessary periodic training, one of the 12 participating mutualistic cooperatives will serve as headquarters (the caisse m re). These actions a re part of the process of establishing an experimental "special credit" line to be lent to pre-cooperatives and cooperatives for agricultural marketing and production, and administered by a small cadre of specialized agents who will be renumerated from commiss ions earned on loans delivered and repaid. Comprehensive surveys on food security, health and sani tation have been included in the project design to ensure that strategies for targeting the most vulnerable popul ati ons are incorporated. A study to assess the extent to which knowledge and practices have evolved as a result of project interventions will be undertaken later in the project's life.

Loan amount:

SDR 8.3 million (approximately USD 11.1 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total project costs:

Estimated at USD 17.5 million, of which USD 3.6 million will be provided by the West African Development Bank (BOAD), USD 2.2 million by the Government and USD 0.6 million by the beneficiaries.

Cooperating institution:

UNOPS.