Project ID: 1187
Executive Board Document: EB-2002-76-R-12-REV-1

Rural Enterprises Project - Phase II

The project will improve the incomes and living conditions of the rural poor, especially the vulnerable groups, by creating (self-) employment and generating additional incomes. More particularly, it will seek to increase the productivity, product quality and output of rural non-agricultural MSEs and, indirectly, stimulate agricultural productivity.

The beneficiaries will be rural families living in poverty, with special attention for the most vulnerable households. Project clients will mainly be the entrepreneurial poor including rural unemployed poor interested in self-employment but lacking skills, technologies and initial capital; those with some basic skills who need skills upgrading, entrepreneurship-development training and initial capital to set up their businesses; and existing self-employed and owners of micro-and small enterprises (MSEs) who would like skills or technology upgrading to improve and/or expand their businesses, especially to create more jobs. The project will focus in particular on socially disadvantaged women, unemployed and underemployed youth, and young people already apprenticed to a trade but lacking the capital and/or acumen to start a business.

The beneficiaries will participate in the identification of training needs and business opportunities through the local institutions and trade associations supported by the project. The projects delivery mechanisms will be mainstreamed within the existing local government bodies. The project will empower local trade associations to represent the MSE sector through advocacy and policy consultations at local and national levels, and to improve the conditions under which the sector is currently producing. Trade associations will be actively involved in the identification of MSE support needs and the mobilization of clients for the support services provided through business advisory centres. Their role will particularly relate to project activities aimed at improving traditional apprenticeship training, marketing MSE goods and services, and collaborating with local government. Strong emphasis will be placed on cost-sharing by clients.

Loan amount:

SDR 8.50 million (equivalent to approximately USD 11.24 million) on highly concessional terms

Total project costs are estimated at USD 29.27 million

Cooperating Institution:

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Project ID: 1183
Executive Board Document: EB-2001-74-R-14-Rev-1

Northern Region Poverty Reduction Programme

The programme constitutes a partnership between the Government of Ghana and its development partners to address rural poverty by targeting the poorer communities and most vulnerable groups and empowering them to participate effectively in development activities. Activity-based interventions requested by the poor, especially women and other vulnerable groups, will be supported through a flexible community development fund. The programme will also focus on building up the capacity of local government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to community priorities.

The beneficiaries will be empowered to make a critical analysis of the constraints they face, identify possible opportunities and needs, and demand and receive support for self-management. To that end, they will participate through five main types of activities: community awareness; empowerment and capacity building; sustainable agricultural development; rural microenterprise and financial support services; and village-level community infrastructure. The programme will also contribute to making a significant improvement in the bargaining capacity of the poor vis--vis other stakeholders from the public or private sectors.

The beneficiaries are the poor and vulnerable poor rural communities of the Northern Region of Ghana, where poverty is widespread. The typical beneficiaries who constitute 70% of the rural population ? are subsistence farming households that cultivate no more than 2 hectares (ha) and have no alternative sources of income; divorced women and woman-headed households whose main activities relate to agriculture; and the elderly and disabled who have no means of support.

Loan amount:

SDR 9.75 million (equivalent to approximately USD 12.3 million) on highly concessional terms

Total programme costs are estimated at USD 59.6 million of which The Government of Ghana will provide USD 5.7 million from its Regular National Budget and will endeavour to secure USD 38.2 million from its Common Fund to Support Local Government and from donors

Cooperating Institution:

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Project ID: 1134
Executive Board Document: EB-2000-69-R-20-Rev-1

Rural Financial Services Project

The objectives of this six-year IFAD-initiated project are to:

(i) assist government efforts to deepen and broaden rural financial intermediation, in support of its strategy for accelerated rural development and poverty reduction; and

(ii) encourage the development of an appropriate policy and institutional framework for increasing access of rural poor communities to financial resources.

Attainment of these objectives will enhance the productivity of farming systems, promote rural enterprise development and empower local groups and associations providing savings and credit services in rural areas. To achieve the objectives, the project will:

(i) support the development, training and empowerment of informal financial institutions and rural groups to deepen outreach and expand services to a large number of rural clients, including women, many of whom are among the poorest;

(ii) strengthen the overall capacity of rural banks for effective intermediation through technology enhancements, human resource development, and the development and testing of innovative instruments best suited to the changing financial needs of rural dwellers;

(iii) support the development of an apex institution, which will enable rural banks to address generic technical and institutional constraints on their full potential and impact on rural economic development;

(iv) strengthen intramural bank linkages for more efficient information transmission, knowledge sharing and cost-effective provision of services; and

(v) enhance the Bank of Ghanas supervision of rural banks. While the project will be national in scope, interventions will be concentrated in rural areas, which account for more than 70% of national poverty.

Because women in rural Ghana are more active in the formation and operation of informal financial groups, support to them will be significant and broad-based (women constitute over half the rural population, head more than 40% of rural households and produce about 70% of all food). Innovative operational features of informal microfinance services will be proposed that remove gender-specific barriers to womens access to financial resources. Interventions will also result in significant indirect benefits in the areas of institution- and capacity-building. Approximately 39% of the rural population are expected to benefit from the project.

Innovative features:

A number of innovative features have been built into the design of this project:

- multiple donor projects targeted at different tiers of the rural finance continuum through a coordinated programme cofinanced by the principal donors active in Ghanas rural finance sector, with each donors participation based on its area of comparative advantage;

- an accent on capacity-building rather than injection of cr edit lines;

- establishment of an apex for rural banks, whose purpose will be to enhance the community-ownership structure and strengthen service delivery, focusing on decentralization of financial services and decision-making and greater community participation in the rural development process; and

- pretesting promising models such as the financial services associations (FSAs) developed in Benin by IFAD and other innovative processes and products with potential for wider replication.

Loan amount:

SDR 8.2 million (approximately USD 11.0 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total project costs:

Estimated at USD 23.0 million, of which USD 5.1 million will be provided by IDA, USD 5.0 million by AfDB, USD 1.2 million by the Government and the Bank of Ghana and about USD 600 000 by the beneficiaries.

Cooperating institution:

IDA.

Project ID: 1124
Executive Board Document: EB-99-66-R-14

Upper-East Region Land Conservation and Smallholder Rehabilitation Project Phase I I

This five-year IFAD-initiated project is designed to extend the benefits of dam rehabilitation and strengthen the capacity of WUAs, improve access of women to land and build on existing credit experience to improve household food security. As part of its objectives for this second phase, the project seeks to:

- resolve technical issues relating to irrigated agriculture and crop production;

- address financial aspects of smallholder operations (rural savings and credit groups);

- re-emphasize the importance of empowering smallholders through group activities;

- reinforce beneficiary participation and promotion of grass-roots organizations, particularly those that promote the interests of women;

- continue improvement of the most solicited rural infrastructure; and

- ensure an institutional framework conducive to post-project sustainability.

To better meet women's credit needs, the project provides mobile banking facilities to participating banks and savings/credit groups. Gender sensitization, negotiating-skills enhancement and group development are major training components for both banks and beneficiaries. About 34 400 family members, about 50% of the target group, will benefit directly from project activities. The beneficiaries are rural people, including smallholders, near-landless farmers, women, in general, and specifically women heads of households. Women are targeted specifically, with a view to improving their economic status, by providing them with working capital for small-scale processing and trade activities. All of the population in the selected area will benefit from access to drinking water supplies, latrines, feeder roads and crop-storage facilities.

Innovative Features:

- General decentralization policies are increasingly empowering regional administrations and district assemblies at the local level, and this project focuses strongly on this aspect. The implementing agencies for the different interventions, including NGOs and private-sector organizations, will be represented on the project's governing bodies or will become partners in implementation. Public-sector administrators will not be allowed to be directly involved in infrastructure construction and service delivery.

- The public sector will be strongly encouraged to support and facilitate development. It will also be encouraged to participate in the formulation of project policies via the creation of new and innovative incentives. The project will also actively promote the formation of socio-professional groups, train farmers, and further pass authority to relevant groups and communities. In addition, more emphasis will be placed on facilitation to make empowerment and devolution worthwhile.

- Financial and technical resources provided by the project will be transferred to targeted communities and groups, on a demand-driven, participatory basis. This participatory approach will facilitate the implementation and sustainability of rural development in the upper-east region. At the same time, greater flexibility and gender considerations are being systematically mainstreamed into each component.

Loan Amount:

SDR 8.3 million (approximately USD 11.5 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total Project Costs:

Estimated at USD 13.9 million, of which a grant of USD 99 000 will be provided by IFAD, USD 1.1 million will be provided by the Government, USD 843 000 by the beneficiaries and USD 341 000 by local NGOs.

Cooperating Institution:

UNOPS.

Project ID: 1053
Executive Board Document:

Root and Tuber Improvement Project

The main objective of this six-year programme is to enhance household food security and the income of resource-poor smallholder households by providing them with the means to boost their land and labour producti vity through crop-production systems based on roots and tubers. Specific objectives are to:

increase the availability of new but proven technologies;

strengthen and improve the delivery mechanisms for providing know-how on appropriate new technologies for root and tuber crops;

promote awareness of the relevance of existing technologies and improve husbandry skills;

increase farmers' involvement in the identification of areas where further research is needed and develop appropriate technologies with their collaboration;

assist local people in developing small-scale enterprises based on root and tuber crops;

strengthen community and district-level institutions in organizing farmers into groups and associations.

Programme components are:

- multiplication and distribution of improved planting materials;

- integrated pest management, including biological control;

- on-farm adaptive research; and

- community support and mobilization.

The programme will focus on resource-poor smallholders whose average income is below the poverty line. About 400 000 farm households will directly benefit from the provision of improved planting materials.

Loan amount:

SDR 6.6 million (approximately USD 9.0 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total programme costs are estimated at USD 10.0 million; the borrower will provide the remaining USD 1.0 million.

Cooperating institution:

World Bank.