Project ID: 1287 Agricultural Services and Producers Organizations Project - Phase II About 75% of the rural dwellers in Senegal live in poverty. The main target group will be smallholders across the country, with special attention to food-insecure, often marginalized women and youth. Beneficiaries will be reached through existing producer organizations (POs). Over 63% of the existing POs (almost 50,000 farmers) belong to rural consultative forums (local consultation forums for producer organizations), that were fostered in 152 rural council areas during Phase I of the project, specifically to represent and defend the interests of the poorer segments of the rural population. Despite the constant effort of farm households to diversify with a view to coping more effectively with climatic variability, agriculture remains the main source of livelihood for two thirds of the country’s rural families, whose livelihoods remain heavily conditioned by an agricultural sector in crisis. Yields and, hence, incomes and food security are compromised by limited access by farmers to quality inputs (seed), credit, support services and markets, and by low and erratic rainfall. Alternative sources of income are limited. Due to extensive out-migration by men in search of gainful employment, women have become major players in household diversification strategies, although women have faced more barriers in gaining access to advice and support. The offer of efficient, effective and diversified agricultural services will be improved by strengthening the capacity of POs both in defending the interests of farmers and in delivering the services these farmers need to increase, diversify and stabilize their production and thereby enhance their own food security. The expansion in the coverage by the local consultation forums to all 320 rural councils will provide farmers across the country with a space for interacting on local development issues. The institutional framework for improved farm services that was put in place during Phase I of the project will be strengthened by achieving the planned coverage by public advisory services, supporting emerging private service providers and improving research capacity and focus. Existing POs will be additionally empowered in ways that will enhance social accountability and improve their ability to represent the more vulnerable categories within their membership, particularly women and youth. The gender balance in the activities supported will be closely monitored by project management. Loan Amount Loan: SDR 4.1 million (equivalent to
approximately US$6 million) on highly concessional terms Total project cost: US$47 million Cooperating Institution: Loan: World Bank Project ID: 1308 Promotion of Rural Entrepreneurship Project - Phase II The project aims to boost employment, and hence incomes, among the most vulnerable groups by improving the profitability of non-farm micro- and small enterprises and -indirectly -by stimulating agricultural activities. In particular, it will help create and develop self-employment and wage-based jobs by providing rural micro- and small enterprises with appropriate and accessible good-quality and self-sustaining financial and non-financial business development services designed to: (i) stimulate the establishment or expansion of self-employment and job-providing micro- and small enterprises; (ii) strengthen the production techniques and management practices of existing micro- and small enterprises; (iii) improve the quality and packaging of micro- and small enterprise goods and services; (iv) improve access by micro- and small enterprises to sustainable regional and national markets; (v) improve their access to financing for working capital and investments; and (vi) improve the legal, political and institutional environment. The project will also help create an enabling environment for micro- and small enterprise development, both by fostering a self-sustaining network of business service providers, and by strengthening and/or expanding outreach by existing microfinance institutions. The beneficiaries of the Promotion of Rural Entrepreneurship Project, the second phase of the Rural Micro-Enterprises Project (PROMER), are members of particularly vulnerable rural households: (i) rural unemployed people who are interested in self-employment, but who lack the necessary skills, technologies, market access and initial capital; (ii) people with rudimentary skills, but who need both training in entrepreneurship development and initial capital to set up their own businesses; and (iii) existing owners of micro- and small enterprises who require better skills and technologies and easier access to markets in order to improve and expand their businesses. To foster synergies and complementarities, the project will pay special attention to the beneficiary households of IFAD-financed agricultural and community development projects. It will also focus on reaching socially disadvantaged categories such as women and women's groups, unemployed and underemployed youth, and rural households with limited or no access to land and other production factors. The beneficiaries will participate through a broad range of project-supported institutions and organizations, including: (i) providers of rural nonfinancial business development services; (ii) rural microfinance institutions; and (iii) professional and/or subsector organizations representing rural producers and entrepreneurs. Project beneficiaries, together with other stakeholders, will also participate actively in various consultation bodies to ensure that their constraints, problems and needs are taken into consideration in local and subsector development plans. To ensure sustainability, gradual cost recovery for service provision from beneficiaries will be sought from the very beginning of the project. Loan Amount SDR 8.70 million (equivalent to approximately USD 13.08 million) Total project cost:USD 18.75 million Cooperating Institution: West African Development Bank Project ID: 1219 Agricultural Development Project in Matam - Phase II Who are the beneficiaries? Project beneficiaries include most of the inhabitants of about 26 village communities in the Walo areas and 50 herder communities in the Ferlo area. This target population amounts to about 150 000 persons in about 20 000 rural households. Most of the target population live in poverty, suffer from various forms of malnutrition and have limited access to essential social services such as education and health. Women-headed households constitute the most vulnerable section of this group. Why are they poor? The poorest rural families in the target area depend on rainfed farming and/or extensive livestock activities for their livelihood. The narrow and vulnerable resource base limits the opportunities of these families to improve productivity and incomes. The prevalence of illiteracy limits their capacity to obtain and use the information and the technical and managerial know-how that would help them make better use of the resource base and improve their living conditions. The high illiteracy levels also compromise their access to markets and financial services. Poverty is more severe in households headed by women because they participate little in community decisions and activities, suffer from a higher incidence of illiteracy and malnutrition, and have less access to land, financial resources, information and know-how. What will the project do for them? The project will use a three-pronged strategy to address these problems. First it will build on the achievements of phase one to further develop the organizational and managerial capabilities of producer and other beneficiary organizations, so they can initiate, manage, and eventually fund essential support, advocacy, and negotiation services for their members. Capacity development will encompass intensive literacy, technical, and managerial training programmes. In this context, farm support services, including market support, will be developed to broaden progressively the responsibilities of producer associations. Women and youth will be provided with opportunities for increased participation, and will receive targeted information, education and communication (IEC) programmes and specific support for their income activities. Second, the project will further develop productive potential in its intervention area in a financially and environmentally sustainable manner. This will include the repair of rural roads to reduce access problems, and the rehabilitation of irrigated perimeters and boreholes in the pastoral areas to facilitate the adoption of improved range management practices. Third, to facilitate access to financial services, the project will consolidate and help expand the network of microfinance institutions started during the first phase, helping them broaden the array of their financial services and develop capabilities for resource mobilization. How will the beneficiaries participate in the project? Beneficiaries will be at the centre of the implementation process, as the project will implement an explicit and progressive exit strategy of its support structure. The strategy will be based on a methodical building up of the capacity of producer and other beneficiary organizations to enable them to assume increasing technical, managerial and funding responsibility for delivering support and advocacy services to their members. The strategy will be supported through the systematic application of participatory diagnostic, planning, and evaluation processes. Measures have been identified to ensure the effective participation of women, youth, and other vulnerable groups in community decisions and activities. Loan Amount: SDR 9.15 million (equivalent to approximately USD 12.5 million) Total project cost:USD 24.3 million Cooperating Institution: West African Development Bank (BOAD) Project ID: 1156 Village Organization and Management Project Phase II The second phase of this seven-year IFAD-initiated project aims to consolidate and broaden support activities initiated, tested and improved under Phase I. The overall goal is to improve the incomes and living conditions of the most disadvantaged of the rural population sustainably. To that end, the project seeks to: (i) enhance the natural resource base through capacity-building of village-based, grass-roots organizations responsible for the design and implementation of their local development programmes; and (ii) promote economically and environmentally sustainable farm and non-farm income-generating activities. The project will cover about 400 villages supported during the first phase and about 100 new villages that are among the poorest in the provinces of Fatick, Kaolack and Thies. According to the 1995 poverty assessment, the incidence of rural poverty in these provinces is about 47-49%. The target group will consist of approximately 20 000 small farm families, accounting for about 90% of all rural households in the area (the total population is estimated at 223 000 inhabitants). In view of large-scale outmigration of men, women contribute substantially to income generation, and will play an important role both as major recipients of project support and as key actors in its implementation. Youth will constitute the other major target group, as they have limited access to land and financial services. Innovative features: The second phase introduces two key features with strong replication potential. The first is an explicit graduation-exit strategy that forms an integral part of the intervention approach. The strategy will involve regular participatory assessments of organizational, implementation and managerial capabilities at the village level and targeted capacity-building support based on a learning-by-doing process. The second feature will consist of an intra-village emulation process to promote broad adoption of best practices developed during implementation. Loan amount: SDR 10.7 million (approximately USD 13.7 million) on highly concessional terms. Total project costs: Estimated at USD 21.5 million, of which USD 2.0 million will be provided by BOAD and USD 2.7 million by the Government and USD 3.1 million by the beneficiaries. Cooperating institution: BOAD.
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