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Project ID: 1292
Agricultural Marketing Improvement Programme By improving the national capacity for policy analysis and strategy formulation in agricultural output marketing, the programme will contribute to the stabilization of domestic grain prices within and between years that is critical in encouraging the majority of smallholder farmers to increase production and thereby safeguard and increase household incomes. Since grain is the main staple food, price stability will translate into better household food security and reduced poverty among low-income households in both rural and urban areas that are net buyers of food. The adoption of improved processing, storage and transport technologies, combined with improved grades and standards, will reduce post-harvest crop losses and increase the returns to farmers. The establishment of a forward coffee auction and exchange controlled by stakeholders, together with the decentralization of coffee processing and marketing to growing regions, will further raise the price that smallholder farmers receive for their coffee by encouraging them to improve quality and reduce unit marketing costs, while enabling producers to exploit the niche market for Ethiopia's organic coffee in international markets. The beneficiaries of the Agricultural Marketing Improvement Programme comprise of rural households living in the main surplus grain and coffee producing areas, in addition to the food-insecure regions of Ethiopia. With an average daily per capita income of about USD 0.30, most of them cannot afford to meet the minimum daily calorie intake of 2 200 kcal recommended by the World Health Organization. The beneficiary households are characterized by a high incidence of stunting among children due to malnutrition, compounded by an equally high infant mortality rate of 112 per 1 000 live births. They also have limited access to basic social services such as rural roads, primary health care, education and safe drinking water. The average size of the beneficiary households is 5.2 persons. About 20% of the beneficiary households are headed by women. Based on planned baseline surveys and training needs assessments, the programme will empower beneficiaries effectively to engage with and exploit emerging market opportunities. Beneficiaries will be sensitized and trained, inter alia, on postharvest management, including the adoption of improved processing, storage and transport technologies; the access to and use of market intelligence; the importance of grades, standards and product quality; organization and group dynamics; business enterprise management; collective bargaining; contracting; the warehouse receipt system; and the dynamics of the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome in agricultural marketing. Beneficiaries will also be sensitized about the importance of the aggregation of production in order to gain a comparative advantage when dealing with markets through membership in informal and formal associations, cooperative societies, share companies, etc. The training sessions will provide beneficiaries with a forum for advocacy to improve trading regulations, taxation rules and licensing procedures. Equally important, beneficiary households will participate in the design, development and operation of rural assembly markets and in carrying out investments to improve post-harvest management. Loan Amount SDR 18.2 million (equivalent to approximately USD 27.2 million) on highly concessional terms Total programme cost:USD 35.1 million Cooperating Institution: United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) |
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| Project ID: 1237
Pastoral Community Development Project The PCDP will seek to improve prospects for sustainable livelihoods among pastoralists living in the arid and semi-arid Ethiopian lowlands. It is designed to empower communities and enable the decentralized regional administration to better manage local development through a community-based development planning process linked to a community investment fund. The project will also support a participatory disaster-management programme to reduce the vulnerability of pastoral communities to drought and other natural disasters that threaten their livelihoods. These efforts will be underpinned by policy reform, investments in health, education and veterinary services, and applied research into dryland agriculture and natural resource management. While recognizing the central role that animal production plays and will continue to play in pastoral life, the PCDP will not focus exclusively on increasing incomes and productivity from livestock. Rather, it will also identify and develop alternative livelihoods, including sedentary agriculture on a voluntary basis and non-farm income generation, with a view to better integrating pastoral communities into the national economy. Loan Amount: SDR 14.40 million (approximately USD 20.0 million) on highly concessional terms Total project cost: estimated at USD 60.0 million, of which beneficiaries will provide about USD 4.0 million, the International Development Association (IDA) 30.0 million and national Government USD 6.0 million. Cooperating Institution: World Bank: IDA Project ID: 1173
Rural Financial Intermediation Programme The programme will enhance access by beneficiaries to regular and reliable financial services so that they may, inter alia, adopt improved agricultural production technologies and undertake off-farm and non-farm income-generating activities with a view to improving food security and family incomes. Currently, the beneficiaries have no access to banking services on account of both the limited outreach and their own inability to meet collateral requirements in the form of tangible assets. They therefore depend on family, friends and moneylenders for consumption and production credit, often at exorbitant rates of interest, which further reinforces their poverty. By reducing the interest rates charged to beneficiaries, the programme will contribute to positive income-redistribution effects. In addition, increased access to efficient financial services will permit beneficiaries to build their asset base by unlocking untapped opportunities for agricultural diversification and income generation. In particular, women will be able to take up trading and other income-generating activities that would otherwise be out of reach to them owing to their lack of working capital. The increased household incomes will enable beneficiaries to cope better with external shocks and to gain access to the essential social infrastructure that is critical for sustained poverty reduction. MFIs have a corporate philosophy to deliver financial services to poor rural households. The upper limit of their current loan size of ETB 5 000 (USD 588) is clearly intended to enhance access and expand outreach to the poorest. Their current average loan size is less than USD 100. Beneficiaries form into groups in order to access MFI financial services. The programme will support MFIs in institutionalizing a structured process of client training, with a view to building confidence and reinforcing a culture of credit discipline. It will also support annual exchange visits by about 14 000 centre and group leaders, at which they will share experiences on successful microfinance activities in other parts of the country. The programme will support MFIs in training about 40 000 women clients over the programme period in business skills development. It will also support about 100 baseline surveys with a view to diversifying financial products, and internalizing policies and strategies for beneficiary mobilization and empowerment. Equally important, the programme will encourage MFIs to diversify their ownership structures by offering shares to beneficiary households with a view, inter alia, to improving transparency and accountability. Within the cooperatives subsector, the programme will empower beneficiaries by promoting the establishment of 3 375 RUSACCOs as self-reliant, member-owned and managed, community-based financial intermediaries, whose activities will include member education and training. The beneficiaries are approximately 1.5 million poor rural households that will gain access to improved and reliable financial services either as clients of microfinance institutions (MFIs) or as members of rural savings and credit cooperative societies (RUSACCOs). With an annual per capita income of less than USD 110, most of the beneficiaries live below the national poverty line, defined as the income level necessary to maintain the minimum daily requirement of 2 200 calories per adult recommended by the World Health Organization. The beneficiary households live significantly below the internationally recognized poverty threshold of USD 1 a day. About 1520% of them are de jure woman-headed households. Loan amount: SDR 20.15 million (equivalent to approximately USD 25.7 million) on highly concessional terms Total programme costs are estimated at USD 88.7 million Cooperating Institution: International Development Association (IDA) |
| Project ID: 1082
Agricultural Research and Training Project The overall objective of this six-year World Bank-initiated project will be to support sustained generation and enhancement of ecologically-sound technology for crop and livestock production systems and natural resource management. The project expects to provide stability and resilience to the agricultural sector to enable it to cope with drought and famine situations, increase national and household food security, raise farmers' incomes and improve the overall family nutrition status among rural households. The project will assist in strengthening and improving the agricultural research system, including its infrastructure and human resource capacity, and in making the system more responsive to farmers' needs and priorities. IFAD's investment will focus on: (i) expanding the network of research centres to ensure adequate coverage of the poorer, marginal agro-ecological zones with the highest density of transitory and chronic rural poverty; (ii) enhancing the focus on and responsiveness of agricultural research to the needs and priorities of the majority of smallholder farmers by establishing and strengthening research-extension-farmer linkages; and (iii) supporting the establishment of an agricultural research fund. The principal beneficiaries will be an estimated six million male and female smallholder farmers, mostly with holdings of less than 2 ha each, who constitute about 90% of the farming population and account for 96% of agricultural production. Specific attention will be paid to agricultural operations handled by women: their entry into the research system will be facilitated; and they are expected to benefit from the generation of improved post-harvest and other technologies ai med at improving efficiency and reducing drudgery. Innovative Features: The project is intended to reach poor farmers and other rural inhabitants that are outside the main body of commodity research programmes. Additional financial resources are to be mobilized from the private sector for long-term sustainability of agricultural research. The project will also seek to increase the participation of women in the agricultural research system through recruitment of women scientists and increased enrolment of female students into agricultural colleges and universities, consistent with government policy. Loan amount: SDR 13.7 million (approximately USD 18.2 million) on highly concessional terms. Total project costs: Estimated at USD 90.6 million, of which USD 60.1 million will be provided by IDA and USD 12.4 million by the Government. Cooperating institution: IDA. |
