| Project ID: 1318
Executive Board document: EB-2006-87-R-14-Rev-1
Project to Support Development in the Menabe and Melaky Regions
Who are the beneficiaries? The project is expected to reach about 200 000 rural poor people (40 000
households), including landless wage earners and farmers with little land, who experience acute food
insecurity for four months of the year and suffer from severe malnutrition, particularly women and
children. Households in the project area can be differentiated by their socio-economic characteristics,
based on their assets, means of livelihood and geographical locations. They include: (i) landless
agricultural wage earners with few productive assets; (ii) rural households dependent on hillside
agriculture production; (iii) households in remote and isolated areas with little access to public
services; (iv) households dependent primarily on cattle-raising; and (v) households dependent on
forest resources.
Why are they poor? Apart from the general causes of poverty in the project area, such as
geographical remoteness, poor infrastructure and vulnerability to external shocks, poverty is mainly
attributable to the lack of governance, land tenure security, market access and integration of
agriculture with livestock enterprises. It also has its roots in limited access to improved production
technology, inputs, irrigation water and services. Consequently, both agricultural production and
productivity in the project area are extremely low, providing the target group little opportunity to
improve their production environment and living conditions.
What will the proposed project do for them? By participating in the recently launched national land
reform and strengthening the land administration system and securing land rights, the project will
contribute to poverty reduction, promote social stability and stimulate economic growth. Its major
contributions will be in the area of: (i) land tenure policy and a regulatory and governance system
being developed under the auspices of the National Land Policy Programme; (ii) decentralization of
land administration through the establishment of ten offices to facilitate the preparation of land use
plans, maps and quicker registration and recording of land rights; (iii) facilitated access by the target
group to improve technology, inputs, markets and services through pluralistic service providers and
the development of household income-generating activities; and (iv) development of social,
environmental and physical infrastructure. The project will ensure sound environmental practices and
promote marketing opportunities for agricultural inputs and outputs.
Loan and grant amount: Loan: SDR 9.1 million (equivalent to
approximately USD 13.12 million)
Grant: SDR 255 000 (equivalent to
approximately USD 365 000)
Total project cost: USD 23.43 million
Project ID: 1239
Executive Board document:EB-2003-80-R-28-REV-1
Rural Income Promotion Programme The programme's development objective is the reduction of rural
poverty in the province of Toamasina by increasing rural income
and boosting the capacity of communities to take responsibility
for their own development. The programme has two specific objectives:
(i) improved access for small-scale producers to markets and higher
value for their products, through: (a) rationalization of crop collection
systems; (b) reinforcement of their negotiating position; (c) improvement
in the quality of products; (d) development of partnerships between
groups of producers and commercial operators and (e) improvement
of product transport conditions (increased physical accessibility);
and (ii) environmentally sustainable intensification, growth and
diversification of the productive base of the rural poor, including
for the most vulnerable, through: (a) improvement in local governance,
enabling effective participation of vulnerable groups in development
process mechanisms; (b) strengthening of producer organizations;
(c) improved access to rural financial services; (d) provision of
quality agricultural advisory services; and (e) financial support
for investment by small scale producers.
Loan Amount:
SDR 10.15 million (approximately USD 14.5 million) on highly concessional
terms
Total project cost: estimated at USD 28.2 million, of which
beneficiaries and other domestic partners will contribute about
USD 730 00; the OPEC Fund USD 7.7 million; local governments USD
120 000 and national Government USD 5.2 million.
Cooperating Institution:
UNOPS
Project ID: 1167
Executive Board Document: EB-2000-71-R-16-Rev-1
Upper Mandrare Basin Development Project Phase II
The overall objective of this seven-year IFAD-initiated project
is to increase the agricultural and non-agricultural incomes of
the rural population, improve their general living conditions and
contribute to food security in the southern region of the country.
In particular, the project will:
(i) ensure that priority productive and social investments are
identified and planned through a participatory assessment and planning
process at the community level, with particular attention to the
constraints and potentials of the more vulnerable groups and to
sustainable natural-resource management;
(ii) strengthen the capacities of grass-roots and producer organizations,
project and service provider staff and elected representatives at
the commune level to manage local development;
(iii) support priority initiatives identified in community development
plans on a matching grant basis through a local initiatives fund,
with resource-allocation decisions shared with beneficiary organizations
and elected communal representatives through consultative structures;
(iv) facilitate access to financial services adapted to the needs
of the target groups through the establishment of locally-based
financial institutions; and
(v) promote exchanges and reduce transaction costs by rehabilitating
access roads. Project beneficiaries will include the entire population
of all nine communes, encompassing approximately 96 000 persons
or 17 400 households.
Core target groups will be smallholder farmers and cattle herders,
including groups identified as particularly vulnerable: poor women,
sharecroppers, landless farmers, owners of small rice plots, farmers
with no access to irrigated land, young people and, in pastoral
areas, those with only a few head of livestock or small ruminants.
About 10 000 households will benefit from investments under the
local initiatives fund: rehabilitation of irrigation perimeters,
promotion of sustainable technologies on non-irrigated land, improvement
of livestock health and production, agricultural marketing and processing,
community health and nutrition, water sanitation, microenterprises,
etc. Literacy training will be provided to about 8 000 persons,
including the young, women and members of producer organizations.
About 2 000 villagers are expected to participate in community-based
microfinance institutions.
Innovative features:
The second phase of the Mandare project will deepen the innovative
approach of the first phase in areas such as outsourcing to contracted
service providers and use of flexible local-level development funding
mechanisms to respond to the demand of beneficiaries, rather than
providing prescribed project services. Another innovation of this
project is support to local-level governance by promoting decentralization
down to the commune level.
Loan amount:
SDR 9.9 million (approximately USD 12.6 million) on highly concessional
terms.
Total project costs:
Estimated at USD 23.1 million, of which USD 3.6 million will be
provided by IDA, USD 5.2 million by the Government and USD 1.8 million
by the beneficiaries.
Cooperating institution:
UNOPS.
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