Project ID: 1364
Executive Board document: EB-2006-89-R-26-Rev-1

Rural Areas Development Programme

The proposed programme builds on the experience of previous initiatives in the country, while upgrading IFAD presence from a project to a programmatic approach. The programme strategy focuses on strengthening economic organizations of the rural poor population and aims at building members’ capacity to drive sustained improvement of their social and economic conditions and interact positively with local, provincial and national institutions.

There will be 19,450 direct beneficiaries, of whom 11,540 are non-indigenous, family-based producers or adult rural workers (37 per cent of them women); 3,900 (divided equally between men and women) belong to indigenous communities; and 4,010 are young men and women. The non-indigenous population essentially needs opportunities for employment or stable productive activity and sufficient income to meet basic needs. The indigenous population is extremely vulnerable in terms of food security, health care, education and basic services. Women have a minimal level of participation in organizations and even less in management activities. Young people – faced with the lack of opportunities locally – drop out of school and tend to migrate to cities.

The programme will seek effective participation by organized producers in managing programme resources, for instance in hiring support services, procuring goods, making investments, and performing other actions called for under the programme. As from start-up, the programme will foster active participation by organizations and their members in the preparation of situation assessments and the formulation of community or territorial plans and business plans linked to the value chain. Beneficiaries will also participate in the monitoring and evaluation of programme actions and outputs through participatory processes and by sitting on ad hoc evaluation committees. Women will have significant and gradually increasing participation in all processes relating to the aforementioned actions.

The general objective of the programme is to contribute to the sustainable reduction of rural poverty in 10 provinces of Argentina. To this end, it will (i) empower producer organizations/groups having high percentages of women and young members; (ii) carry out social and productive projects for indigenous groups or communities; (iii) foster the transformation of traditional farm and non-farm activities of rural poor households into sustainable, revenue-generating business activities; (iv) offer work and business opportunities to rural youth; (v) facilitate access by beneficiaries and their organizations to business support services; and (vi) support institutional strengthening and policy dialogue in favour of rural poor people.

Amount of IFAD loan: SDR 13.1 million (equivalent to approximately US$19.3 million) on ordinary terms

Total programme cost: US$44.8 million

Cooperating institution: Directly supervised by IFAD

Project ID: 1279
Executive Board document: EB-2004-83-R-27-Rev-1

Patagonia Rural Development Project

The project's rural business and marketing support service will be the axis of its productive activities. In an interactive learning-by-doing process, farmer and microentrepreneurs' organizations will work with project market analysts to improve the marketing potential of their selected products prior to receiving financial or technical support. Project support to create and/or strengthen existing economic organizations will also help improve the income-generating capabilities of the rural poor, particularly indigenous peoples, rural women and youth. The project will assist the targeted population in improving its income-generating capacities by helping them transform subsistence economic activities into small and profitable agricultural and nonagricultural businesses. It will also provide beneficiaries' economic organizations with systematic access to rural markets and technical support services focused on innovative and profitable agricultural, livestock, forestry, microenterprise and artisanal activities in a demand-led, participatory and market-oriented operative strategy. The social and economic development stimulated by the project will also indirectly benefit 21 000 people in rural poor and indigenous communities, whose living conditions will improve as a result of the productive and environmental investments funded by the project in coordination with the provincial and central governments. The human resource capacities of about 3 000 young rural women and men will be enhanced through a skills training programme.

The project is expected to benefit a total of about 36 000 people, 15 000 directly and 21 000 indirectly. The target group will be small poor farmers (45%), microentrepreneurs and artisans (20%), rural youth (20%) and members of indigenous communities (at least 15%). The region's indigenous population (Mapuches and Tehuelches) is settled either on reserves, with a special ownership status, or on privately owned small farms.

Beneficiaries will participate in the planning, management and supervision of community and local development activities, through project decision-making mechanisms established in local and provincial committees. The project will therefore contribute to the empowerment of rural civil society, and particularly of indigenous communities and economic organizations. It will provide training to representative beneficiary groups in order to improve their capacities to express their own views and negotiate their demands with provincial and national development programmes. The project will also establish feedback mechanisms with small farmers, contracted support organizations and the project's administration unit and technical staff. In addition, it will support the participation of beneficiary representatives in provincial and local development councils, set up as part of the project's operational and decision-making structure. Beneficiaries will also participate in the project monitoring and evaluation system as part of systematic social audit practices.

Loan Amount

SDR 13.35 million (equivalent to approximately USD 20.0 million) on ordinary terms

Total programme cost: USD 29.0 million

Cooperating Institution:

Andean Development Corporation

Project ID: 1098
Executive Board Document: EB-99-67-R-19-Rev-1

North Western Rural Development Project (PRODERNOA)

In Argentina, approximately 160 000 rural families live below the poverty line; most belong to ethnic minorities. About two thirds of the poorest families are concentrated in the northern provinces. The main objective of this five-year IFAD-initiated project is to increase incomes of small-scale producers and the rural poor in the north-western provinces. Historically, these provinces have been characterized by a lack of public/private institutional mechanisms that specifically address the needs and constraints of the rural poor. To combat this lack of institutional support, the project will promote an entrepreneurial business environment by providing technical assistance and financial services to the rural poor. More specifically, the project seeks to:

- foster the development of technology aimed at linking producers with existing markets;

- assist in the development of a demand-driven, private, rural market for technical assistance services;

- provide assistance for market development, such as capacity-building and business advisory/information services; and

- promote income-generating investment initiatives through the provision of financial services, thus allowing small-scale producers to adjust their production systems to market demand.

The project covers selected areas in three provinces where more than 60% of the rural population is classified as poor. Approximately 22 500 rural families form part of the target group, and it is estimated that 6 000 families - with households headed by women accounting for 15% of the total - will benefit directly from project activities.

Innovative Features:

- In this project, a clear differentiation is being made between two groups of beneficiaries: the rural poor and the destitute. Different sets of project instruments will be used to address the specific needs of each group.

- The "venture" aspect of the initiatives to be supported draws attention to possible risk factors. To minimize and manage these risks, all activities to be financed/implemented will need to show a profit for the individual producers or groups involved. In thi s way, the project will build confidence and experience among credit beneficiaries and, in doing so, transform them into clients of the regular banking system. This transition process will be reinforced when the guarantee mechanism is introduced after three years of project execution.

- The project is placing special emphasis on forging links between rural and urban markets by providing information on business opportunities and by offering advisory services on technical, managerial, financial and legal matters.

Loan Amount:

SDR 12.8 million (approximately USD 17.5 million) on ordinary terms.

Total Project Costs:

Estimated at USD 25.0 million, of which USD 660 000 will be provided by the central Government and USD 6.8 million by local Government (three provinces).

Cooperating Institution:

CAF.