Project ID: 1194
Executive Board Document: EB-2004-83-R-28-Rev-1

North-East Rrual Family Enterprise Development Support Project

The proposed IFAD intervention will catalyse an innovative, business-oriented and participatory development and capitalization process at the municipal and territorial levels. The objective is to assure that the rural poor in the targeted area can improve their business and organizational capacities and increase their incomes through: (a) their sustainable involvement in economically viable rural agro-industries and other enterprises linked to markets; (b) the more intensive application and management of financial resources; and (c) the integration of poor rural women into the local economy and the provision of support so as to improve their social and economic standing through the promotion of gender equity. The specific project objectives comprise: (a) the strengthening of organizations among the rural poor and entrepreneurs, as well as the development of local mechanisms for the identification of business opportunities and opportunities for investment in productive initiatives and business development; (b) the establishment of guaranteed access to technical support services and markets; and (c) the creation of an efficient system of rural financial services (credit and microcredit), based on the existing supply, on programmes in the formal banking system and on a consolidated network of local savings and credit cooperatives. The project will strengthen the entrepreneurial capability of approximately 20 000 rural women and men in the family agriculture sector of the North-East Region through the consolidation or creation of an estimated 3 000 economically viable agro-industries and enterprises of a varied nature, all linked to markets, capitalized and supplied with the necessary technical and financial support.

The identified project beneficiaries are the rural poor of the North-East Region of Brazil, who face lower than average social and economic conditions in income, housing, sanitation, education and health and who orient their primary productive activities towards the development of small agro-industries and other rural enterprises. Specifically, they mainly include family agriculture producers and rural women and youth and also incorporates beneficiaries of agrarian reform who have an outstanding need for technical services and credit. Some of these people are already active in rural enterprises with varying degrees of capitalization, connection to agricultural transformation chains, microbusiness experience and market insertion or are interested in developing business proposals so as to start new entrepreneurial activities. The project area consists of about 100 municipalities in the North-East Region, where poverty and semi-arid land prevail. The direct project beneficiaries will comprise approximately 20 000 rural women and men.

Project beneficiaries will be involved in the identification, selection and prioritization of their rural enterprise development activities, including technical assistance and financial support. The project will promote the participation of representatives of the beneficiaries in gender-balanced municipal and territorial fora of the project that will be empowered to prepare municipal and territorial development agendas, as well as in the project's steering committee. The project will seek to implement practical mechanisms to alleviate workloads within the home, thus guaranteeing the participation of rural women in entrepreneurial and income-generating activities.

Loan Amount

SDR 15.45 million (equivalent to approximately USD 23.16 million) on ordinary terms

Total programme cost: USD 47.39 million

Cooperating Institution:

United Nations Office for Project Services

Project ID: 1101
Executive Board Document: EB-98-65-R-22-Rev-1

Sustainable Development Project for Agrarian Reform Settlements in the Semi-Arid North-East

The overall goal of this six-year IFAD-initiated project, is to contribute to sustainable improvement in the social and economic conditions of poor agrarian-reform beneficiaries and neighbouring smallholders in the semi-arid zone of the north-east region of Brazil, where poverty is still particularly acute. The general objective will be to improve the management capabilities of beneficiary families and their involvement in the local market. These improvements will enable them to:

(i) manage sustainable productive activities in agriculture, marketing, microenterprise and small-scale agroindustry;

(ii) utilize financial services within normal market procedures; and

(iii) actively participate in municipal socio-economic programmes.

The project area consists of about 60 municipalities located in five states of the north-east region, selected for the high concentration of agrarian reform settlements and the poverty level of the rural population. The direct beneficiaries will be about 15 000 families and will include about 2 700 women heads of households.

Innovative Features:

This project represents one example of how IFAD's investment can support a government's land distribution programme. The project ai ms to strengthen federal institutions by developing additional links and coordination schemes with the state and municipal governments, and with other multilateral financial institutions operating in the country. With beneficiary participation, the project will test innovative approaches to deal with the main weaknesses of current land distribution schemes, including:

(i) the need to strengthen and institutionalize beneficiary demand for participatory project actions (focused on entrepreneurial management skills and organization); and

(ii) the need for suitable technical and financial resources (for water conservation, marketing investment, demand-led extension services, access to innovative financial services, training in gender-oriented field methodologies, etc.).

Loan amount:

SDR 17.8 million (approximately USD 25.0 million) on ordinary terms.

Total project costs:

Estimated at USD 93.5 million, of which USD 25.6 million will be provided by the Government, USD 39.9 million by national financial institutions and USD 3.0 million by the beneficiaries.

Cooperating institution:

The project will be supervised directly by IFAD.