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| Project ID: 1204
Second Matruh Resource Management Project Who are the beneficiaries? Approximately 13 000 households living below the poverty line are expected to benefit directly from investment activities under the project, which constitutes the second phase of the World Bank project of the same name. Some 22 000 households (including 9 000 that benefited under the World Bank project) will be eligible to benefit from extension services, improved technology and other community-oriented investments. While project activities will be targeted at both men and women, a number of components will focus exclusively on about 8 300 women. Why are they poor? The project area is characterized by a very fragile resource base, with low and erratic rainfall and recurrent drought. The Bedouin population traditionally managed the area’s natural resources without, however, depleting them thanks to the movement of livestock under a nomadic system. With the sedentarization of the Bedouins, what was once an ecologically-balanced pastoral system has been transformed into an unsustainable sedentary agricultural one. The resulting increased pressure from both human beings and livestock has unbalanced the ecosystem and created a cycle of resource degradation and rural poverty that threatens bio-diversity and increases environmental hazards, all the more so because of the absence of a sustainable approach to resource management. There has been a lack of adaptive research aimed at integrating such research with development and for devising schemes to adapt traditional, semi-nomadic production systems to the Bedouins’ current sedentary lifestyle. What will the project do for them? The World Bank project demonstrated that it is possible to increase agricultural opportunities by means of water harvesting and halting/reversing the accelerating resource degradation through participatory natural resource management initiatives using existing social organizational structures. As a result of these measures, considerable progress has been made in meeting water shortages and new agricultural technologies led to substantial increases in crop and animal production and more sustainable use of soil and water resources, resulting in increased incomes for participating communities and households. However, due to shortages of funds, it was only possible to reach about 50% of all households in the project area. Therefore, a second phase of the project is needed to build on earlier achievements and extend benefits to the, as yet, unserved section of the population. How will beneficiaries participate in the project? The project will continue to emphasize the three participatory approaches – community action plans, the farming system approach to research and technology transfer, and the integrated watershed planning approach to resource management – developed and tested under the World Bank project. Building on the success so far achieved, the project’s underlying strategy will be to take full advantage of existing social structures and encourage local people to take initiatives and mobilize themselves into groups in order to participate in the development process. The overall objective of the project is to reduce poverty through setting clear criteria for the selection of beneficiaries, with the involvement of the communities. Size of the project and cofinancing. The total project cost is estimated, at October 2002 prices, at USD 44.8 million over a six-year development period. IFAD financing will amount to USD 12.7 million, or 28.3% of total project costs. World Bank will provide USD 12.2 million (27.2%), the Global Environment Facility USD 5.2 million (11.5%), the Government of Egypt USD 10.3 million (23.1%) and the beneficiaries USD 4.4 million (9.8%). Loan Amount: SDR 9.60 million (equivalent to approximately USD 12.7 million) on intermediate terms Total project cost: USD 44.8 million Cooperating Institution: World Bank  |
| Project ID: 1204
West Noubaria Rural Development Project In the primary project area, the project will improve housing and social amenities and will make available to the oldland settlers, who are unaccustomed to desert agriculture, the considerable desert farming technologies developed and adapted through Egypts agricultural research system in the past 50 years. In both the primary and secondary project areas, the project will support the adoption of better on-farm water-management practices. It will encourage the development of small and medium enterprise in agricultural production and marketing and the host of commercial services and facilities the emerging communities will need to become viable and self-reliant. It will provide marketing extension and information and make limited improvements in the marketing infrastructure. It will facilitate the long-term development of a viable financial system, while addressing the immediate need for agricultural production and financing of small and medium enterprises. Communities will be assisted in using the Shorouk methodology to articulate and prioritize their needs for social investments and income-generating activities and to ensure their participation in implementation, operation and maintenance of the desired services. Village organizations will be supported, through animation and training, in organizing and interfacing with other service providers in rural finance and marketing to serve the interests of their members. The projects primary target group comprises some 16 780 small-farm households. These were tenants in the oldlands that were dispossessed of their statutory tenancies and recently compensated with 1-ha holdings of newly reclaimed desert land or newlands. A secondary target group comprises some 19 400 households, consisting of small farmers and unemployed youth, that were settled before 1996 on 2-ha holdings of land in the reclaimed desert. Loan amount: SDR 14.60 million (equivalent to approximately USD 18.48 million) on intermediate terms Total project costs are estimated at USD 54.75 million Cooperating Institution: United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) |
| Project ID: 1050
EGYPT Sohag Rural Development Project This six-year IFAD-initiated project will support a high priority rural development effort by the Government in Sohag, one of the country s poorest governorates (52% of the 460 000 households are categorized as poor and 36% as ultra poor). The objectives of the project will be to: (i) promote sustainable rural development; (ii) imp rove incomes and the quality of life in rural communities through improving the capacity of such communities and of local government to programme, appraise, finance and implement a range of rural infrastru c t u re subprojects; and (iii) improve the access to credit of the rural poor, unemployed youth and women. The project will target all the rural inhabitants of Sohag living in 51 local administrative units comprising 1 500 villages and hamlets, and almost 76% of the inhabitants (2.3 million people living in 350 000 households) are expected to benefit directly or indirectly. The project will also benefit rural women by promoting their re p resentation in the National Programme for the Rehabilitation and Development of Egyptian Villages and through microgrants and credit to support group initiatives. Innovative Features: The project represents a landmark initiative in the region. Within the project, control over public-sector resources and their investments will be fully decentralized to local administrative units at the village level. The participatory methods followed will allow for villages to identify and prepare village-level infrastructure investments that include beneficiary financing to complement funds provided by the Government. The experience that IFAD hopes to gain with respect to decentralization in this project is expected to provide important insights for other countries in the region, where planning and control of public-sector investments often still remain largely within the ambit of central government ministries. Loan amount: SDR 18.9 million (approximately USD 25.0 million) on highly concessional terms. Total project costs: Estimated at USD 93.8 million, of which USD 25.0 million will be provided by IDA, USD 3.0 million by a bilateral donor (still to be determined), USD 23.6 million by the Government, USD 0.1 million by a national financial institution and USD 17.1 million by the beneficiaries. Cooperating institution: IDA. |
