Project ID: 1392
Executive Board document: EB-2008-95-R-17-Rev.1

Integrated Agricultural Rehabilitation Programme in Maniema Province

This IFAD grant will finance a programme in Maniema Province, in the east-central part of the country, to support the country’s engagement in a peace process to rebuild the nation. The programme will work to rehabilitate agricultural production, open up access to markets and improve incomes and well-being by improving access to water and health care in the most vulnerable areas of the province.
Maniema Province suffered severe war damage from 1996 to 2003, and the conflict had serious consequences for the local population, in terms of human lives lost, plundering and sexual abuse of women. It resulted in chronic food shortages, very low incomes and a lack of access to basic services. Agriculture has declined, infrastructure was destroyed or deteriorated, and the organizational capacity of the population is weak.

The groups targeed for IFAD-funded support include:

• small rural producers, including Pygmies and Bantu households
• small-scale breeders
• women who are heads of households, many of whom are victims of sexual violence
• households headed by young people and demobilized soldiers
• marginalized groups such as street children, internally displaced people and people living with a disability or HIV/AIDS

As the country emerges from a conflict situation, the key focus of the programme in institutional terms is to reinforce not only the capacity of the local population but also that of the technical staff of the government ministries involved. The main activities include rehabilitation of infrastructure and rural feeder roads, revival of agriculture and fishing and improvement of people’s access to clean water and to health care.

The programme will involve various social and socio-professional groups such as farmers’ organizations, local elected representatives, women, young people and socially marginalized groups, in the planning, implementation and evaluation and supervision of activities.

Project ID: 1311
Executive Board document: EB-2005-86-R-16-Rev-1

Agricultural Rehabilitation Programme in Orientale Province

Who are the beneficiaries? The programme will be located in Orientale Province, in the north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and will cover five production zones in the Tshopo district and three axes around the district’s capital, Kisangani. It will focus on two areas within the district – Isangi and Basako – both identified as priority areas in IFAD’s country strategy and the Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. It will directly benefit about 55 000 poor farmer and fisher households living in the area, paying particular attention to vulnerable groups, such as single mothers, widows and orphans, youths and old people.

Why are they poor? The long period of crisis and institutional instability that the country has undergone has negatively affected agricultural and fisheries activities in the programme area. Rural development is seriously constrained by landlocked areas of production and lack of access to markets, working tools and technologies. Transportation, communication and social infrastructure has either been destroyed or has deteriorated due to a prolonged lack of maintenance. As a result, agricultural and fisheries productivity and production are low, and the population has difficulties accessing basic social services (primary health care, primary education, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation).

What will the programme do for them? The programme will contribute to sustainably improving the target group’s incomes, food security, nutritional status and living standards, and to strengthening their natural resource management capabilities. More specifically, it will: (a) improve, on a sustainable basis, physical and intangible access to markets and production zones; (b) strengthen the self-promotional and management skills of rural populations and their grass-roots organizations, and the capacity of public services to support rural development; (c) intensify, diversify and add value to agricultural and fisheries production; and (d) improve access to basic social services. The implementation of the second subcomponent will initially be supported by the activities planned in the framework of a grant to be finalized at the appraisal stage.

Loan and grant amount:
Loan: SDR 10.95 million (equivalent to approximately USD 15.53 million) Grant: SDR 210 000 (equivalent to approximately USD 300 000)

Total programme cost: USD 26 million

Project ID: 1244
Executive Board document: EB-2004-81-R-17-REV-1.pdf

Agricultural Revival Programme in Equateur Province

The overall goal of the programme is to contribute to enhancing food security and improving the livelihoods of the rural poor. The programme's development objective is to restore and improve sustainable livelihoods for rural communities.

Specifically, the programme aims to: (i) restore and improve agricultural productive assets, promote equitable and sustainable access by farmers to markets and raise agricultural income; (ii) restore and improve the productive assets of the fisheries sector, promote equitable and sustainable access of fishermen (and women) to markets, and raise their income; and (iii) restore and improve the access of rural communities to basic social services. A special focus will be placed on addressing the development constraints faced by the poorest rural categories, in particular widows, pygmies and other vulnerable groups.

Loan Amount

SDR 10.0 million (equivalent to approximately USD 14.8 million)

Total programme cost:USD 22.6 million

Cooperating Institution:

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)