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| Project ID: 1243
Southern Nyanza Community Development Project The overall objectives of the project are poverty reduction and improved livelihoods of the communities in the proposed project area. The project’s intermediate objective is to enhance gender-balanced empowerment of the rural communities through improved health and more rational use and management of natural resources for sustainable livelihood activities through: (i) improved local-level governance capacity and community-driven processes for local development; (ii) broader and sustained gender-balanced access to essential primary health care services, sustainable access to safe domestic water, and improved environmental sanitation and hygiene practices; (iii) better on-farm labour productivity and stronger human capacity with improved food security, nutrition and livelihood activities; and (iv) heightened community awareness of social behaviours and their consequences. A community action planning process is the principal mechanism through which communities will articulate and prioritize their needs. Self-help groups will form the contact point for economic activities, including agriculture. Local community committees will manage health care centres, water points and latrines. Loan Amount: SDR 10.90 million (approximately USD 15.6 million) on highly concessional terms Total project cost: estimated at USD 17.9 million, of which beneficiaries will provide USD 500 00 and national Government USD 1.8 million. Cooperating Institution: UNOPS 
Project ID: 1234
Mount Kenya East Pilot Project for Natural Resource Management Who are the beneficiaries? About 750 000 people live in the geographic area to be covered by the project: 350 000 in the river sub-basin areas and 400 000 in agricultural areas. Of these, approximately 580 000 people are considered poor or at risk of falling into poverty. It is expected that the project will effectively reach some 60 000 households, or 360 000 people, living in five districts on the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya. Why are they poor? Poverty and environmental degradation are linked in a vicious spiral in the project area. Soil erosion resulting from deforestation and inappropriate agricultural practices on fragile soils and sloping lands reduces agricultural productivity by 2% per year. Current crop husbandry practices are further causes of erosion loss of top soil and declining soil fertility. Poverty in the project area has increased dramatically over the past 5-7 years with the drop in global coffee prices. Neglect of coffee plots is contributing to environment degradation. Drought and flooding, combined with uncoordinated and excessive abstraction of water from the rivers, are major causes of increased food insecurity and poverty, especially in the marginal areas. Poverty is further aggravated by high population pressure on agricultural land together with small farm holdings and low productivity due to limited knowledge of sustainable agricultural methods and practices. What will the project do for them? Improved river basin management will result in increased water flow, improved water quality and reduced water wastage. It will directly benefit populations in the downstream arid and semi-arid land areas, who desperately need water to improve their livelihoods. Improved access to water will raise the productive capacity of households with limited access to drinking water or water for irrigation. The principal benefits of the project will be a reversal of the land degradation process, through a combination of measures to promote better natural resource management (NRM) by private individuals and on public lands, and the reduction of the silt load in the rivers. Local authorities will work with beneficiary groups to formulate investments and regulations for the sustainable management of land and water resources. The project will provide training and awareness building to local community groups and will assist them in the preparation of NRM plans focusing on trust lands and river sub-basins. In addition, it will support income-generating activities for food processing or non-agricultural purposes and promote better market linkages. The project will also aim to strengthen the technical capacity of district-level staff in NRM, project cycle management and participatory techniques in order to promote better field-level collaboration with communities and better local governance. How will the beneficiaries participate in the project? The project will sensitize communities and train them to identify and prioritize their needs, find ways to meet these needs and to be a part of the implementation process. It will work with community-based groups where these are available and will facilitate group formation where no appropriate established groups exist. The project will build on the existing demonstrated capacity of local organizations, such as river users’ associations, to take initiatives and provide labour and material to cover a major share of infrastructure investment costs. By fully involving these organizations in the project process, the project will strengthen and empower them not only to sustain project interventions but also to take the lead in further development activities. Loan Amount: SDR 12.7 million (equivalent to approximately USD 16.7 million) at highly concessional terms Total project cost: USD 25.7 million Cooperating Institution: United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) |
| Project ID: 1114
Central Kenya Dry Area Smallholder and Community Services Development Project This seven-year IFAD-initiated project constitutes the second phase of the BSF-financed Nyeri Dry Areas Smallholder and Community Services Development Project. Given its impressive results in terms of health, home economics and group capacity to manage resources through cost sharing, the overall aims of this follow-up project are to introduce measures to reduce mortality and morbidity and improve the general well-being of the rural poor in carefully selected drought-affected locations in the arid and semi-arid lands of the Central Province. More specifically, it aims to: (i) raise food production, income and the well-being of beneficiaries through increased agricultural production and productivity; (ii) improve the health of the population through cost-effective primary health care, provision of safe drinking water and promotion of improved sanitation; (iii) strengthen the institutional capacity of project districts to plan, implement and monitor development processes; and (iv) promote beneficiary participation in the planning and implementation of rural development projects. The target group will be those strata of the rural population defined as most at risk from hunger, malnutrition, ill health and a generally low quality of life, including the landless and those who have limited access to clean water and none at all to health and education facilities. It is estimated that about 36 000 households will benefit from project interventions. Increased emphasis on improving on and off-farm activities is intended to further support and diversify income sources for women who, together with children, will particularly benefit from health interventions. Innovative features: The project takes a leading role in activating the Governments poverty-alleviation policies in two ways. It focuses support on the poorest rural communities with measures to improve the lot of the most disadvantaged, particularly woman-headed households and the landless, and it involves the poor in the identification and resolution of their pressing needs. Loan amount: SDR 8.5 million (approximately USD 10.9 million) on highly concessional terms. Total project costs: Estimated at USD 18.1 million, of which USD 4.1 million will be provided by BSF, USD 2.7 million by the Government and USD 407 000 by the beneficiaries. Cooperating institution: UNOPS. |
