Project ID: 1261
Executive Board Document:EB-2003-80-R-30-REV-1

Rural Poverty Reduction Project in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng

The strategic goal of the project is to reduce poverty among 120 600 households through the active participation of the poor in the achievement of improved livelihoods, strengthened capacity, sustainable farming systems and natural resource management, new or rehabilitated infrastructure, and greater access to technology, services and markets so as to enhance economic and social development. The project objectives are to enable: (a) poor households to increase food production and incomes through intensified and diversified crop and livestock production and other initiatives and to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner; (b) the rural poor to improve their capacity to plan and manage their own social and economic development, including rural infrastructure development; and (c) public and other service providers to support the rural poor in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner so that they can plan and carry out development programmes responsive to the priorities of the rural poor.

Loan Amount:

SDR 10.85 million (approximately USD 15.5 million) on highly concessional terms

Total project cost: estimated at USD 22.0 million, of which beneficiaries will provide about USD 930 000, the World Food Programme (WFP) USD 2.4 million, national government USD 491 000 and the Partnership for Local Governance USD 2.7 million (financed by UNDP, the Swedish International Development Authority and DFID).

Cooperating Institution:

UNOPS

Project ID: 1175
Executive Board Document: EB-2000-71-R-19-Rev-1

Community-Based Rural Development Project in Kampong Thom and Kampot

The overall goal of this seven-year IFAD-initiated project is to reduce the poverty of targeted households in the provinces of Kampong Thom and Kampot, which are among the most vulnerable to food insecurity in Cambodia. The objectives of the project are to:

(i) sustain increased food production and farm incomes from intensified and diversified crop and livestock production; and

(ii) increase the capacity of the poor to use services available from the Government and other sources for their social and economic development.

The two target provinces encompass a total population of 1.1 million (representing approximately 211 901 households), of which 91% live in rural areas. The target group will comprise 77 400 rural households living below the poverty line of USD 112 per year. More than 40% of children below five years of age in the project area suffer from malnutrition. It is estimated that, at full development, 49 600 poor households, or 26% of the rural population, will benefit directly from project assistance. The project will improve household nutrition and food security and have a positive impact on women by enhancing their role as agents of change in the process of social and economic development.

Innovative features:

The innovative features of the project include the following:

(i) first multisector rural development project financed by IFAD in Cambodia;

(ii) introduction of sustainable arrangements for full beneficiary responsibility for operation and maintenance (O&M) of the infrastructure investments;

(iii) provision of direct support and empowerment of grass-roots organizations;

(iv) enhancement of accountable governance through transparent staff selection processes and contracting arrangements for the implementation of all project activities;

(v) institutionalization of project im p act assessment and beneficiary monitoring directly linked to the objectives and outputs of the logframe;

(vi) promotion of gender mainstreaming and awareness among communities and project staff, and promotion of family agreements between women and other family members to ensure womens participation in the project and in decision-making;

(vii) a project implementation manual;

(viii) provision of institutional support to the decentralization process and structure, not only for this project but also for coordination of all rural development programmes in the project area; and (ix) a participatory land-registration process.

Loan amount:

SDR 7.9 million (approximately USD 10.0 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total project costs:

Estimated at USD 22.9 million, of which USD 7.9 million will be provided by Germany, USD 1.3 million by WFP, USD 552 000 by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), USD 1.8 million by the Government and USD 1.3 million by the beneficiaries.

Cooperating institution:

UNOPS.

Project ID: 1106
Executive Board Document: EB-99-67-R-18-Rev-1

Agricultural Development Support Project to Seila

Decades of war and internal strife have made Cambodia one of the 22 poorest countries in the world in terms of GNP per capita (USD 300 in 1996). The rural poor number over four million and comprise 40% of the country's population. The strategic goal of this six-year IFAD-initiated project is to increase the food and income security of the targeted population in four north-western provinces. The main objectives are to help poor households in the area sustain an increased level of farm productivity and income and diversify their crop and livestock activities. Specifically, the project seeks to:

- provide support to agricultural development activities tailored to the needs of the poor and food-insecure farming households;

- empower local communities and beneficiaries to successfully maintain and manage their productive resources;

- strengthen the capacity of local institutions, particularly provincial and district agricultural departments, to target and manage investment programmes in a participatory manner; and

- assist NGOs and microfinance institutions in providing retail savings and credit services for the target group, with the strengthened Rural Development Bank as an effective wholesaler of credit.

Several design features should reinforce the project's potential impact on the situation of women. The target group comprises approximately 245 000 households, equivalent to 64% of the rural population. They mostly include food, returnees from s with less than 1.5 ha of land, returnees from the border, internally displaced persons, who often lack access to land for growing rice, mine victims and unemployed youth. Approximately 64 500 households will benefit directly from project interventions.

Innovative Features:

- The project will be implemented in areas where social mobilization and awareness- raising of beneficiaries, participatory planning and local capacity-building, have already started and are creating demand for investment. To build on this momentum, IFAD will finance agricultural investments that produce a rapid impact on household food/income security and benefit the maximum number of rural poor.

- The project will provide physical and financial assistance to very poor households, organizing them into "joint liability" groups to enable them to more effectively benefit from social and economic development opportunities.

- Implementation will be decentralized to the villages, communes, districts and provinces so that project assistance reaches the intended beneficiaries and brings them into the development process. The project will help institutionalize the Government's policy of decentralized planning and development. By including regular participatory planning, monitoring and beneficiary impact assessments, the lessons learned can be provided as feedback to provincial and national policy-makers. Project activities will be implemented by the provincial and district agri-cultural staff under output-oriented contracts to ensure accountability and transparency.

- The project will also pilot a new mechanism for IFI financing of rural financial services by channelling funds through the Rural Development Bank, which will act as credit wholesaler.

Loan Amount:

SDR 6.4 million (approximately USD 8.6 million) on highly concessional terms.

Total Project Costs:

Estimated at USD 11.6 million, of which USD 1.8 million will be provided by UNDP and AusAID, USD 1.2 million by the Government and USD 20 000 by the beneficiaries.

Cooperating Institution:

UNOPS.