South Western Region Small Farmers Project Phase II

The project area was located in the south-west part of the country in the provinces of Independencia, Bahoruco and Elías Piña, which are on the border with Haiti. All three provinces are among the country’s poorest, with some 86 per cent of the people living in poverty. Among the poor people are small-scale producers, microentrepreneurs and landless wage earners. Women are particularly vulnerable to poverty.

The general objectives of the project were to improve living conditions, increase the incomes of rural poor people, alleviate extreme poverty and improve agricultural and microenterprise production and revenues.

Specifically, the project’s aims were to:

• improve opportunities for generating families’ incomes through agricultural and non-agricultural production
• improve access by family members to local sources of financing for investment and capital resources for agricultural and microenterprise initiatives
• improve social and productive infrastructure, roads and market channels
• strengthen the capacity of local organizations and NGOs to provide communities with social and productive services

The project supported intermediary organizations, such as NGOs organized as area promotion agencies (APAs), in their efforts to help grass-roots organizations identify their needs. With the help of APAs, communities designed their own initiatives. A matching grant programme implemented by the Plataforma VIDA had the aim of strengthening the communities’ sense of ownership of the project.


Source: IFAD