Sustainable Development Project for Communities in Semi-arid Areas

The objective of the project is to increase the income and employment of rural poor and indigenous households in the Mixteca region, located within Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla States, and the Mazahua zone in the State of Mexico. It represents an investment in developing and consolidating pro-poor, small-producer value chains by strengthening the social fabric of rural and indigenous communities.

The project has four main thrusts: 

• Promoting the formation and development of grass-roots economic organizations
• Developing social and entrepreneurial management capacities among a new cadre of local leaders, including rural and indigenous women and young people
• Supporting sustainable agricultural production through the rehabilitation and sound management of natural resources, particularly access to water 
• Developing entrepreneurial linkages and rural microenterprises while facilitating wider access to markets.

The project area comprises 50 priority municipalities that are home to most of the Mixteca indigenous population and two municipalities where about 50,000 Mazahua indigenous people live. The target group consists mainly of subsistence agricultural producers who cultivate communal lands, unorganized small livestock producers, artisans with weak linkages to markets, and rural and indigenous women and youth.