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afrol News, 19 November - The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Burkina Faso today signed a loan agreement on highly concessional terms for co-financing the Burkinabe National Community Based Rural Development Project. The Agreement was signed at the Fund's headquarters in Rome by the Vice President of IFAD, Mr. John Westley, and by Ms. Béatrice Damiba, Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Italy. - This loan agreement, which amounts to the equivalent of US$ 11.5 million, represents about 10% of the programme, IFAD informs in a statement released today. "The remainder will be contributed by the World Bank, the bilateral assistance agencies of Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as by the Government of Burkina Faso and the beneficiaries of the project themselves." The overall development objective of the project is "to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development in rural areas of Burkina Faso, thereby breaking the spiral of rural poverty characterized by natural resource degradation, reduced agricultural production and decreased quality of life," IFAD states. IFAD’s contribution will be targeted specifically on village level and inter-village level capacity strengthening and investment activities, support services and actions, and project management and administration. - The activities under the project are demand-driven, and hence based on the real needs expressed by the communities themselves, IFAD says. "They will target all categories of the rural population, including the most marginalized and deprived, taking into account the specific situation and needs of rural women and youth." The project will launch, for the first time, a long-term effort to harmonize rural development activities throughout the country. According to the project's description, it will expand the participatory land development approach, tested so far only within limited geographical zones, to national coverage, and thus provide a basis for implementing the Governments decentralization policy in an effective and efficient manner. Two issues are to be particularly relevant for the implementation of the Programme, according to IFAD: the first relates to extending the pilot activities that aim at securing land tenure rights in order to include a large segment of the poorest rural population; the second concerns the need to emphasise awareness-building and training of rural communities to promote their effective participation in decision-making, and the formulation and execution of individual or village investment plans. To date, IFAD provided eight loans on highly concessional lending terms to Burkina Faso, amounting to approximately USD 87 million, plus a grant of USD1.74million from the Belgian Survival Fund (BSF) Joint Programme for financing seven projects in the country. Sources: Based on IFAD
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