Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Southern Governorates Rural Development Project (Yemen)

Pays : Yemen

Durée : 1997 - 2004

Institution initiatrice : International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Emprunteur : The Republic of Yemen
Organisme d’exécution : Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (MAWR)

Présentation
Who Are the Beneficiaries ?
The target group comprises the very poor in five rural regions located in four of the southern governorates adversely affected by the government policy of returning nationalized land to its original owners. The target group will contain about 8 250 direct beneficiaries and their families (about 50 00060 000 people) of mostly dispossessed tenants in 40 rural communities in which the very-poor primary target group lives.

Why Are They Poor ?
Poverty is endemic to rural Yemen and is caused by a poor resource base and the primitive technologies used in its exploitation and by a process of marginalization of remote locations and communities. The general process of impoverishment in rural areas has been worsened in the southern governorates by recent changes in land tenure in which the Government decreed the return of nationalized land in the south to its original owners without compensation to current users. As a result, up to 23 000 small tenant farmers in the southern governorates became liable to dispossession, and over the last five years the great majority of them have actually been dispossessed and have consequently lost the main source of their livelihood.

_ What Will the Project Do for Them ? The surest means of restoring incomes for dispossessed rural people is land development. However the scope for land development is limited by the lack of sufficient water resources and by the high cost of water development in some parts of the project area. Therefore, in addition to land development, the project will assist a large segment of the target group in pursuing alternative incomes from activities such as livestock (especially small ruminants), artisanal fisheries and a variety of micro-enterprises in production and services, where the poor have a comparative advantage and for which there is a market. This will be done through formal and informal training in a variety of skills, and provision of credit and business development advice.

How Will Beneficiaries Participate in the Project ?
The project was designed in partnership among the communities, target group individuals, and the IDA/IFAD/government preparation team. Participation and partnership are also the keynotes of implementation. In each of the 40 communities with which the project will work, communities and individual target group members will have to make choices about which components can and should be implemented in their community. Those communities participating in the land component have been selected. During implementation, willingness to cooperate with the project on a participatory basis will be an essential criterion in selection of the remaining communities

Partenaire (s)  : United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) ; Government of Yemen ; International Development Association (IDA)

Informations financières
Coût total du projet : US$ 38.4 million
Montant du financement FIDA : US$ 11.3 million
World Bank : International Development Association : US$ 19.7 million
Contribution de l’emprunteur : USD 3.3 million
Contribution des bénéficiaires : USD 4.1 million

Présentation : IFAD