Finance in Common Summit – $150 million for family farming in Angola
published on 12 November 2020
On the sidelines of the Finance in Common Summit, IFAD and AFD have signed a co-financing agreement to mobilize $150 million to help family farms in Angola cope with climate change.
Angola is hard hit by the impacts of climate change: in the north, the once abundant rainfall is increasingly erratic and the south provinces have been experiencing chronic droughts in recent years. These changes have a direct impact on the incomes of millions of already fragile rural families which are dependent on agriculture and livestock farming. They are thereby exacerbating the problems of malnutrition and the rural exodus movement.
AFD has decided to address this issue by joining in the action of IFAD in Angola, which has been financing projects to support family farming for many years. Through this partnership and support from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, a $150 million loan will be mobilized for the Government of Angola to address the challenges of the productivity and resilience of family farming in Angola, including €38 million provided by AFD.
The Smallholder Resilience Enhancement Project (SREP) will be implemented in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid agroecological areas in seven provinces – Bengo, Zaire, Uige and Cuanza Norte in the north, and Benguela, Cunene and Namibe in the south over a period of six years. The project will benefit at least 218,000 rural households, with a focus on women and young people who are the most vulnerable to climate change. The activities will provide support and advisory services to improve the food security, productivity and resilience of family farms. The investments will increase access to rural transport, irrigation and water management facilities and to sustainably managed land. The farmer-field-school training system and acquisition of appropriate technologies will give small-scale producers the means to increase the resilience of farms to climate change and be more productive. In addition, the support to small-scale producers for sustainable, resilient and productive investment and the facilitation of exchanges between stakeholders in sectors will increase income-generating activities for rural households.
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