Pro-ARIDES, a 100 million euro Dutch program to build resilience in three countries.
Ouagadougou, July 06, 2021(AIB)-Burkinabe Minister of Animal and Fisheries Resources Modeste Yerbanga on Tuesday launched the Agrifood Program for Integrated Resilience and Economic Development in the Sahel (Pro-ARIDES), financed to the tune of 100 million Euros by the Netherlands and to be implemented in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger over ten years.
The Agrifood Program for Integrated Resilience and Economic Development in the Sahel(Pro-ARIDES), financed to the tune of 100 million Euros by the Netherlands, covers Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger for a period of ten years during an inflatable assault.
The launch on behalf of Burkina Faso took place on July 6, 2021 in Ouagadougou, in the presence of the Minister for Animal Resources Modeste Yerbanga, the Minister for the Environment Siméon Sawadogo, the Country Director of the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) Jeanette de Regt and the representative of the Dutch Embassy Eléonore Belemlilga.
According to Jeanette de Regt, Pro-ARIDES aims to “contribute to increased resilience, food security and household incomes for farmers and (agro-) pastoralists in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, through effective decentralized institutions and organizations for improved service delivery, natural resource and land management and local economic development”.
The program will be implemented in 24 communes in Burkina Faso, spread across the regions of Nord, Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Ouest and Est. It is expected to reach at least 968,333 people working in the agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries sectors by 2030, explained Jeannette de Regt.
Minister Modeste Yerbanga, on behalf of Prime Minister Christophe Dabiré, welcomed the Kingdom of the Netherlands for its renewed support for Burkina Faso’s development efforts.
According to him, Pro-ARIDES will help strengthen the resilience of communities and ecosystems in a country where agriculture is heavily dependent on rainfall and climate change, not to mention demographic pressure and a difficult security context.
Overcoming hunger and food insecurity
He also welcomed the project’s regional approach and its aim to transform agriculture.
“Agriculture must become more market-oriented. It must not be used to manage poverty, but rather to create wealth”, said Minister Modeste Yerbanga.
Madi Kondombo, representative of the National Chamber of Agriculture, praised the program for taking into account family farms, farmers’ organizations, women and young people.
He hoped that the situation of the many people living in a very difficult food and nutrition situation, with very low levels of resilience, would change in a lasting way.
In his opinion, Pro-ARIDES will help overcome poverty and food insecurity.
Although “the program is very ambitious”, its coordinator Didier Coulidiaty and his “young and dynamic team” pledged to the audience that they were committed to its successful implementation.
The representative of the Chargé d’Affaires of the Dutch Embassy in Burkina Faso, Eléonore Belemlilga, recalled that Pro-ARIDES was born in 2019 from the call for grant proposals.
She noted the importance of considering the entire food supply system inclusively, such as access to land, water, inputs, knowledge, financial services, storage, processing, transport and markets.
The Agrifood Program for Integrated Resilience and Economic Development in the Sahel (Pro-ARIDES) is run by SNV in collaboration with CARE Netherlands, Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT). Local partners in Burkina Faso are the Chambre nationale d’agriculture (CNA), the Observatoire national du foncier du Burkina Faso (ONF-BF) and the Fédération des professionnels agricoles du Burkina (FEPAB), the NGO Tin Tua, the Association formation développement ruralité (AFDR), the Institut national de l’Environnement et des recherches agricoles (INERA) and the Impact Research Institute (IRI).
Source: Agence d’information du Burkina
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