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Bank interventions improve drought resilience and livelihoods for pastoral and agro-pastoral population in Sudan
Interventions by the African Development Bank have improved Natural Resource Management Practices for Sustainable Management.
Objective
What does the Drought Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Programme (DRSLP) seek to achieve?
The project objective is to enhance drought resilience and improve livelihoods of the pastoral and agro-pastoral population. The project’s sector goal is to contribute to poverty reduction, food security, and accelerated sustainable economic growth through enhanced rural income.
The project has 4 components:
Natural Resources Management
Market Access and Trade
Livelihoods Support
Project Management & Capacity-building
The DRSLP is to be implemented in 15-20 years in 8 countries of the Horn of Africa.
DRSLP-Sudan project comprises DRSLP-II & DRSLP-III.
Project finance is a grant from Transition Support Facility Bank Group of US $44 million, in addition to a 10% contribution from the Sudan Government and in-kind contribution of the target communities.
DRSLP targets approximately 5 million people including over 3 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, of whom 45% are women, in Kassala, Qadarif and White Nile States.
Impact
Through this project, communities have seen their livelihoods improve considerably. The provision of water and other natural resources interventions have helped to increase working hours and incomes. The project has done the following:
Improved access to water, which was a nightmare for the target population who spend 50% of their productive hours to fetch water. Resolving this problem benefits domestic consumption and the animal population.
Improved health since clean drinking water is having positive health impacts on human beings and increasing the productivity of animals.
Upgrade the soil and better manage water sources for sustainability of the fragile environment in the Horn of Africa.
Develop the sense of ownership of natural resources by introducing afforestation and tree seedling production, which will reduce soil degradation and deterioration and help to maintain the ecosystem.
Rehabilitate rangeland through pasture seed broadcasting and fireline strip construction, which have gone a long way towards improving pastures and ensuring the provision of animal feed and improving animal production.
Establish livestock check points where livestock crushes, quarantine stations and livestock holding areas were instrumental in improving animal health.
“The area targeted by the project has witnessed rational natural resource management practices, and the communities are more committed to the sustainable use of natural resources management guidelines, which is considered a tremendous transformation for the Horn of Africa, saving it from further slippage into fragility.”
“The project intervention has enabled us to increase working time and has improved our incomes. The provision of water has made our children clean and healthy and we are able to send them to school after they have been spending almost all the day fetching water for their families.”
