The World Bank has approved a U.S.$30 million credit to Mali to enable the country to improve agricultural productivity and strengthen the resilience of rural households.
The International Development Association, it is understood, will provide the funds under the Mali Agricultural Productivity and Diversification Development Project in Semi-Arid Zones (PDAZAM).
Development Diaries gathered that the funds will cover the cost of an emergency response to food insecurity as well as those generated by inflammatory pressures due in part to the Ukrainian crisis.
The frequent drought, armed violence and widespread insecurity have severely impacted livelihoods in Mali.
Poverty is on the rise, affecting 78.1 percent of people, with food insecurity levels twice as high in families headed by women, according to data from the World Food Programme (WFP).
‘These additional resources will increase the number of households receiving direct cash transfers from about 40,000 to 193,000 households, and will help alleviate the food insecurity they face’, World Bank Country Director for Mali, Clara De Sousa, said.
She specified that with women playing a dominant role in subsistence farming and in the sale of processed foods in rural and urban markets, the households headed by them and women farmers will be targeted to amplify the benefits of the project.
Source: World Bank
Photo source: CIAT
