AFRICA – The Board of World Bank’s Executive Directors have approved the new US$375 million IDA financing, to support the implementation of the second Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project, known by its French acronym PRAPS-2 (Projet regional d’appui au pastoralisme au Sahel-Phase 2).
The project is aimed to improve the productivity and resilience of pastoral production systems in the Sahel region including in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
Building on the successes of its predecessor (PRAPS-1), PRAPS-2 will pursue investments to establish more robust animal health systems, increase access and governance of natural resources – including new grazing areas and more water infrastructure—, support pastoralists’ peaceful mobility along the local and cross-border mobility routes, and increase income.
It will also support national and regional institutions as well as stakeholders’ capacity to govern the sector.
Further to that, it will contribute to targeted responses to the COVID-19 restrictions which have impacted pastoral activities and have led to sharp increases in livestock prices, and pastoralists’ livelihoods have been undermined by markets closures and movement limitations.
Pastoralism is a key driver of growth that provides livelihoods for more than 20 million people in the Sahel.
Overall PRAPS-2 will improve pastoral livestock value chains, facilitate livestock trade, support regional market integration, and will further fill gaps in strategic market infrastructure along regional trade corridors.
“Interventions focused on increasing the availability of animal sourced foods and improving incomes, in particular for the most vulnerable, carry a significant potential for positive food security and nutritional outcomes,” said Simeon Ehui, World Bank’s Regional Director for Sustainable Development in Africa.
Pastoralism is a key driver of growth that provides livelihoods for more than 20 million people in the Sahel.
It is estimated that at about 13 million people including the youth, and of which at least 30% are women, will directly benefit from the project’s activities.
“Ensuring the socio-economic inclusion of women and youth in all development programs in the Sahel is key,” said Ms. Soukeyna Kane, World Bank Country Director for Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger.
“PRAPS-2 will contribute to this goal by stepping up interventions towards vulnerable women and youth from pastoral households by increasing their access to training, including functional, digital and financial literacy, as well as business skills,” added Kane.
Cattle remain one of the main exports from Sahelian landlocked countries, and the most widely traded product between these and coastal countries.
PRAPS-2 will work with regionally mandated institutions to help integrate policies, harmonize regulations and increase coordination among countries to fully realize the potential of pastoralism to achieve poverty reduction in the Sahel.
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