Rome, 20 May 2011 – A US$8.95 million loan and a US$8.45 million grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to the Republic of Chad will help improve the livelihoods of poor rural people and increase economic growth potential in the country’s Guéra region, the UN rural poverty agency has announced.

The loan and grant agreement for the Rural Development Support Programme in Guéra was signed today in Rome by Hassan Elimi TchonaÏ, Ambassador of the Republic of Chad to the Federal Republic of Germany and Kanayo Nwanze, President of IFAD.

Through this new programme, the Government of Chad and IFAD will work together with the collaboration of the European Union, the United Nations Capital Development Fund and the World Food Programme to help the rural poor populations of Guéra lay the groundwork for improving their food security and incomes in a sustainable manner.

The programme is aimed at extending the results of the two first phases of the Food Security Project in the Northern Guéra region, improving access to safe water, management of chronic food security risks and access to adapted financial services.

Newly available funding will also go to building and rehabilitating rural roads to link producers with markets and to strengthen the capacity of grass-roots producer organizations and their members at the local and regional level.

More than 132,000 vulnerable people, including smallholder farmers, very poor rural women (especially those heading a household) and rural young people will benefit directly from the programme.

With this new programme, IFAD will have financed 7 programmes and projects in Chad for a total investment of US$91.4 million benefiting 113,350 households.