Zambia and IFAD sign deal

THE Republic of Zambia and the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed a US$14.23 million loan and $0.87 million grant agreement to finance the Enhanced Smallholder Livestock Investment Programme (E-SLIP).
The E-SLIP financing agreement was signed today in Rome by Pamela C. Kabamba, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Zambia, and by Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.
In Zambia, livestock is an important sector, contributing to poverty reduction, household food security and nutrition, in particular by providing high-quality proteins. This makes livestock a useful tool to mitigate the effects of malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. In addition, the sector contributes greatly to the economic growth and exports incomes.
However, the sector is constrained by livestock diseases, lack of expertise in modern livestock husbandry practices and a limited genetic pool, Additional constraints include, limited access to knowledge and infrastructure for marketing value addition.
The E-SLIP is designed to address the critical gaps in Zambian livestock sector services and technologies. These include the control of key cattle diseases that are limiting smallholder herd growth, and forage production for improved livestock health and productivity. In addition, the programme will enlarge and enhance the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock’s restocking programme for poor smallholder farmers, an important pathway to pull them out of poverty.
“This new programme will scale-up the closing IFAD-supported Smallholder Livestock Investment Project, which has provided valuable support to the Zambian livestock sector through strengthening the government capacity for animal diseases control and reducing the incidence of the east coast fever and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, two of the main causes of cattle mortality for smallholder farmers in Zambia,” said Abla Benhammouche, IFAD Representative and Country Director for Zambia.
“It will also improve sustainably the production and productivity of key livestock systems of the targeted smallholder producers in the programme areas.”
With a total cost of $46.3 million, E-SLIP is cofinanced with a $10.6 million contribution from the Government of Zambia, an $8.6 million contribution from the beneficiaries themselves and a $12 million funding gap for which discussions are ongoing with potential cofinancers such as OPEC Fund for International Development.
It will be managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Zambia and will directly benefit 180,000 poor rural livestock households that are raising cattle, goats, pigs and poultry. It will particularly benefit women and young people headed households, improving their economic activities and livelihoods. In addition, about 900,000 farm households that raise livestock will benefit indirectly from the programme disease control and technology development.
Since 1981, IFAD has invested a total of $203.6 million in 14 programmes and projects in Zambia, amounting to $320.5 million when cofinancing is included. It is estimated nearly 960,000 Zambian rural households have benefitted from these efforts so far.