Rural Development Project for Mountain Zones in the North of the Wilaya of M'Sila

This project, designed to reduce rural poverty, focused particularly on small farmers, unemployed young people and rural women. It was in line with the government’s strategic development aims in mountain areas with a high incidence of poverty. 

The project served as a platform for continuing policy dialogue with the government on various issues including decentralization of decision-making, creation of pro-poor local institutions, and poor rural people’s access to assets such as land, water and financial services.

The main objectives were to:

• build local capacity for planning rural development at the grass-roots level, designing and implementing local projects targeting the most disadvantaged people
• ensure the sustainability of agricultural development and productivity through priority mobilization of surface water and efforts to control land degradation
• support initiatives that help increase, diversify and guarantee stable incomes for poor rural people by providing sustainable access to financial services for members of target groups, especially women and young people, whose access is currently limited or totally lacking

Poor rural people who benefited from the project were directly involved in all stages of planning and implementation. The project assisted participating farmers and rural communities in preparing their Douar Development Plans (PDDs) for a period of seven years. The PDDs include activities such as: 

• mobilization and rational use of water
• improvement of cropping and livestock-production techniques
• improved management and rational use of silvopastoral resources
• development of social infrastructure such as drinking water supply and rural tracks
• access to local financial services and promotion of microenterprises

Source: IFAD