The project’s main goal is to contribute towards the Government of Ecuador’s efforts to reduce poverty among Afro-Ecuadorian, indigenous and mestizo settlers and dwellers living in the area of influence of the Ibarra-San Lorenzo highway within Ecuador’s northern region. It will do this by boosting income-generating activities and strengthening the natural, social and cultural assets of these families and groups.

The northen region has high levels of poverty with poor services and social infrastructure. Natural resources are under pressure and there are high levels of violence due to conflict in neighbouring Colombia. 

The project’s target population consists of 8,000 rural families and 900 families living in rural and peri-urban cantons in the country’s northern region, where the Ibarra-San Lorenzo Highway creates an economic corridor.

Cultural diversity characterises the project area where about 34 per cent of people are Afro-Ecuadorians, 7 per cent are indigenous peoples and the rest belonging to other groups, mostly mestizos who have moved into the area as settlers.

The project will assist to:

• build the capacity of local administrations and communities; promote people’s rights and strengthen institutions that oversee matters such as conflict mediation and gender issues.
• promote the management of natural and environmental resources with the use of appropriate technologies, especially in hillside areas, and the sustainable use of coastal resources.
• develop business ventures in agriculture and other initiatives such as handicrafts and rural tourism; introduce ways to participate in value chains while facilitating access to markets and furthering cultural identities.
• recover ancestral knowledge and introduce income-generating activities that reaffirm cultural identities.

The project also aligns with the main thrusts of the National Development Plan and with Plan Ecuador, the government’s 10-year integrated development framework for the northern region.

Source: IFAD