Butana Integrated Rural Development Project

The Butana region was for many centuries a socio-economic and political unit, and is nowadays divided into different administrative localities. The overall project goal is to improve the livelihoods of poor rural households in the target area, and strengthen communities’ resilience in the face of drought. The project targets smallholder pastoralist households in the sand dunes and clay plains of the region, households engaged in irrigated farming and smallholders who migrate seasonally with their herds. Open access to range and water resources in the region has led to severe environmental damage around water facilities and also led to acute water shortages.

Livestock production and marketing is the most viable economic activity in the Butana region, and raising productivity is an effective way of creating lasting improvements in living conditions and household food security for the poorest farmers in the project area. It is also a good way of increasing women’s economic status in the community and home. The project also helps develop crop production, and small off-farm enterprises, especially dairy processing.

The specific objectives of the project are to:

• support improvements in natural resource governance to ensure regulated access to land and water resources in the region for all
• improve the access of women and men to livestock markets and strengthen their bargaining position within markets, by rehabilitating market infrastructure and by establishing market information systems and organizing producers’ groups
• build the capacity of grass-roots organizations to design and implement environmentally sound development initiatives that include women and marginalized social groups

Source: IFAD