Strengthening smallholders and women’s livelihoods and resilience in the N'ZI region

About the Project

Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise in Côte d’Ivoire as the result of conflict, climate change, and lack of investment in the agricultural sector. As of 2019, more than 10 million people, or about 46.3% of the population and 55.4% in rural areas, live below the poverty line. The crisis has significantly affected livelihoods, constraining small-scale farmers’ ability to produce enough food. This situation is strongly felt in the N'zi region, targeted by the project for its socio-economic and environmental fragility. The region has a high prevalence of food and nutrition insecurity and a high vulnerability of family farms to climate change and environmental degradation.

$12 million will be invested to improve the income and food security of poor people in the N’zi region and build their resilience to climate change. The project promotes sustainable and resilient agri-food systems for family farms, focusing on scaling up resilient productivity-enhancing technologies for water and soil fertility management and land use systems, and rural entrepreneurship for women and youth, focusing on youth-led agricultural services and facilitating market access through inclusive and gender-sensitive value chain development and business models. The project also facilitates access to rural finance and support to empower professional women, while strengthening mechanisms for monitoring climate, food, and nutrition vulnerability and for early warning and prevention systems.