10,000 Nigerians to Benefit from the GEF-7 FOLUR-IP Project
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO says about 10,000 Nigerians have been projected to benefit from the The Global Environment Facility-7’s (GEF-7) Food Systems, Land Use Restoration, FOLUR, Impact Program (-IP) project funded by the Global Environment Facility with a target of at least 50% women.
This was disclosed at the Inception Workshop of the project held in Abuja Nigeria’s capital with the title “Promoting Integrated Landscape Management and Sustalnable Food Systems in the Niger Delta Region in Nigeria, specifically in Cross River and Ondo States.”
The project is a 345 million Dollars, seven- year initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility led by the World Bank.
Niger Delta Region
It seeks to harness the production of cocoa and oil palm while conserving, restoring, and degrading forest ecosystems in the Niger Delta region of the country.
The States of Ondo and Cross River have been selected through a rigorous process as the 2 pilot states with the value chains of Cocoa and Oil Palm as focus.
The GEF-7’s FOLUR-IP Project is designed to transform the Niger Delta’s cocoa and palm oil production systems and landscapes towards sustainability and resilience, delivering multiple environmental and social benefits through its compartmental activities.
The project when implemented would yield numerous benefits, such as 795,200 hectares of landscapes covered by Integrated Land Management plan 110,000 hectares of land under sustainable practices with “at least a 20% increase in the yield of cocoa and oil palm per hectare by project closure and 10,000 people would benefit from income diversification interventions, with a target of at least 50% women.”
The workshop had its objectives to ensure that the involved stakeholders and partners have clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities the project, discuss the co-financing commitments of the key partners and develop ‘strategies’ to ensure its effective and timely delivery for project implementation, and how to explore additional co-financing sources, develop the operational strategies and detailed workplan for year 1 amongst others.
Shakirat Sadiq
