Objectives

To promote land degradation neutrality, restore and improve the use of land and water resources in Turkmenistan’s Amudarya watershed to enhance the sustainability and resilience of livelihoods and globally significant ecosystems.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The envisaged benefits to local and national stakeholders will be interconnected with the aggregated environmental benefits enabled by the project’s features: (i) embedded integrated benefits and synergies across focal areas, (ii) mechanisms for integrated decision making and (iii) landscape-scale designed interventions. The project incentivizes local actors away from destructive behaviour through engaging them in biodiversity friendly livelihoods around protected areas. Adequate awareness, technical knowledge and access to funding are key to ensuring that stakeholders will be able to adopt innovative, environmental-friendly practices. The project therefore aims at increasing capacity of 100 public sector employees and 200 PAs staff who will be participating in training activities. Approximately 10,150 people stand to benefit directly from the project’s interventions. About 100 local farmers and pastoralists will benefit from the project’s Micro-scheme support for livelihoods ( under Output 2.3) and it is estimated that their income will register at least 20% increase as a result of the implemented SLM measures. This is a conservative percentage, as income generation from recommended SLM measures will likely provide more benefits: e.g. according to past donor-supported projects[1], application of rotational grazing alone can provide an estimated net profit of up to $16 per sheep ( after subtracting the costs per sheep of about $8). The repair of the irrigation network (Output 1.3) has proven economically profitable, for example: repair of dams and reservoirs will increase water availability and can support expansion of cultivation areas (that previously were not suitable); the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is 227% and the payback period is 1 year; the repair and lining of water storage basin will reduce water losses and leads to increased water supply. The IRR is 15% and payback period is 8 years; construction of drip irrigation systems will increase with approximately 40-50% the fruit and vegetable yields and the IRR is 29% and payback period approximately 5 years. Approximately 9,750 farmers will benefit from the improved refurbishment of irrigation systems on demonstration plots, demonstrative drip irrigation systems, construction of water wells, rainwater harvesting facilities and pasture management regimes and restored degraded land. The generated experience is replicable first to approximately 100,000 people (employed in agriculture) in Dashoguz and Lebap priority districts first, then at the province level, particularly through: the project supported policy (i.e. National Action Plan to Combat Desertification), different Guidelines on LDN compatible land use, manuals, land use planning tools, demonstrated experiences at local level that work, and with the support of the awareness events and radio/TV talk shows. Improved livelihoods resilience is likely to result in reduced economic losses associated with water scarcity, and in greater agricultural productivity, increased revenues and employment prospects and diversification of income sources. The project’s gender-sensitive micro-grant scheme will prioritise mid and small farmers located in the selected areas (and identified LDN hot spots) including women, youth and vulnerable people thus prioritising support to the most vulnerable among the farming communities, affected by climate vulnerability but also from a social perspective. Greater resilience will result in reduction in economic losses associated with climate shocks. At national level, these losses are estimated at $ 2.5 billion per year by 2030. Cost benefit analysis will be undertaken for individual investments to be made on demonstration plots. Due to the awareness and education events and due to the National LDN Target and enabling policies the potential for scaling up sustainable land management measures and integrated LDN compliant land use planning will increase the replication potential. The mechanisms for integrated decision making that the project will promote under GEF/UNDP Projects Output 1.1 (regarding participative integrated land use planning and regional LDN target setting) and Output 2.1 ( regarding the Local Councils and consultative committees to provide for local consultations on the designation of new protected areas and improved protection regimes around KBAs/IBAs and sanctuaries) will provide opportunities to reduce conflicts among resource users or overlaps in institutional mandates. General agreements on potential trade-offs promoted through an integrated and participatory manner, provide the platform for improved environmental and socio-economic benefits. In addition to agricultural activities, as it has been demonstrated by many other projects, during participatory mechanisms, farmers use these opportunities to talk about water, climate, sanitation and social issues and by so doing they are able to engage local authorities as partners in different other proposals for rural development. Finally, the project’s focus at landscape-level in the Amudarya Basin landscape and on the implementation of multiple interventions within a spatial unit, allows for generating more synergistic benefits. Healthy ecosystems will ensure resilience of the region to climate and human threats, and the maintenance of ecosystem services for local communities. [1] Examples recorded in UNCCD/WOCAT database

Objectives

Sustainable management of the Miombo and Mopane productive landscapes of the Districts of Balaka, Ntcheu and Mangochi, contributing to national land degradation neutrality targets.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The project will help deliver the following global socio-economic benefits: Global Socio-economic Benefits Objectives and Priorities to be addressed through the IP GEF 7 Core Indicator Target Expected contribution of the Malawi Child Project of the SFM-DSL IP Sustainable management of forest landscape and dryland production systems – integrating the LDN targets into planning processes, focusing mainly on improved land use and management for crop and livestock production. 109,009,473 direct beneficiaries (disaggregated by gender) benefit of GEF investments. 150,000 members of rural communities (disaggregated by gender) directly benefitting of SLM/SFM interventions. The Global socio-economic benefits are based following on the following considerations: Sustainable Forest Management: It is estimated that during the project lifetime approx. 10,000 members of forest users, women associations and producer organizations will benefit of the FMLG and procurement investments in the target landscapes of the three districts, resulting in 8,454 hectares of restored forest blocks and village forest areas with improved co-managed systems. The forest users that throughout the process have acquired a greater organizational capacity and an improvement in the high-quality production of the project's target commodities (e.g. bee products, mushrooms, baobab, fuelwood & charcoal, and other identified priority NTFP during project implementation), will be supported to improve their business capacity and market access for diversified green value chain (GVC) commodities. The project will target women and men in equal proportion of 50%. · Sustainable intensification of agroforestry production systems: It is estimated that during the project lifetime approx… 34,000 women and men smallholder farmers, will benefit of the FFS and procurement investments in the target landscapes of the three districts, and project investments will allow 7,845 hectares of sustainably managed agroforestry production systems. The smallholder farmers that throughout the process have acquired a greater organizational capacity under producer organizations and an improvement in the high-quality production of the project's target commodities (e.g. pigeon pea, sorghum, moringa), will be supported to improve their business capacity and market access for diversified green value chain (GVC) commodities. The project will target women and men in equal proportion of 50%. · Increased skills and knowhow on FLR/SLM/SFM/GVC: Approximately 150,000 community members (33,350 households) will have acquired good knowledge and skills on FLR/SLM/SFM/GVC. 520 practitioners from different stakeholder groups (e.g. AEDOs, Forest Extension Officers, FFS trainers, NASFAM members, researchers, lead farmers, private companies, CBOs and NGOs) will be qualified as master trainers on FFS therefore increasing their employment opportunities during project implementation and beyond. · Micro, small and medium enterprise development around green value chain (GVC) commodities: The project will support approximately 10,000 local producers to become members of economically viable micro-small-medium enterprises (producer organizations and cooperatives) with social and environmental corporate responsibility, through training, technical and financial support for the adoption of improved technologies that allow production to comply with market requirements and national standards for product diversification. Local businesses around green value chain commodities will include: (i) community nurseries for the production and marketing of high quality plant material (seeds, seedlings and cuttings) and the provision of services to customers on the use of plant material in FLR/SLM/SFM implementation; (ii) production and marketing of a diverse set of high quality products of moringa, beekeeping, baobab, pigeon pea, sorghum, and bioenergy, among others. The project will target a minimum of 1/3 of women among beneficiaries. · Adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers and forest users: The project will enhance the adaptive capacity of women and men smallholder farmers and forest users, addressing the gender-specific adaptation needs. The project will enhance farmer’s resilience and adaptation capacity in the following way: (i) reduce the impact of climate shocks on smallholder farmers through the promotion of management practices that help compensate the effect of drought events through higher soil water availability (conservation agriculture and agroforestry; less water demanding crop varieties); (ii) diversify livelihoods (food security and income diversification) through sustainable intensification of agroforestry production through which farmers diversify their production from a set of crops (e.g. mix production of pigeon pea + sorghum + moringa, with additional vegetable production on home gardens) and reduce the risk of total loss of production due to a climatic event; (iii) increase the capacity of producer organizations to preserve and process their products reducing their perishability increasing their capacity to negotiate in the market over a longer period of time without depending on the seasonality of the raw product; (iv) increase the capacity to produce high quality products with greater potential to be marketed and increase revenue that allow smallholder farmers to cover needs in times of shocks. Target 1.B in MDG 1 (“Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”) highlights the central role of employment and decent work in achieving food security and poverty reduction, therefore allowing women and men in rural communities to have access to the knowledge and resources necessary to produce sustainably and thereby contributing to the (SDG) target 15.3 on LDN. The project formulation has followed the Guidance on How to Address Decent Rural Employment Concerns in FAO Country Activities to make sure that decent rural employment is promoted in the project outcomes and outputs: Table. The Four Pillars of Decent Rural Employment (DRE) in the GEF Child Project in Malawi Pillar 1: Employment creation and enterprise development · Component 1will address explicitly policies, regulations and bylaws supporting DRE in the implementation of FLR/SLM/ SFM and to meet the certification standards of the Malawi Bureau of Standards in the GVC development. · Outcome 2.3 will build the capacity of women and men small-holder producers in accessing markets and modern green value chains. · The FFS and FMLG under Outcome 2.2 will provide vocation and education training programs for rural women and men on technical and business skills. · The training-of-trainers (ToT) under FFS and FMLG will increase the professionalization of members of youth clubs and other groups of practitioners on FLR/SLM/SFM related-jobs. · Component 3 will develop national and sub-national capacities to collect and analyze age and sex disaggregated data on rural labour under LDN interventions. Pillar 2: Social protection · FFS and FMLG under Outcome 2.2 will train practitioners on occupational safety and health measures for the rural workforce applying SLM/SFM/GVC technologies. · Producer organizations, enterprises and buyer companies supported by business development, incubation and accelerator programs under Component 2 will enhance their social corporate responsibility. · Procurement investments in each district will have a funding window of social support for emergency or distress situations, targeting community needs beyond the SLM/SFM priorities. The provision of this support indirectly delivers SLM/SFM because it helps remove social barriers that may prevent community members to invest in SLM/SFM. The social support procurement window will have a total of USD 50,000 per ILMP (USD 150,000 for the whole project). Pillar 3: Standards and rights at work · Community bylaw formulation, fair access to training, extension and investments on SLM/SFM technologies and inputs will help reduce gender and age-based discrimination in the target landscapes. · The project will ensure compliance with the National Labour Legislation for the rural areas. the Project will use the SNAP[1] community-based approach to monitor child labour, through the District Child Labour & Community Child Labour Committees and active involvement of local leaders, and representatives from church, government, NGOs, employers’ and workers’ organizations. Pillar 4: Governance and social dialogue · Component 1 will ensure representation of the rural poor in policy dialogue through awareness raising, training and bylaw formulation on gender-inclusive land tenure and natural resource governance issues. · The project will ensure in Component 2 fair, and effective participation of the rural poor in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the Integrated landscape Management Plans, and Village-level Action Plans. · Component 2 will put especial focus on capacity enhancement activities for women and youth groups to empower them in SLM/SFM/GVC. · The Child Project in Malawi, with the support of the GCP SFM-DSL IP will create synergies and south-south collaboration among practitioners from the six Miombo & Mopane countries. [1] National Action Plan to combat child labor in Malawi.