Good news for small-scale farmers in the Poro region of Ivory Coast. They will soon benefit from a $10 million project supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) to help them adapt to climate change. The WFP has just received a commitment of 9 million dollars from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The funding was approved at the 36th meeting of its Executive Board, held in Songdo, South Korea.
“Climate shocks are a real threat to food security and the livelihoods of communities in the north of Ivory Coast”, explains the WFP representative in the country. According to Olivia Hantz, the GCF funding “will enable the WFP to implement innovative interventions to strengthen the adaptive capacity and improve the resilience of women-led smallholder farming communities to the challenges posed by climate change”.
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Within this framework, the WFP plans to support smallholder farming households by promoting access to markets to sell their produce. The WFP project also aims to facilitate access to credit. According to the UN agency, the project will provide gender-sensitive climate adaptation practices and enable women and young people to access means of production, such as improved agricultural inputs and equipment.
At the same time, women will benefit from the use of climate information and index-based insurance, enabling them to make informed decisions about their farming activities. The WFP estimates that its project will benefit 70,000 vulnerable women and young people, who are on the front line of the impact of the climate crisis in the Poro region. This region in the north of Ivory Coast is facing climate change, which in recent years has led to droughts, heat waves and heavy rainfall, causing flooding.
Jean Marie Takouleu