Project to help strengthen social cohesion in strategic cross-border areas

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In all the cross-border areas targeted by the project, social cohesion has been weakened by the lack of opportunities for young people and by the degradation of relationships between crop and livestock farmers. By offering training that is tailored to local needs, the Project will improve prospects for young people. By providing training tools and tools for sharing information on local issues (positive economic benefits of the livestock-meat sector, understanding how mobility works, tools for monitoring the integration of young people), the Project will help improve people’s understanding of and control over local issues and solidify a community of interests that goes beyond smaller identity groups or age groups. Lastly, the Project will help strengthen social cohesion and promote economic development in these strategic cross-border areas by making sure that often-excluded social groups (livestock farmers, young people) are included in decision-making forums, and ensuring an institutional base at the level of local authorities and joint local authority groups. The Project will therefore fall under the notion of local development as defined in AFL’s strategic framework (2020–2025): “A project for local economic development aims to create economic, social, and environmental added value locally by combining one or more production systems, governance mechanisms, and innovation dynamics.”

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Objectives

Overall objective: To strengthen social cohesion in strategic cross-border areas. 

Specific objective: To promote inclusive socio-economic development in each of those areas.

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Target groups & Direct beneficiaries 

The direct beneficiaries of the project will be at least 10,000 people (at least 30% women) from (i) social groups that are marginalized and excluded from discussion and decision-making forums, namely poor agropastoral households and transhumant livestock farmers, young people not enrolled in school and women, (ii) local authorities through training activities. Indirect beneficiaries: The indirect beneficiaries will be at least 100,000 people from the geographic areas covered by the project through social/community reinvestment (made possible by higher tax revenues) in agropastoral market infrastructure and the creation of jobs for young people. 

 

Results

The project is projected to produce the following three (3) results.

 

• Result 1. Facilitate local development by expanding and diversifying the offer of training programmes. 

• Result 2. Strengthen informed local governance by offering tools to help with decision-making. 

• Result 3: Strengthen multi-actor governance at local level.

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Budget, Partners & Duration

Budget: Tranch 1 - Euros 71,070 and Tranch 2 - Euros 85,087 - Funded by AfD

Main project partners: Acting for Life (AFL), RECOPA (Communication Network for Pastoralism), ANOPER (National Association of Professional Ruminant-Farmer Organisations), ACAD (Association of the Atacora and Donga Regions), GEVAPAF (Association for Environmental Management and the Promotion of Agropastoral and Forest Products), EPCI-PENDJARI, CIDeLS (Inter-municipal Agreement for Local Development in the Savanes Region), GDCA (Ghana Developing Communities Association). 

Project duration: 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2025 

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