Assistance for supporting "Extension of the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)" project in Ethiopia

September 15, 2004

On September 15 (Wednesday), the Government of Japan and the United Nations (UN) decided to extend assistance of a total of 1,281,412 US dollars (approximately 139 million yen) through the Trust Fund for Human Security for the program "Extension of the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)" to be implemented in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

This project aims at assisting vulnerable households in seven areas in Ethiopia, where food supply is unstable and drought is frequent. This project targets a total of over 6000 households, in order to introduce measures to overcome the problems of chronic shortages in food production and household income. The activities included in this project are as follows:

(1)	Strengthening the project implementation structure and to raise the ability of local staff and actors;
(2)	Assisting community development through promoting farmer participation and training their technical, financial and administrative management;
(3)	Conducting farmers and water user training on irrigation rehabilitation, improved irrigated crop husbandry and on-farm water management;
(4)	Assisting poor farmers in creating their food production and farm income generation through encouraging the adoption of new crops, technologies and practices;
(5)	Supporting existing viable micro-finance institutions with limited additional funding and improved facilities and systems for deposit and loan management.

In the G8 Sea Island Summit, G8 countries including Japan have declared to assist Ethiopia and other countries in the Horn of Africa to end the cycle of famine, raise agricultural productivity and promote rural development. This project is expected to enhance the capacity of communities in Ethiopia as well as overcoming chronic food shortage and low family income of poor rural families through stabilizing food productivity.

(Note)
Japan established the Trust Fund for Human Security in the United Nations Secretariat in March 1999, with total contributions of 25.9 billion yen (approximately US$ 227 million) up to the present. The Trust Fund has assisted numerous projects of UN agencies that address various threats against human life, livelihood and dignity, from the perspective of Human Security.

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