Assistance for "The African Millennium Villages Initiative" Project

February 16, 2006

On the 16th of February (Thursday), the Government of Japan and the United Nations (UN) decided to extend assistance totalling 9,179,164.86 US dollars (approximately 1,018.89 million yen), through the Trust Fund for Human Security to the first phase of "The African Millennium Villages Initiative" that will be implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the duration of two years.
This project focuses on promoting human security in nine rural villages in eight African countries: Republic of Ghana, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Mali, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Senegal, United Republic of Tanzania and Republic of Uganda. Through this project, the villages will be encouraged to adopt an integrated approach to development based on community participation and leadership, with the aim of lifting them out of chronic poverty. Following are the main objectives of the project:
- Eliminate hunger and malnutrition in the villages by increasing production, access and utilization of nutritious foods, with a special focus on improving nutritional status of pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants under two;
- Improve livelihoods of women and men and increase their incomes for both on- and off- farm activities beyond extreme poverty;
- Ensure full attendance to primary schools for both boys and girls and eliminate gender disparity in schools;
- Improve access to medical services, especially focused on improving women's health and drastically reducing child and maternal mortality;
- Decrease rate of infection of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other major diseases, and increase access to essential medicines such as antiretroviral medication;
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into village programs to reverse the loss of environmental resources and enhance ecosystem services;
- Increase access to energy, clean air, water and sanitation for households, schools and medical services;
- Eliminate the digital divide by making available the benefits of communication technologies, especially access to the internet and mobile telephones services;
This project is expected to improve the livelihoods of people in the abovementioned villages and provide model cases for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa.

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The Trust Fund for Human Security was established in the United Nations Secretariat in March 1999 at the initiative of the Government of Japan. Since then, total contributions have reached approximately 29 billion yen (US$ 256 million). The Trust Fund has supported projects from more than 140 UN agencies, each one addressing various threats to human life, livelihood and dignity, from the perspective of human security.

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