WASHINGTON, 17 June, 2022—The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved $92 million in additional financing for the Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project 2, known by its French acronym PRAPS-2 (Projet régional d’appui au pastoralisme au Sahel-Phase 2). It will be used to scale up emergency investments in food security and resilience interventions in response to food security crises facing pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in several regions of Mauritania and Niger.
For Mauritania, the additional financing consists of a $42 million equivalent credit from the International Development Association (IDA*), and for Niger, it is a $25 million equivalent credit and a $25 million equivalent grant from the Crisis Response Window Early Response Financing (CRW-ERF).
“Mauritania is facing its most severe food security crisis of the last decade and several areas of Niger are also in peril,” said Boutheina Guermazi, World Bank Director for Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Northern Africa. “The rapid onset of this crisis and the unprecedented surge in acute needs in these regions demand increased scale, targeting, and content in funding and activities.”
In Mauritania, the additional financing will focus on filling resource gaps in the emergency response, scaling-up investments to boost resilience of agro-pastoralists in areas most affected by the crisis, and maintaining vulnerable households’ access to wheat, a staple food experiencing price inflation. In Niger, the focus is on short-term livelihood protection and resilience building in the most impacted areas. In both countries, activities will address underlying drivers of vulnerability and food insecurity, especially those linked to climate change and variability. This includes boosting PRAPS-2 interventions to ease livestock mobility, improve land and water resource management, and expand vocational training and other income generating activities, as well as inclusion in social and civil registries.
Deployed in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, PRAPS-2 aims to protect pastoral systems by improving resource management and animal health, facilitating access to markets, diversifying sources of income for pastoral households and managing conflicts. The additional financing will complement the project and other interventions that meet immediate needs and contribute to recovery efforts of crisis-affected food insecure pastoral and agro-pastoral populations.
PRAPS-2 is part of the World Bank’s overall support to Africa’s Great Green Wall Initiative which seeks to strengthen the resilience of the Sahel region (and beyond) through improved management of natural resources, land, water and climate risks.
* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 77 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.5 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $18 billion over the last three years, with about 54 percent going to Africa.
