General

Commercial interest and investments in Africa's agricultural lands have intensified in quantity, speed, and size over the past five years, particularly in the wake of the 2008 food crisis. This project will address concerns over the phenomenon. It aims to enhance leadership skills that will help build more equitable policies and practices for communities around large-scale land investments in Africa. Large-scale land acquisitions Foreign and domestic investors, both public and private, are acquiring control of vast stretches of fertile land for agricultural production in developing countries. While agricultural investments can contribute to economic development and reduce poverty, many investments have failed to live up to expectations and are not generating sustainable benefits. In many instances, these land deals are leaving local people worse off than they would have been without the investment. Pressures on agricultural land are expected to continue to meet the needs of growing populations. There is also the issue of diminishing supplies of fertile land caused by pressures on water sources, encroaching urbanization, and changing weather patterns related to climate change. Investments to date have served to highlight existing weaknesses in the management and governance of agricultural lands and on local communities' ability to secure land rights. More accountable, equitable investments This project will advance IDRC's work on this issue in sub-Saharan Africa to make land investment processes more accountable and equitable, and to prevent displacement and conflict. It will build on five action research projects covering 10 countries. Project teams will work with communities to increase their power to negotiate equitable terms and protect their rights and interests. It will fund the following activities: -Land Research Summit in Dakar, Senegal, to share initial research results and lessons learned, as well as foster policy discussions -Blogs and op-eds to raise awareness about research findings -Conference participation to share the research and findings

Objectives

To promote deforestation-free cocoa value chains and restore degraded cocoa-forest landscapes in Côte d’Ivoire.

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

The baseline economic and socio-economic situation in these landscapes and regions is described in Annex K. Within these landscapes, the project will benefit members of the rural populations who are engaged in cocoa production and/or marketing, and / or who own, or farm on, degraded lands where cocoa has previously been grown. The number of direct project beneficiaries, as a co-benefit of the GEF investment and disaggregated by gender, is estimated at 114,565 men and 93,735 wom[S(1][VT(2]en, which is equivalent to approximately 50% of the above total. Categories of direct beneficiaries and types of corresponding benefits have been identified as follows:· Farming households receiving agro-forestry/forestry inputs: The project will support the restoration of 25,000 ha of land. Assuming an average land-holding of 5ha / farmer, approximately 5,000 farming households are expected to benefit directly from provision of inputs including seedlings, equipment and fertilizers, as well as training in tree planting and other aspects of sustainable land management. The average of farming households size being eight persons, SCOLUR will then directly impact on the livelihood of 40,000 beneficiaries.· Land users benefitting from Integrated Landscape Management Plans: Beyond those farmers identified above, other farmers and land users within the three target landscapes will benefit from implementation of land use management plans (on 514,899 ha) being developed under Component 1. Benefits are expected to include: reduced deforestation and degradation linked to sustainable intensification of cocoa lands; strengthened agro-forestry-based land restoration processes, including development of ancillary supply chain links; increased availability of financial intermediation. In addition to these benefits, farmers and farm laborers will benefit from the project’s support for decent rural employment, which will be integrated directly across all project components (see Table 7 below). These beneficiaries are estimated to number 163,300. · Supply chain participants: A range of economic actors associated with the cocoa supply chain and the emerging agro-forestry supply chain, will see increase business opportunities as a result of the project. Moves towards landscape-level certification will further diffuse benefits. Estimated beneficiaries in this category total 5000. Within each of the above categories of beneficiaries, the project will aim to maximize its impact on vulnerable groups, including women and youth. Specific actions meant to ensure the achievement of this objective under each project component for women are listed in Annex J, while the project’s approach towards issues of child and youth labor is outlined in the risk section above and in the dedicated Child Labour Risk mitigation plan attached in Section 5 (Risks) of this prodoc and in the roadmap section of the GEF portal. Table 7: Project’s support for decent rural employment[1] DRE pillar DRE checklist item Components contributing C - 1 C - 2 C-3 C - 4 Pillar 1: Employment creation and enterprise development DRE addressed explicitly in agriculture and rural development policies, strategies and programmes Women and men small-scale producers supported in accessing markets and modern value chains Agribusiness and marketing micro, small and medium enterprises supported in accessing markets, training, financial services and other productive assets (e.g. land) Vocational and educational training programmes on technical and business skills for rural people supported Pillar 2: Social protection Mechanisms to extend social protection to small producers and informal workers supported, involving producer organizations and communities/ households Working conditions improved in rural areas, including effective maternity protection and living wages in agriculture Pillar 3: Standards and rights at work Socially responsible agricultural production supported, specifically to reduce gender and age-based discrimination Compliance with national labour legislation promoted in the rural areas Pillar 4: Governance and social dialogue Countries supported in strengthening democratic organizations and networks of producers and workers, particularly in the informal rural food economy Representation of the rural poor in social dialogue and policy dialogue through their organizations supported Participation of rural poor in local decision-making and governance mechanisms supported Rural women and youth groups empowered to be involved in these processes from the initial steps Synergies built between organizations, programmes, countries and producer-to-producer learning opportunities created [1] See FAO guidelines for addressing decent rural employment

General

Asociacin No Gubernamental Rural Amaznica Andina Choba Choba (Choba-Choba), $200,000 over three years; counterpart committed, $129,930 Choba-Choba will help communities living in the buffer zone of the Cordillera Azul national park to recover and reestablish traditional land management and agricultural production practices, promote agricultural biodiversity, and carry out natural resource conservation and sustainable economic development activities. The project will benefit 3,680 community