• This is a FGN/NDDC/IFAD Assisted Project
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LIFE-ND National Project Coordinating Office

6 Woji Road, GRA Phase II, Port Harcourt Rivers State.

PROJECT RATIONALE

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PROJECT RATIONALE

...a project of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN)

A project for the Niger-Delta. The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) directly supports Nigeria’s agricultural policy and the Strategic Framework for Youth Employment and Job Creation. This Strategic Framework addresses the large and growing number of restless unemployed youth, especially in rural areas. Nigeria’s highest potential for decent job creation in agriculture is in the south, including the Niger Delta, where small agribusinesses have demonstrated remarkable success under the now concluded, IFAD-financed Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP).

  • • Under CBNRMP, youth are engaged in agriculture based on high market demand, untapped opportunities to produce and market profitable commodities, and high private sector interest in sectoral development. The LIFE-ND project will develop the supply of skilled youth labor using the incubator model piloted by CBNRMP where successful rural agribusinesses were facilitated to mentor neighboring youth to produce greater volumes, leading to higher value enterprises and community incomes, and jobs for the youth. The project will also address the pronounced gender gap in access by women to land, productive assets, technology, finance, and markets.
  • This design of LIFE-ND further builds on the successes of the IFAD-assisted Value Chain Development Project (VCDP) that continues to create sustainable stakeholders’ platforms which link rural smallholders to private off-takers as well as, the IFAD-assisted Rural Finance Institution Building Project (RUFIN) that developed rural finance institutions and promoted local level savings to raise investment funds.
  • The LIFE-ND Project Concept Note was approved alongside the 2016-2021 Results Based Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (RB-COSOP) by the IFAD Executive Board in December 2016. The goal of the RB-COSOP is “a rural economy in which the targeted population can derive prosperity and equal benefit from economic growth”. This goal is supported by two strategic objectives: (i) the sustainable, climate-resilient economic and financial inclusion of young people in profitable agribusiness; and (ii) strengthened institutions at the state and community levels to work with private actors in key value chains.
  • The RB-COSOP targets poor families, the majority of them are unemployed youth and women, living in rural and peri-urban areas. The RB- COSOP also recommended a more focused project intervention in a smaller number of states where commitment to IFAD projects is high. LIFE-ND targets the RB-COSOP’s first Strategic Objective of inclusion of young people in profitable agribusiness. The project is aligned to the national LIFE programme which is being designed to cover the entire nation. LIFE-ND will leverage partnerships with other ongoing interventions for agribusiness development for youth supported by agencies, including African Development Bank (AfDB) investments (particularly the proposed ENABLE Youth Programme), Department for International Development (DFID) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) youth in agriculture project. The LIFE-ND serves as a flexible framework for the implementation of the national LIFE Programme in the remaining 30 States of Nigeria following the request of the FMARD.