Justification for IFAD intervention

Since 1982, IFAD has financed 17 operations totalling USD 829,7 million, including USD 364,8 million from IFAD, benefiting almost 700,000 rural households, equivalent to about 7,000,000 people. COSOP states that IFAD's comparative advantage lies in its recognized experience in promoting family farming with particular attention to women, youth entrepreneurship and rural finance. After the regional SD3C programme, FIER II is the second investment project to be financed under COSOP 2020-2024, and will contribute to its two strategic objectives: increasing the productivity and production of farms and rural microenterprises, and their sustainable increase in incomes through market access.

Overall, IFAD has a long and successful experience in Mali, both in identifying and training young entrepreneurs, facilitating access to financial services and connecting them to markets. FIRE II contribute to the achievement of the following sustainable development goals: poverty eradication (1); fight against hunger (2); access to quality education (4); gender equality (5); access to decent jobs (8); reducing inequalities (10); fight against climate change (13).

According to IFAD's policy to help transform the Sahel region24, job creation for rural youth is a priority. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the Government and its development partners, the country remains under-invested in job creation. In Mali, an additional 300,000 young people enter the labour market each year, mainly in rural areas, which are hampered by limited access to training, capital and inputs. Moreover, the terrorist groups present in the territory were a bait for those young people who were unemployed. IFAD through FIER has shown that it can help meet this challenge. Some 13,263 rural youth received technical training, of which 12,505 were funded for income-generating activities and 758 for rural micro-enterprises. The project covered approximately 1,504 villages, accompanied by 9 decentralized financing structures (SFDs) whose capacity of credit agents (73 in total) for services to rural youth was strengthened.

FIRE II is therefore designed to consolidate and amplify the results of FIER, supporting the economic inclusion of rural young people in various value chains with high potential, by supporting their economic activities ASPH along the sectors (agricultural or non-agricultural), while improving the efficiency and efficiency of the processes. The entrepreneurial potential of young women in particular, largely untapped in the agricultural and craft sectors, will be exploited, as will the strong commitment of TCs to improving the situation of young people in their territories.

Based on lessons learned from FIER, FIER II promote a market-oriented approach to vocational training and job creation, by improving the institutional capacities of stakeholders at various levels of agricultural and non-agricultural value chains. This approach will also promote vocational and technical training for farmers, processors, traders and other stakeholders, both upstream and downstream of production. The development of micro- and co-operative enterprises will be strengthened by the rigorous selection of high-potential value chains (in particular those in which women play an important role and earn substantial income), taking into account market opportunities geographically located around production pools and clusters of rural micro-enterprises. This will provide technical and financial support to a larger number of young people in the project.