Land-Based Poverty Alleviation Project I

closed

The Land-Based Poverty Alleviation Project will address the underlying poverty in the Brazil's countryside, i.e., its inadequate access to land by the rural poor, to further support the government's program of community-based land reform. The components will: 1) include land purchases by community associations of poor farmers, funded by loans financed through Federal Government budgetary sources, representing the counterpart funding for the Bank financed project components; 2) include subprojects to be made available to participating communities, eligible for complementary investment financing, and technical assistance (TA), to establish the land settlement, and improve the productivity of the acquired land. Matching grants will be provided to rural community associations to finance small-scale subprojects, identified as priority investments for infrastructure, social, and productive aspects on a demand-driven basis, in accordance to technical, economic, environmental and sustainable standards; 3) finance TA, seminars and training for community associations, to strengthen the effectiveness, and quality of project operations, through capacity building programs for community mobilization, specialized skills, best practices, and public awareness; 4) support project coordination, supervision, and monitoring, and, provide the basis to judge ex-post project impacts, and determine ex ante, possible program extensions.