Locust Emergency and Food Security Project

closed

The project development objective is to control the locust outbreak, restore livelihoods in locust-affected areas, and strengthen Pakistan’s national food security monitoring and management system. The total project cost is approximately US$ 200 million, of which US$125 million is financed from regional IDA. This would be the Bank’s first agriculture project in Pakistan to work directly with the federal level government agency (Ministry of National Food Security and Research) since 2010 when the 18th amendment to the constitution devolved agriculture and rural affairs to provinces. The Project has four components. Activities will be implemented at the federal and provincial levels, based on the nature of issues, as well as comparative advantages of corresponding administrative levels. The Project will be implemented for three (3) years. Component 1: Surveillance and Control Measures. The component objective is to limit the growth and spread of current desert locust populations, while mitigating the risks associated with control measures and their impacts on human health and the environment. Component 2: Livelihood Protection and Rehabilitation. Component 2 aims to provide a robust protection scheme that ensures immediate relief to affected farmers and livestock owners and reduce internal and cross-border migration of laborers and farmers in search of livelihoods and food security. Component 3: Early Warning Preparedness and Food Security. The component 3 objective is to i) strengthen national capacity for early warning and early response, linking these efforts to regional (international) and provincial (domestic) existing locust surveillance and control networks; and ii) strengthen the capacity of MNFSR by strengthening the Food Security and Nutrition Information System (FSNIS). Component 4: Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation. The component objective is to: i) support the Project Management Unit’s (PMU) capacity to ensure high quality project implementation; ii) monitor progress towards achievement of the PDO and provide timely feedback.