Rural Poverty Reduction Project - Minas Gerais

closed

The objective of the Rural Poverty Reduction Project is to assist the State of Minas Gerais to reduce high levels of rural poverty by: (a) improving well being and incomes of the rural poor; (b) increasing the social capital of rural communities to organize collectively to meet own needs; (c) enhancing local governance by greater citizen participation and transparency in decision-making; and (d) fostering closer integration of development policies, programs and projects at the local level. It consists of three components. Component 1 (Community Subprojects) provides matching grants to rural community associations to finance approximately 1,860 socio-economic infrastructure and productive subprojects (up to US$50,000 each) identified by these groups as priority investments that will improve community well-being and benefit around 93,000 families. Component 2 (Institutional Development) will finance technical assistance and training to increase capacity of implementing entities including municipal councils, community associations and the state technical unit. Component 3 (Administration, Supervision, Monitoring and Evaluation) will finance incremental costs (excluding salaries) of project administration and coordination, including supervision, monitoring and impact evaluation.