Second Rural Employment Project

closed

The Project seeks to generate and stimulate rural employment in poor rural mountainous areas of northwest and north-central Algeria. In the first instance, the Project aims to respond in the short-term to the critical problem of unemployment in the target rural areas through direct employment creation, using labor-intensive civil works for natural resource management emphasizing soil erosion control. The longer-term perspective emphasizes the instrument of asset creation for stimulating employment, mainly through natural resource management, protection of the environment, water resource mobilization, and income-generating rural development activities aiming at the substitution of perennial tree crops in place of annual cereal production, with the purpose of increasing labor productivity in a sustainable manner. There are five project components. The specific activities of Component 1, soil erosion control, comprise the following: reforestation targeting degraded mountainous areas, river bank protection entailing the biological stabilization of river banks; terracing and biological control entailing the building or the rehabilitation of terraces on steep slopes susceptible to serious erosion, plant material production, flood control structures, forest rehabilitation, and silvicultural activities, which aim at cleaning up degraded forest areas with plants that are old, dead or suffering from pests. Component 2 aims to diversify the production base by expanding the limited tree fruit production in the project area. Specific activities call for fruit tree plantations, windbreaks, vineyards, land clearing, upgrading and rehabilitating rural roads, commercial production of small livestock, and artisanal activities targeting rural women. Component 3 focuses on resource mobilization. Component 4 covers support for the Central project management unit (CCGW) and the Wilaya level PMU (CCGW), including training. Lastly, Component 5 finances institutional development for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR).