The Together in Cabo Delgado Recovery (RCD) project, implemented in the districts of Pemba and Metuge, by ADPP in partnership with Associação h2n, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting the socio-economic recovery of a target group of 3200 producers, between conflict displaced and host communities, organized in 64 clubs with 50 members each.
The main focus of the project is to support resilience building among people displaced by conflict and natural disasters, some of whom continue to live in refugee camps and others in assigned land, and host communities, with an emphasis on food security, and to increase the capacity of 2,000 young people to find local talent with the skills to access internships and employment in the private sector.
With a duration of four years, the program expects to support, at the end of all actions, the socio-economic development of a total of 21,000 beneficiaries.
From the beginning to date, several basic activities have been developed, starting with the presentation of the project to the provincial and district government structures, to the communities and centers of displaced people, namely Naminawe, Ngunga, Ntokota, Tratara, and Ngalane.
In the field, some field work is already taking place, where a group of eight Production Instructors, duly trained, are mobilizing families to carry out the process of registration of members of producer clubs, having already been registered 80% of the total of two thousand producers planned for the first year of implementation of activities. In parallel, the identification of Demonstration Fields (CDRs) and People Fields for the establishment of 2 cycle/horticultural crops is in action.
In essence the project has two components, the first is aimed at increasing agricultural capacities through the establishment of 64 producer clubs where it is expected that they will strengthen their food security, and the second is aimed at increasing the vocational and entrepreneurial skills of the youth through short courses and distribution of the respective kits after the training.
Abdulahi Chabane, Production Instructor Leader, indicates as the main reasons for the establishment of the project in Cabo Delgado, the living conditions that displaced families are exposed to in the centers where they are resettled, and the need to empower them economically for their own survival in order to make them self-sufficient and not become dependent on humanitarian support that has not been sustainable. "we intend with our intervention to increase the capacity of youth and women in income generation through educational programs and in the promotion of increased agricultural production and productivity" - he added.
"The RCD project comes to give hope back to the displaced populations who have lost everything because of the armed conflicts including their farms that have always been the main source of their livelihood and, also through the youth component, we hope to empower this layer in order to have a source of income generation. To this end we intend with our intervention to increase the capacity of youth and women to generate income through educational programs and in promoting increased agricultural production and productivity" - said Esmeralda Cassamobai, Project Leader.
Beneficiary Tomás Rumepa, 49 years old, displaced from Muidumbe district, serves as President of the Farmers Club, who like his peers in the club, is pleased with this initiative because he finds an opportunity to practice agriculture again.
"The opportunity that the project gives us to return to the practice of agriculture will allow us not to depend only on donations at the resettlement center, we will start producing for our own food and each time we will improve our lives. As president of the club I hope to make my contribution to engage everyone in the activities of the demonstration field on the basis of the established scale" - said the president of the club.
In turn, the beneficiary Cecilia Kudela, also displaced from Muidumbe district and current member of a producers club, says that her ambition is to increase her productivity and put the products on the market.
" My goal in the clubs is to work hard and with the inputs that the project will provide and the business training leverage my production and establish a link with the market" - she said.