The World Bank Group today announces half a million dollars grant to the Government of Ethiopia for the implementation of Climate Action through Landscape Management (CALM) Program.
The project is expected to benefit rural households living on degraded land and estimated to support around 5,000 kebeles of Ethiopia’s highlands, according to World Bank Country Director Carolyn Turk.
CALM will also provide a mechanism to incentivize the roll-out of institutional reforms for participatory watershed management and land administration, it was learned.
“…Even if Ethiopia’s diverse production landscapes could provide a range of services to poor rural people, the landscapes are unable to reduce poverty or bring prosperity as required,” Ahmed Shide, Finance Minister of Ethiopia said at the signing ceremony.
The program is a five-years budget support program with a result-based approach and envisioned to increase adoption of sustainable land management practices and expand access to secure land tenure in non-rangeland rural areas of the country.
“The grant is very important to scale up the achievements done in prior programs, increase sustainable land management practices and expand access to secure land tenure and contribute to increase to productivity and resilience in the agriculture sector,” said Minister Ahmed.
Almost 50 percent of Ethiopia’s highlands are currently defined as degraded and declining in productivity. It is costing the country about 2 to 3 percent of its annual agricultural GDP, she added. Investing in land resources is vital to build resilient and equitable economic growth as well as to protect all of the works done so far, according to Turk.