10m-euro grant agreement signed to support ecologically responsible, economically accessible agric solutions in Jordan

Published 23 Nov,2020 via The Jordan Times AMMAN — The French Development Agency (AFD) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) signed a 10-million-euro grant agreement in Amman in the presence of French Ambassador to Jordan Véronique Vouland-Aneini with the objective to support the development of ecologically responsible and economically accessible agricultural solutions and techniques in the highlands of Jordan in Mafraq Governorate and in the north of the Jordan Valley.

This project, to which the consortium led by IUCN will finance an additional 618,000 euros, responds to the double challenge of the economic inclusion of vulnerable population, when 16 per cent of Jordanians and 78 per cent of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line and the severe lack of water resources in a country where agriculture contributes 4 per cent of GDP, 15 per cent of employment and 75 per cent of national water consumption, according to a French embassy statement.

The project plans to improve the functioning of existing farms through the use of modern techniques in order to make them more productive and water-use efficient, to improve the working conditions of farmers and workers — decent work, income diversification — to contribute to the socio-economic empowerment of Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians in the agricultural sector, and thus strengthen community resilience by stimulating local economic growth, the statement said.