IFAD VICE PRESIDENT VISITS UTaNRMP
IFAD’s Vice President Ms Cornelia Richters visited the Upper Tana Natural Resources Management project (UTaNRMP) on 23rd May 2018. During the official visit, the VP was able to meet representatives of both national and county governments, project implementing staff and community members who are beneficiaries of the project. The vice President expressed satisfaction with the impact UTaNRMP was having on the beneficiary communities and indicated that IFAD will continue working closely with the Government to initiate more development projects.
“We (IFAD) are satisfied with the (UTaNRMP’s) financial management and are exploring opportunities of partnership in the rural areas to change lives…” She said during a tour of some of the projects in Embu County during the visit.
During the courtesy calls to the Regional Coordinator’s office (Eastern) and the Embu County governor’s office, the IFAD Vice President’s key message was that Governments and development programs ought to seek for ways of capitalizing on their synergies to accelerate development. At the household level, the IFAD vice president noted that development can be spurred through a culture based on the complementarities of men, women and the youth.
The Embu County commissioner Ms. Esther Maina (representing the Regional Coordinator) noted with appreciation the commendable achievements made by the project within the period the project has been implementing. She committed to ensure timely implementation of project activities and prudent utilization of available resources with an aim of meeting the aspirations of the local communities.
On behalf of the governor and Embu county, the deputy governor Mr. David Kariuki noted that with devolution in Kenya, counties had become the centers of development. He reported that UTaNRMP in its entirety complimented the development spirit in at the grassroot level in a big way. The deputy governor acknowledged that the project was one of the big contributors to the county government’s agenda of ending hunger, achieving food security and ensuring access to safe clean water and sanitation. To this regard, the deputy governor, on behalf of the county government appealed for enhanced collaboration in the areas of water harvesting, irrigation development in ASAL areas, intensive agro forestry and forest rehabilitation on hills and mountain. The deputy governor pledged support to the project and committed to ensure that it succeeded in achieving its goals.
The projects visited by the IFAD vice president during the visit were school greening programme and biogas plant (biolatrine system) at St. Ursula Nguviu primary school, Mucii dairy farming self-help group in Manyatta and Kangai Skylimit Irrigation water project in Mbeere North. In the school greening program, pupils are trained to grow trees with the aim of nurturing young minds to be environmentally conscious. Each pupil has planted and adopted a tree in the school and is expected to replicate tree growing at home. The biolatrine plants assist the school in faecal waste management and conservation by recycling latrinefaecal waste to make biogas that is used as fuel to cook.
At Mucii dairy farming self-help group, UTaNRMP has empowered 17 women who have secured a dairy cow each through matching grants. Through the grant and technical support from UTaNRMP officers, the project has empowered the group as evidenced by one member visited by the Vice president who had constructed a permanent house from milk proceeds. At Kangai Skylimit irrigation water project, the beneficiary farmer visited had managed to construct a permanent house using proceeds from irrigation water farming. The irrigation water project is situated in a region marked as an arid and semi-arid land (ASAL).
