World Bank/FPMU Conducts a Technical Support Mission in Bauchi, Plateau And Gombe States

A joint enhanced Technical Support mission for the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project involving the World Bank (WB) and Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) team was carried out in the states of Bauchi, Plateau and Gombe.

The main Objective of the mission was to assess implementation progress following the technical support mission of July-August 2023, deepen community engagement with host communities and provide Landscapes Restoration support to ensure effective project implementation in the states. The specific objectives are:

• To identify quick-win projects that can deliver tangible benefits to communities promptly
• provide guidance on the development of long-term engineering strategy to address larger-scale projects,
• work with the SPMUs on landscape restoration activities and help to identify quick wins based on the PAD, PIM and RF.

As a community driven project, the need to ensure grassroot reduction to vulnerabilities to the effects of drought, desertification and land degradation has become very crucial and can be achieved through participation and strengthening the resilience of communities and community driven development approach.

The focus was on identifying the challenges and getting an understanding from the community of the impact of climate change and involving them in decisions on solutions to the perceived challenges thereby ensuring sustainability in proposed interventions as their participation and involvement are key.

In Bauchi states the team paid a courtesy visit to Bauchi State Governor and were received by the Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Mohammed Lawal Jatau. The deputy governor was briefed about the objective of the mission

 Rt. Hon. Mohammed Lawal Jatau expressed his delight for the visit and remained optimistic that the team’s visit will enhance acceptance and fast track implementation of the project in the state.

He added that most of the environmental challenges faced by communities were as a result of man-made activities which in turn affect them, saying such acts are unfortunate and the team’s visit will harness the mitigative measures.

Courtesy visit to Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Mohammed Lawal Jatau for buy-in and support.

The team visited the upper, middle and lower catchment as delineated by the GIS team. The team stopped over at YAKUBU SULE ADAMU COMMUNITY, where there was visible impact of erosion and degradation of some parts of the road.  During discussion with the community, the mission team was informed that the majority of the women have lost their sources of income, because of the excessive flooding that occurred a few weeks/ months ago, leading to the loss of their businesses and farm lands, erosion and land degradation has created serious challenges for them. The team took note of their request for support.

Team engaged with the Riparian Communities of Ariya and Cibiyayi along the Hadejia-Jama’are and Yobe-Komadugu River Basin of Gamawa and Zaki local government areas of Bauchi State.

The engagement targeted at enlightening the communities along the river corridor on the concept of Community Driven Development (CDD) to ensure buy-in of the project and ownership for sustainability purposes.

Community engagement in Bauchi State

Basically, Community engagements were also conducted during the mission in most of the project sites where the visiting team and the SPMU officers interacted with community members about their experiences and challenges around Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, possible solutions to the identified challenges as well as livelihood activities among others.

Also in Bauchi, the team was at Biological Garden, College of Education, Bauchi and green campus project, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi. the team made some observation and contributions on best practices for managing plantations

Inspection exercise by the mission team at the Shelterbelt plantation site, Bauchi State University Gadau, Yuli Campus.

In Plateau state the team visited communities in the upper, middle and lower catchment.  There was community engagement with the stakeholders to discuss their concerns and challenges and explored options on the best way to support them. The Team visited and interacted with 3 community interest groups and JOS WILDLIFE PARK, in Plateau state.

Community engagement at Gura-Topp in Jos South LGA, Plateau State

While in Gombe state, the team visited rice gleaning farm in Gindin Duste, Galawo LGA and interacted with the members of the Community Interest Group.   It was discovered that they had formed cooperatives to support one another as most of the ladies are widowed, some of the children orphaned, and community interest groups have been created for women and the men. From the interactions with leaders of the women and men groups in this community, the mission noted some of their challenges importantly is poor market penetration or indirect link to market for their finished products.

Community engagement in Gombe State