IFAD COVID-19 response: re-purposing existing funds in Sub-Saharan Africa

IFAD is repurposing funds within the budgets of ongoing projects to finance global COVID-19 response activities. So far US$189.3m in repurposing has either been planned or is in the pipeline, spanning 88 projects and 58 countries. Of this, US$106.5 million across 41 projects in 30 countries has been approved, while a further US$82.8 million across 50 projects in 40 countries is currently in the pipeline.The types of activities being financed through repurposing mainly consist of supporting access to inputs, markets, financial and digital services as well as cash transfers.Following examples focus on Sub-Saharan Africa:

• Nigeria. $3.8m from the Value Chain Development Programme to support emergency production and market access. This will include engaging supply chain managers to manage input distribution to affected farmers, establishing aggregation centers, and constructing water schemes for sanitary cassava and rice processing.
• Ethiopia. $15m from the Rural Financial Intermediation Programme (Phase III) to ensure that the financial institutions supported by the project can properly support the liquidity of their clients during the COVID-19 outbreak. The funds will be used to allow the financial institutions to provide more loans and to defer the loan repayments of their clients.
• Eritrea. $160,000 repurposed from the Fisheries Resources Management Programme to be used to provide cash transfers to vulnerable artisanal fishers whose cash flow has been reduced due to COVID-19.
• Malawi. $2.5m from the Facility to Assist Rural Markets, Smallholder and Enterprise Programme and the Programme for Rural Irrigation Development to provide cash transfers to the ultra poor, as well as to deliver financial literacy messages combined with COVID-19 prevention advice, and provide storage facilities and up-scaling support to connect farmers with food processing facilities.