the project develops.
59%
⭑
Sudan. The South Darfur Rural Development project in the Sudan has been designed to bring to the southern part of the province the changes in land use and tenure, and agricultural and livestock practices, which are necessary to reverse the present trend of declining productivity of land and lay the foundation for improvement of the living standards
of the very poor, and growing rural population. The project will cost about £7.3 million. The ODM is financing the expatriate personnel for the project at a cost of £1.9 million. Amongst other things they will be
involved in developing experimental farms to carry out applied research
on production techniques and to provide extension services to farms in
the area. The Abu Dhabi Fund is meeting the offshore capital costs of
£2.1 million. The Sudanese Government will meet the remaining costs.
60. A parallel project in the eastern part of the province is being
planned by the World Bank with the involvement of the Saudi Fund. It will
be closely co-ordinated with the ODM financed project in a good example of donors pooling their resources.
61., Mali: Water Supply Project. We are providing £860,000 to improve
water supplies to the important market town of Sikasso in South East Mali
and to some of the surrounding villages. The project will increase the
supply of water to the reservoir from which Sikasso and the surrounding
area draws its water, and will provide them with a year round supply of
water. At the moment water supplies cease virtually completely during
prolonged spells of dry weather, seriously damaging economic activity
in the area and the health of its people.
Conclusion
62. The UK's focus on the basic needs strategy, especially rural
development, is an attempt to help developing country governments alleviate poverty in their countries by providing people with productive jobs, and with basic social services such as education and health care. It is not an easy task for aid donors any more than for the countries' own governments. It will take time for the effects of the strategy to have a real impact on projects and programmes in developing countries. We shall at the same time as increasing the emphasis on poverty-focused projects need to finance other sound projects to which developing countries give priority. But in the last two years we have made a good start in giving "More Aid to the Poorest", on which we now need to build.