AYV News, April 23, 2025
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has concluded an intensive climate-resilient rural agricultural training for its funded projects in Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone.
Hosted in Kenema, Eastern Sierra Leone, the four-day regional summit was organized to support the various funded projects in the three West Africa nations on how to improve the Social, Environmental and Climate Assessment Procedures (SECAP).
The SECAP outline IFAD’s approach to integrating social, environmental and climate considerations into its projects and programmes. The rationale is to ensure that IFAD projects adhere to the nine key frameworks covering areas like biodiversity, resource efficiency, cultural heritage and climate change.
The SECAP also includes mechanisms for resolving complaints or conflicts and incidents ensuring accountability and transparency in project implementation especially at the community level.
As the world grapples with food insecurity and climate change issues, IFAD is ensuring that the fight against hunger does not come at the cost of environmental and cultural sustainability but the need to put in place practical measures to protect and, or restore the socio-cultural and economic sanctity of communities where IFAD projects are implemented.
The training was also attended by representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Ministry of Environment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as other key stakeholders to build their capacity, particularly on environmental sustainability and social safeguard issues.
Following the training, the IFAD Project Management Units (PMUs) across the three countries will ensure that the SECAP protocols and actions are incorporated into their field implementation activities for the overall good of their beneficiaries at the various project levels.
As part of obtaining hands-on experience, field visitations were made to the host project communities at both the Agriculture Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) and Rural Finance and Community Improvement Programme (RFCIP) locations.
