Niger Compact
Learn More About MCC's Niger Compact
Kristin Penn, Resident Country Director for Niger, introduces MCC's Niger Compact, which is designed to strengthen the agriculture sector by improving access to water, infrastructure and markets, and has the potential to benefit more than 3.9 million people.
- Grant Total: $437,024,000
- Grant Committed: $0
- Grant Expended: $0
- Signed: July 29, 2016
Compact Budget (in US$ Mil)
MCC's $437 million Niger Sustainable Water and Agriculture Compact will support improvements to three major constraints to economic growth and investment in Niger: lack of reliable access to water for agricultural use and livestock; lack of access to markets; and a fragmented and inefficient business regulatory system. In partnership with the Government of Niger, the MCC compact will strengthen Niger’s agricultural sector by improving water availability, infrastructure, and market access, and has the potential to benefit more than 3.9 million people.
In Niger, the agricultural sector employs more than 80 percent of the population and represents the second-largest export sector in the country. However, due to frequent droughts and floods that decimate crops and productive assets, much of the Nigerien population struggle to maintain a subsistence existence, let alone increase their household incomes. Although poverty trends are slowly improving, with a climate prone to volatile weather conditions and a lack of access to critical inputs and information, agricultural productivity has stagnated. The new compact includes investments in a sustainable water supply, climate-resilient agricultural production, new infrastructure to improve market access, and management of natural resources, while seeking to empower entrepreneurs and small business groups.
The Government of Niger is strongly committed to carrying out the reforms necessary to improve water and agricultural systems policy.
Financials as of September 30, 2016
The Climate-Resilient Communities Project aims to increase incomes for small-scale agriculture-dependent and livestock-dependent families in eligible municipalities in rural Niger by improving crop and livestock productivity, sustaining natural resources critical to long-term productivity, and increasing market sales of targeted commodities. The project will be implemented in partnership with the World Bank through existing project implementation units (“PIUs”) located in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
Regions of intervention for this project are Tillaberi, Dosso, Tahoua and Maradi.
Through the compact’s Irrigation and the Market Access Project, MCC will partner with the Government of Niger to improve irrigation, including the rehabilitation and development of three large-scale irrigation systems, in order to increase crop yields, sustainable fishing and livestock productivity. The project will upgrade road networks to significantly improve access to markets and services, provide technical support for farmers, with a focus on women and youth, to improve performance of their businesses and establish market platforms to competitively position farmer groups in the marketplace.
In addition, the project will reform policies and institutions, including the establishment of a national water resource management plan and natural resource and land use management plans, and create local capacities to increase understanding of best-practices to sustainably use and maintain irrigation, road and market infrastructure.
The project will focus its interventions in the Dosso and Tahoua regions.