The Overall Objective is to contribute to the Malawi Government’s objective of poverty reduction in line with the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS);

The Financing Agreement was signed in May 2011. The project has two main components:

 i)     Small scale rural infrastructure development ;

 ii)    Capacity development for the irrigation sector;

 The second component will be the basis for future investments in the irrigation sector under the programme “Support to ASWAP and Green Belt Initiative Programme”. Both components’ programme estimates have been endorsed, with Component 1 started in August, 2011 and component 2 started in July, 2011.

 The overall Objective is to contribute to the Malawi Government’s objective of poverty reduction in line with the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS); The Specific Objective is to increase the area under sustainable irrigation. This will be achieved through development of irrigation infrastructure.

 This programme is in preparation phase. The Identification Fiche and Action Fiche have been developed and will be submitted to the EU Delegation in October, 2011. The project is expected to implement two subcomponents. Component 1 will support Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp) whilst Component 2 will support the Greenbelt Initiative (GBI).

 There will be two subcomponents under the support to Greenbelt Initiative namely, Development and Operationalization of National Irrigation Development Fund and Irrigation Scheme Development.

 The Project Purpose is to foster an enabling institutional environment for development and growth across agriculture and food industry, through the development of institutional capabilities of public and non-public actors with a coherent conceptual framework.

 The programme has two major components: institutional development and agribusiness development.

 This project is currently going through the closure phase.