Guinea Bissau - Post-emergency support and resilience building project

Started in 2020, with funding from the Word Food Program, the project is taking place in the Gabu region, in Guinea-Bissau, involving 447 people distributed in 8 villages. The general objective is to increase the resilience of communities affected by floods in the Gabu region, seeking to increase agricultural productivity in 8 villages and improve diet and gender equality. The expected results of this intervention concern the increase in resilience of the villages involved, a general increase in agricultural production and the dissemination of information on the importance of a diversified diet. The project activities will involve the beneficiaries through training courses on the use of agricultural techniques, in order to increase the productivity and production of rice, a basic food in the local population's diet, but also peanuts and cassava.

Furthermore, they will learn the fundamental techniques to start the production of horticultural seeds, covering fundamental topics such as the use of natural pesticides, which is extremely important given the large use of toxic chemical pesticides that are normally used. Accounting training is also planned to record the income and expenses resulting from their agri-horticultural activity, so as to be able to start a small business selling cultivated products. The next step concerns training in food processing and conservation techniques, which is particularly important as it allows, on the one hand, to avoid food waste due to the impossibility of preserving food products, and on the other hand it will allow the creation of an income-generating activity through the sale of processed products. Tubers, legumes and vegetables will be processed. Also the exchange of experiences with similar realities, in order to stimulate a debate, exchange opinions and stories and share the know-how acquired in the field of agri-horticultural production. Also planned is the broadcasting of radio programs through community radios on the importance of the role of women in the communityto spread announcements relating to the importance of gender empowerment and gender equality, stimulating debate among the various members of the beneficiary communities and the implementation of awareness campaigns in the villages on the importance of consuming local productsin addition to participation in national eventsli.