Within the AGREE project - Sustainable agriculture as a vehicle to promote food security, women's empowerment and socio-economic development, funded by AICSe with Vides Italia as the lead partner, COPE is included as a project partner together with COPE's local counterparts Mazzarello Women Promotion Centre (MWC) and Salesian Sisters of S. John Bosco in the intervention area of Juba County, Gumbo area (the villages involved are Nesitu, Mori, Mogiri, Bilinyang, Mafau, Jebel Lemon, Kodoro, Adodi, Shirkat and Gumbo).
The activities managed by COPE aim at concrete results that over the 3 years of the project can improve the situation of women in the county engaged in subsistence farming activities and the local agricultural system.
Among the most anticipated results is the increase in women's income generation capacity through investments in technical and professional training in the practice of sustainable agriculture integrated with a microfinance training module, preparatory to the establishment of a Village Community Bank (VICOBA) network exclusively for them.
Already widespread in many African regions to finance small income-generating activities, VICOBA is based on the model of community co-responsibility in the participation and management of the revolving fund that is effective among female farmers because they have a propensity for mutual collaboration and a inclination for solidarity and mutual aid, fundamental traits of microcredit.
575 female farmers organized in 23 groups will be involved in a more general training level; subsequently, 46 female farmers (managers), two for each group, will be chosen and trained to become the VICOBA executives in the economic-financial management aspects of group activities. The training will be provided by a COPE expatriate trainer for basic mathematics and VICOBA operation.
Another important result concerns the diversified and ecologically sustainable food production at local level, through the creation of a water collection system for agricultural use and drip irrigation. The creation of tanks for the water collected will allow its accumulation in particular for supplementary irrigation which will have the advantage of substantially reducing the risk of reduced or destroyed crops due to drought, given that the fields of most communities depend on rain which is seasonal. Improving irrigation can be a simple way to significantly improve the nutrition and income of families.
More precisely, 21 drip irrigation systems will be built in the villages.
The design and construction of the collection and irrigation systems will be coordinated and supervised by an engineer expert in water infrastructure, COPE expatriate in three years of the project.
The project aims to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal number 2 “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” and, in this context, focuses on targets 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4.
