“This is the first time my neighbor and me work side by side on the field. She will help me to bring food to my home, and I will help to bring food to her home. All of us will eat enough.”

The majority of the rural population in the Ivory Coast face major challenges in meeting their day to day needs. The Danish Refugee Council assists thousands of vulnerable households and farmer’s groups to re-establish their livelihood.

After years of crisis and conflict, the Ouagadougou peace agreement of 2007 has put into place a framework for stabilization and recovery. Although commerce and development is thriving in the Ivory Coast’s cities, the majority of the country’s rural populations continue to face major challenges in meeting their day to day subsistence needs in an environment marked by growing insecurity and violence.

The findings of a recent FAO report covering the Moyen Cavally region underscore the persistence of wide-spread food insecurity and the fragile capacities among the rural populations to re-establish their livelihoods. It is estimated that in Moyen Cavally, almost 85,000 persons suffer from food insecurity, with only few households receiving assistance.

 The compounding effects of increased prices for fuel and staple foods on local markets (up to 43% for maize), further distorted household expenditure patterns: e.g. up to 60% of the most vulnerable households in northern Ivory Coast spend their scant incomes on an affordable - yet nutritionally poor - food basket.

Households have no resources to invest in agricultural production, such as seeds, tools or livestock and they lack the skills and know-how to engage in income generating activities. The death of a relative or lack of rainfall can threaten the very existence of households and communities depending on agriculture. In rural Ivory Coast, the socio-economic fabric is growing thin, and it seems that the prospects of peace and development have become fragile again.

The Danish Refugee Council has been working in West Africa since 1998 and extended its operational presence to Ivory Coast in 2006. The Danish Refugee Council’s strategic priority for West Africa, and in Ivory Coast in particular, is to strengthen livelihood assets and capacities; to promote democratic and accountable governance and to ensure that populations have safe access to meet their subsistence needs. The Danish Refugee Council applies a holistic approach, assisting communities on the basis of their vulnerability, rights and needs.

At present, the Danish Refugee Council implements more than 75 community based projects in the Moyen Cavally, 18 Montagnes and Bas-Sassandra regions, funded by Danida, UNHCR and UNICEF. Through these projects the Danish Refugee Council assists thousands of vulnerable households and farmer’s groups to re-establish their livelihoods through farming and agricultural inputs and relevant agro-extension trainings with a focus on nutrition.

Aiming at sustainable recovery and development, the Danish Refugee Council also supports the rehabilitation and construction of market, educational and sanitary infrastructures, provides business trainings to women’s groups and market relevant vocational trainings for Ivory Coast’s unemployed rural youth. Working through a community based approach, whereby communities and local authorities jointly agree on project activities through community action planning, transparency and ownership are promoted from the very inception of any intervention. Built on the basis of dialogue, community involvement and cooperation, inter-dependencies are established and social cohesion promoted.

As one beneficiary of a vegetable project in Pehe reported during a DRC monitoring visit: “This is the first time my neighbor and me work side by side on the field. She will help me to bring food to my home, and I will help to bring food to her home. All of us will eat enough.”

The Danish Refugee Council aims to build on its positive experience in Ivory Coast during 2009 to further support rural communities to take the lead in recovering their livelihoods and determine their path to development and peace.

Read more about the Danish Refugee Council in the Ivory Coast

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