Toronto, ON, August 24 2018 – Crossroads International is proud to announce that it will carry out an international climate cooperation project thanks to a financial contribution of $732 436 from the government of Quebec’s Green Fund, created under the 2013–2020 Action Plan on Climate Change. The purpose of the project is to ameliorate the living conditions of more than 1 500 Senegalese women garden market farmers in the Niayes region by improving access to water, adopting farming practices that are more resilient to climate change and diversifying their activities.
The Niayes region is Senegal’s main market garden production area. However, the region’s water supply has been gradually deteriorating and water is become increasingly scarce due to a succession of droughts, which are becoming lengthier and worse, due in large part to climate change. Women are much more vulnerable to the effects of climate change because they rely chiefly on natural resources to provide for themselves and their families. The decrease in access to water directly impacts market garden production volumes and, consequently, the income and poverty level of women farmers.
As part of the project, Crossroads International will work to strengthen the capacity of these women by providing training and technical support on the ground. The funding will enable us to:
- Equip market gardens with wells as well as solar‑powered pumping and drip irrigation systems;
- Facilitate production diversification through introducing new drought‑resistant crops with shorter production cycles;
- Contribute to strengthening production capacity by building a storage and conservation unit and providing training in marketing their products and in business management.
“Women are particularly hard hit by climate change. Many Senegalese women depend on farming activities, and the lack of water makes them all the more vulnerable. That is why Crossroads International welcomes this new partnership which, through improving access to water, will help women farmers in Senegal increase their production and revenue,” according to Carine Guidicelli, Executive Director of Crossroads International.
The project will be carried out in close collaboration with the Réseau des organisations paysannes et pastorales du Sénégal (RESOPP) [Senegalese network of farming and pastoralist organizations]. In addition to defending the interests of the network’s cooperatives and its 30 000 farmer members (men and women), the mandate of this organization includes providing them with collective support. The partnership is intended to ensure the transfer of expertise and the proactive participation of local populations in developing relevant solutions appropriate to their reality, to give them the means to become actors in their own development. Over the course of the project, women farmers will have the equipment and the training needed to engage in farming throughout the entire year using a proven irrigation technique and ecological farming practices that are better suited to the region and more respectful of the environment.
About the Green Fund
One hundred percent of the revenue from carbon market auctions is paid into the Green Fund, which then allocates funding to implement the measures outlined in the 2013–2020 Action Plan on Climate Change. The measures are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the capacity of Quebec society to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Thus far, the carbon market has generated over 2.4 billion dollars in revenue for Quebec, which is used to support businesses, municipalities, institutions and the people of Quebec in the transition to a low‑carbon world
About the International Climate Cooperation Programme
With a budget of 18 million dollars over five years, the International Climate Cooperation Programme supports projects undertaken by private‑sector organizations in Quebec as well as international solidarity and research groups aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change in the Francophone countries most vulnerable to those impacts.
