World bank project: Northern States, FCT review performances in Kaduna meeting 

From Noah Ebije, Kaduna

Participants from the 19 Northern States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on Thursday gathered in Kaduna to review their performances in project implementation of Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL),  a World Bank-financed project designed to tackle the pressing issues of land degradation and climate change in Northern Nigeria and the FCT.

Speaking to journalists in an interview at the 2nd day of the meeting, the National project Coordinator for AcreSAL, Abdulhamid Umar disclosed that the Kaduna meeting was to give technical implementation support to the benefiting States.

Umar said, “Essentially speaking, as a project , we have embedded capacity building, and  project supervision. So we are in Kaduna to provide what we call technical  implementation support.  In other words the project has been going on the last two years, almost three years now. We are here with the world bank to review the performances of States as far as project implementation is concerned to encourage them where they are going right and where they need technical support.

“Kaduna happens to be a beneficiary now. The reason why we invited all the participating States to Kaduna, review what Kaduna has done in particular and be able to guide Kaduna for the implementation of the project as prescribed in the project implementation manual and the project development objectives. We expect that there will be speedy delivery of the project in Kaduna for the benefit of the Kaduna people”.

Also speaking to journalists, Kaduna State Commissioner for environment and natural resources,  Abubakar Buba said,  “AcreSAL is one of the best performing programme supported by the world bank. It is a programme that has touched the life of everybody in capacity building, land restoration, climatic issue, this has endeared 19 States in the North and the federal capital territory. One of the issues is to improve the institutions in the States. We capitalise on this opportunity to improve landscape documentation so that at the end of the day we have documents for policy implementation”.

Daily Sun gathered that Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL)  project comprises four key components and is scheduled to run for six years, ending in 2028.

The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to increase the implementation of sustainable landscape management practices in targeted watersheds in northern Nigeria and strengthen Nigeria’s long-term enabling environment for integrated climate-resilient landscape management.

ACReSAL focuses on the long-term sustainability of land and water management in the drylands of northern Nigeria.

The Project will support scaling-up sustainable landscape management practices in northern Nigeria through strategic investments addressing natural resource degradation through an integrated ecosystem approach, building the capacity of institutions towards risk reduction and responding to climate variability, and generating information and knowledge to improve sustainable land and water management practices in Nigeria as a whole, and northern Nigeria in particular.