In June 2005, IRD launched the program, Emergency Food-for-Work and Agricultural Assistance Initiative for Affected Villages in eastern Chad. This program provides emergency food security and agriculture improvement opportunities for villages in eastern Chad affected by the influx of Darfur refugees fleeing neighboring Sudan.

This program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) in conjunction with the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP), which has provided 1,000 Metric Tons of food. Using a community-based approach, IRD is mobilizing communities in villages affected by drought and refugee flows to undertake agricultural improvement projects primarily targeting local Wadis (river bed watersheds).

Projects will include the construction and rehabilitation of:

• Barrages (dams);
• Hafirs (water catchment basins); and
• Wells for potable water.

Villages provide the manual labor to restore these local irrigation systems and water wells. More than 12,000 beneficiaries are employed under this program and receive food parcels as salary supplements in the targeted villages surrounding the Iriba District.

In addition, IRD is distributing seeds from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and providing short-term technical assistance for improving planting, harvesting and processing techniques. IRD also provides basic agricultural kits (up to four varieties of seeds, planting tools and one wheelbarrow) to the most vulnerable families. This project is expected to benefit approximately 80,000 people.

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