The African Development Fund Board has approved a U.S.$ 64.8 million loan to Uganda to finance the country third Community Agricultural Infrastructure Improvement Programme (CAIIP-3).

The loan, approved on 3 May in Tunis, is a follow-up on two similar programmes namely, CAIIP-1 and CAIIP-2, which resulted from a 2005 Bank review of Uganda's agricultural and rural sectors.

Based on the same design and implementation template as its predecessors, the programme involves investments in agricultural infrastructure, notably, community access roads, markets, agro-processing facilities and rural electrification, to stimulate economic growth and increase revenues among rural communities and small-holder farming households across Uganda.

It targets areas not covered by CAIIP-1 or CAIIP-2 and will reach 31 districts, representing approximately 30% of the total land area of the country and 1.9 million rural households, in the Western, Central, Northern and Eastern regions.

The project also entails investments in community mobilization promoting local buy-in and participation to establish a strong framework of local ownership and long term sustainability.

The programme will be implemented by the same team involved in the two successive programmes drawn from within the local government ministry, which was recognized by IFAD in November 2010 for "Best Management in Africa", among projects co-financed by IFAD.

The Islamic Development Bank is currently reviewing a parallel U.S.$ 10-million investment in CAIIP-3 to complement the Bank's loan and expand the project's physical infrastructure targets.