| dc.description.abstract | FITCA is an on-going programme financed with EDF regional and national funds. A 4 year financing
agreement for regional funds was signed in March 1997. It is complemented by national financing
agreements covering Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya (signed in September 1996). The total of the Financial
Agreements for FITCA is 20,000,000 EURO. By an exchange of letters signed in January 2001, the
project period has been extended to the 31.12.2003.
FITCA has three major country programmes (Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya) that are being coordinated
regionally. The Regional Tsetse Co-ordination Unit (RTCU) based in the Organisation of African Unity
/ Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (OAU/IBAR), is also responsible for the coordination of
regional activities (research, training and environmental monitoring). It is also endowed with resources
to provide financial and technical support to Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Technical assistance is
provided to each of these four components (3 major country projects plus the regional one).
The Overall Objective of the Programme is to contribute to the socio economic development of the
region through coordination of national activities to ensure sustainable rural development. The general
purpose is to improve the well being of the rural population and the health of livestock through
sustainable rural development, and to improve the implementation capacity in the countries concerned.
FITCA is not designed as just another tsetse control project. The basis of the FITCA programme is to
increase farmers' income through higher productivity (animals and crops) in order to enable them to pay
for inputs needed to sustain various control schemes against tsetse, ticks or other pests after the end of
the project. FITCA helps to pave the way for a more commercially oriented rural economy and keeping in mind the same general approach.
As the individual country projects purposes differ considerably they are listed here by country:
- In Ethiopia the focus is on the rehabilitation of sustainable mixed farming and on capacity
building at central and regional levels. Organisational and management capacity of staff to
design and co-ordinate tsetse control programmes shall be strengthened by the end of the
project.
- In Kenya the emphasis is put on increased livestock productivity through intensification of the
crop/livestock production system. In the long term, increased income from livestock will
provide the incentive and the means for sustainable tsetse control.
- In Uganda the project is a continuation of the former sleeping sickness control campaign. It
aims at a sustainable and co-ordinated approach to disease control involving sleeping sickness
control, community-based tsetse control and animal trypanosomosis control.
Project implementation for the regional component and the Kenya program started in March 1999. The
Uganda program started in the summer of the same year, while the Ethiopia program, which was redesigned
in 1999, started early 2000 with a preparatory year procurement and beginning of 2001 with
implementation of the 1' WP & CE. Although intense negotiations have been held in Tanzania and
Rwanda, no activities have been financed in those countries yet.
The Environmental Monitoring and Management Component (EMMC) has been contracted out to ILRI.
Its purpose is to increase the level of information and awareness of environmental change by: (1)
increasing the capacity to response pro-actively to these changes amongst the stakeholders in FITCA
countries; (2) defining the environmental parameters and assessing the environmental impact, -
promoting environmental awareness and exchange information; (3) strengthening community capacity
for environmental management and monitoring; (4) adapting /developing appropriate methodologies for
environmental monitoring and management. | |
