WE ARE
The “Fund for Regional Stabilisation and Development in fragile regions within ECOWAS Member States” (FRSD) addresses fragility through investments and capacity building. The Fund, set up by the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has two windows:
- A Financial Cooperation (FC) window for investments that is funded through KfW Development Bank.
- A Technical Cooperation (TC) window for capacity development, funded through GIZ.
The FRSD FC has a bottom-up approach to ensure community-based, sustainable solutions. In general, successful projects make ownership a core element to address complex challenges with locally adapted measures for long-term stability.
People Matter
For FRSD FC, this motto is key for designing robust models of adaptive projects, specifically enabling local communities to build resilience, coping mechanisms, and develop their locally adapted solutions. The challenges range from combatting food insecurity, lack of income generating opportunities (most affected are women and youth), low level of service provision to the effects of deforestation and climate change.
Stabilisation needs participation
FRSD FC and its local partners ensure that participatory approaches are enabled and provided with the required support. The needs communicated in fragile areas of intervention countries resemble in some topics: Employment and income generating opportunities are needed and worked on, not only in short-term but long-term perspective, to successfully contribute to stabilisation in respective fragile contexts. However, it is the citizens that decide how to build their future.
