As stated by the AFDB, the project objective is to help improve food security and self-sufficiency through appropriate interventions on all segments of the cereal supply chain (upstream and downstream) in an emergency context. The activities aim at securing wheat supplies, increasing cereal production and productivity, rehabilitating and modernising storage capacities, supporting cereal rail transport, thereby enhancing inclusion and resilience of the cereal chain to external shocks and climate change.

The Cereal Sector Inclusive and Sustainable Development Support Project (PADIDFIC) is the response to a request from the Tunisian Government to address the food crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is an investment project in continuation and consolidation of the Emergency Food Security Support Project in Tunisia (PAUSAT). The project was appraised in April 2023 in an emergency context to address the food crisis and disruptions to the supply of agricultural inputs resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It comes under the package allocated to Tunisia in 2023 in accordance with prudential credit ratios. The overall project cost is estimated at USD 117.5 million to be financed by an AfDB loan of USD 87.1 million over a 38-month period. The key expected outcomes of the project are: (i) increasing cereal productivity and production.; (ii) increasing and modernising the country's strategic storage capacity, as well as reducing storage losses; (iii) reducing internal cereal transport costs; and (iv) emergency supplies of common wheat to support food security and avoid short-term disruption of basic food supplies.

PADIDFIC will be of benefit to the country's 250,000 cereal farmers, particularly the smallest of them, estimated at 100,000 farmers. Vulnerable groups (young people, the elderly, women, etc.) will be an integral part of the target population. The project will also be of benefit to cooperatives and professional agencies, as well as the private sector.

As stated by the AFDB, "in line with the E&S risk classification criteria of the Bank's Integrated Safeguard System (ISS), the PADIDFIC project has been classified as Category 2 in accordance with the ISS due to SO5 requirements."

AFDB Team Leader:

Rafaa Ben Mohamed Marouki
Email: r.marouki@afdb.org

Implementing Agency - Cereal Authority (Office de Céréales):

Address: 30 Rue Alain Savary, Tunis 1002, Tunisia
Phone: +216 70 557 300 / +216 70 557 301
Fax: +216 70 557 401 / +216 70 557 400
Email: offcer.contact@oc.com.tn
Website: https://www.oc.com.tn/fr/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/request-for-documents. Under the AfDBÕs Disclosure and Access to Information policy, if you feel the Bank has omitted to publish information or your request for information is unreasonably denied, you can file an appeal at https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/appeals-process.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/