The Fondo de Cooperación para el Desarrollo Social (FONCODES) is working with the Andes Resilient to Climate Change project to strengthen territorial water management in rural Andean areas for improving water availability for agriculture and for households to increase their adaptive capacity in a challenging context such as climate change.
The Swiss Ambassador in Peru and the Head of Cooperation (SDC) in Peru and the Andean region met the FONCODES Cusco Territorial Unit at the Swiss Embassy in Lima, to discuss FONCODES’ Haku Wiñay/Noa Jayatai project in the region, and the prospects for territorial water management with a focus on sowing and harvesting for family farming.
Haku Wiñay is a project to strengthen productive capacities and works with rural communities and family farmers living in poverty and extreme poverty. The project provides technical assistance and promotes productive technologies such as technified irrigation, organic fertilisers, small animal husbandry, bio-gardens, improved stoves and pasture management. It also promotes small rural businesses and strengthens financial capacities, to enable these families to take part in local economies.
There are a total of 26 FONCODES Territorial Units nationwide. They operate through Central Implementing Units which are composed of 400 families and which strengthen their capacities and implement various technologies as requested, in line with their local realities and with an inter-cultural approach. During the visit of the Swiss delegation, Pedro Romero, Head of the Territorial Unit in Cusco, and Antonio Castro, and irrigation specialist, explained that in Cusco from 2013 – 2020, over 19,000 user households were registered, through 150 Haku Wiñay projects and with an investment of over 95 million Sols, mainly in productive assets and technical assistance through local technical staff and yachachiq.
Since water is a vital resource for rural development and family farming, the Cusco Territorial Unit is strengthening the Haku Wiñay activities, to take into account the climate change that affects water availability for family farming now and for the future. This includes a territorial approach at the level of micro-basins, sub-basins and basins, using hydrological models to understand and manage the impacts of climate change on water supply, capacity building with user families, and training leaders in integrated water management.
FONCODES is formulating a set of technical tools for water resources management in Andean areas, with a territorial approach (micro-watershed), and for planting and harvesting water. This will let households manage water closer to home, contributing to its current and future availability for different uses, and understanding water as a common factor and condition for rural development.
Markus-Alexander Antonietti, Ambassador of Switzerland in Peru, highlighted the efforts and the need for the Peruvian government, including FONCODES, to implement initiatives and adapt to the various changes, providing innovative responses for the work to the benefit of Peruvian rural families to continue sustainably. Martin Jaggi, Head of SDC Cooperation in Peru and in the Andean region, spoke of the importance of Haku Wiñay/Noa Jayatai as a consolidated family-level project that contributes to poverty reduction through public investment in strengthening households’ productive capacities, and which can also provide valuable information for monitoring and reporting on adaptation to climate change in compliance with the country’s climate commitments.
The meeting took place in the framework of the regional project «Resilient Andes», which is part of the Global Programme on Climate Change and Environment of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It is facilitated by the Helvetas Peru – Avina Foundation consortium, in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Its first phase runs from May 2020 to April 2024.
Source: Andes Resilient to Climate Change
Andes Resilient to Climate Change is a regional project promoted by the Global Climate Change and Environment Programme of Swiss Cooperation SDC and facilitated by the HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation and Avina Foundation consortium, in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and in strategic alliance with the International Fund for Agricultural
Link of interest:
Fact sheet Regional Project: Resilient Andes to Climate Change
Facebook Regional Project: Resilient Andes to Climate Change
Brochure Regional Project: Resilient Andes to Climate Change – Peru
