Kwango: The AVENIR Project launched its social engineering activities in Kenge

The AVENIR Project (Empowerment through the Promotion of Agricultural and Rural Entrepreneurship Sensitive to Nutrition, Inclusive and Resilient to Climate Change) launched its social engineering activities on August 12, 2024 in Kenge (capital of the Kwango province), on behalf of the Kwango province. This concept of social engineering is a new approach in the implementation of development activities to lead to the establishment of interprofessional market consultation frameworks (CCIM). This is also the time when the NGO INADES Formation meets with all the stakeholders in a development project, to discuss implementation aspects.

In Kenge, several stakeholders were invited to this ceremony launching social engineering activities, including political-administrative authorities, heads of provincial technical services, heads of civil society organizations, representatives of customary power, heads of youth organizations, various technical partners and journalists chosen to witness the event.

Three strong points dominated the event, including the speeches of the officials, the presentation of the project and the presentation of INADES Formation and its field work.

In his speech for the occasion, the National Coordinator of the AVENIR Project, Justinien Bacirongo BinyomaJustinien Bacirongo Binyoma, indicated that the AVENIR Project is part of numerous strategies implemented by the government of the DRC, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security with a view to supporting local communities and peasant organizations in rural areas where the concentration of poor rural families is the greatest. He indicated that the project is being implemented for a period of seven years (2023-2030) and covers four provinces surrounding the city of Kinshasa (Kwango, Kwilu, Kinshasa and Maï-Ndombe) and aims to increase the income of 80% of producers in the sphere of its intervention by 30%. He also informed the audience that his project aims to rehabilitate 670 km of rural roads and 15 river ports. The project plans to modernize 21 markets to enable a 30% increase in the marketing of agricultural surpluses, including entrepreneurship initiatives led by cooperatives, women and young people which will be supported in the different agricultural value chains.

The AVENIR Project thus aims to contribute to the reduction of poverty and the improvement of the nutrition of populations in the targeted provinces.

In turn, the Governor of Kwango Province, Willy Bitwisila, encouraged the Project Management Unit (PMU) team and its implementation partners. He hoped that this project would come to fruition in his jurisdiction. He also expressed the wish to be invited, for a potential next occasion, to a field of action of the project activities. Question, Editor's note, of leaving the eternal land of promises and utopia!

Émile Yimbu/CONGOPROFOND.NET