Rahama Women Development Program (LINE) Rahama Women Development Programme is a registered non-governmental organization that works in Bauchi State with a branch of Micro-credit in Adamawa state, Nigeria.  Rahama was established in 1989 and has worked and is working in the area of women and youth empowerment from its conception. It was registered with Corporate Affairs Commission Abuja in April 2004.  The organization works in the areas of health, education, water and sanitation, civic education, governance and human rights, peace education and peace building and income generation.  The objectives of the organization are to positively contribute to the social and economic development of women and their families; to promote skills development through vocational skills training; to encourage it#s members to participate actively in health and health related activities such as reproductive health and HIV/AIDS education; sensitize women to take part in self-reliance activities, governance, education, peace and security.  Rahama works primarily withwomen, youth and children as their principal stakeholders and men as their secondary stakeholders.  This is based on our two decades of experience that has shown us that women provide much of the human energy and capital in the developing world; while young people are the holders of tomorrow#s future.

The UltimateOutcome of the project is to Improved livelihoods for 10,000 (60% women) rural farmer households in Bauchi State through increased farm productivity, enhanced market access, better nutrition and improved/enhanced enabling environment for agricultural business development. While the  Intermediate Outcomes are
1) Increased yields in selected commodity and livestock value chains for women and men farmers and youth (60% women)
2) Improved agricultural business enabling environment that is more responsive to theneeds of women, men, and youth members of farmer households
3) Improved nutrition for vulnerable farmer households, especially women and children

The Project will focus on the following value chains: maize, sorghum, sesame, dairy, and meat (beef, mutton, and goats) and will seek to enhance access to markets through collaboration with key private sector actors in order to define and ensure market specifications are met. The four private sector actors that the Project will partner with are: GrandCereals Limited and NASCO Foods, for the first three commodities; and the Integrated Dairies Limited and Bauchi Meat Products Company Ltd., for dairy and meat.

The Project will work in collaboration with the Bauchi State government to establish BusinessIncubation Centres (one per target LGA) focused on small business development for youth and Nodal Information, Training, and Processing Centres (10 per target LGA or oneper target ward) that will provide information and skills training for women and youth in food processing to create jobs. In addition, farmers will be organized to work in collaboration with other interest groups, alliances and civil society organizations to influence the Bauchi State government to create an enabling environment that supports market-based agricultural value chain interventions. Furthermore, the project intends to reach 1,000 vulnerable households among the 10,000 target households that include children, pregnant and nursing women, and mothers of young children, throughtraining to develop home-based skills in nutritional diversification and through promotional campaigns.

The Project will promote environmental sustainability through training and use of ecosystem friendly herd health strategies and livestock feed optionsas well as agricultural practices such as zero tillage, conservation agriculture and organic farming.

The Project will at the end lead to increased yields in selected commodity and livestock value chains forwomen and men farmers and youth; an improved agricultural business enabling environment that is responsive to the needs of women, men, and youth members of farmer households; and improved nutrition for vulnerable farmer households, especially women and children.

The Project is aligned with two United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets: reduce by 30% the number of people living in poverty and promote gender equality and empower women; as well as with the Government of Nigeria#s Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP), of which BauchiState is a part. The Project is also in alignment with Global Affairs Canada development priorities in Nigeria, namely to stimulate sustainable rural economic growth for poverty reduction, enhance food security, and secure the future of youth through employment.