UNCDF uses a Local Development Fund dedicated to food security in the districts chosen by the programme. LDF is used as a lever to develop the capacities of local governments in planning, budgeting, financing, implementing and evaluating the food security, leading to local development and the provision of more efficient public services, with more transparency.
LDF pilots a discretionary system of capital transfer at the local level, strategically aligned with the local development plans. It has the ambition to increase the efficiency of the use and coordination of the available investment funds at the district level. With the technical cooperation of the SETSAN, WFP and FAO, the critical infrastructures linked with food security are identified and prioritized through the strategic and operational participative planning process.
The approach of the programme, in regards to the LDF, is not to allocate funds in advance but to promote the capacity of the local governments in taking decisions and leading to funding demands. This is why 60 percent of the funds are directly invested in the socio-economic infrastructures that promote food security at the local level.
The resort to the approach based on performance guides the decision-making process that guarantees the efficient and responsible use of the funds additionally, taking into account the needs of the populations in the matter of food security. Indeed, the funds are directly allocated for the need of the local communities while promoting local development and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It is also planned that the LDF provides direct support to the existing plans and budgets established under the coordination of the district authorities, thus improving their management, planning and monitoring-evaluation that they do on food security. Additional to the use of this approach based on performances to annually control the financial management of the local governments, a risk-review is made to ensure that the funds allocated to the projects are properly used and achieved with a quality-price equation.