Open Africa North-South Tourism Corridor Project

Open Africa's is a Cape Town-based NGO promoting community tourism routes as a way to develop SMME and local employment (see web site Africandream.org) . They have already developed 57 routes mostly in South Africa. They now aim at expanding and 'greening' the network into other Southern African countries. They have approached the Bank so we can assist in that expansion program through the development of a GEF Medium Size project which would aim at developing community-based tourism routes in areas of biodiversity importance in Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. Already, Open Africa has raised more than $100,000 of corporate financing toward preparation which they will use to pilot new routes, with biodiversity mainstreaming in mind, in Namibia and Zambia. They will soon submit a Project Concept and a GEF PDF A request. I have carried two missions to discuss with Open Africa: in December 2004 and July 2005 (BTOR Aug. 6, 2005). During mission two, I assited them in preparing a logframe (it is attached as 'brief concept note' to this AIS). This would be a regional MSP operation: Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. It has already been discussed with Rick Scobey (AFTS1) and with Christophe Crepin (GEF Africa coordinator).