FAO experience with Livelihood Approaches Some examples Development

FAO experience with Livelihood Approaches Some examples

Development approaches Development fashions ? 1970 Technology transfer Appropriate technology Top-down Multi-sectoral Learning to listen Integrated approach Area management & planning Participation in analysis Untied-aid Sustainability Build on strengths Collaborative partnerships Micro-macro linked Participation in decisions Demand driven Livelihoods perspective People centred 2003

(But first, some groundwork) What are Livelihood Assets? HUMAN SOCIAL PHYSICAL NATURAL FINANCIAL

HUMAN, PHYSICAL, & SOCIAL ASSETS

GREATER SOCIAL ASSETS, Working together

Livelihood assets HUMAN SOCIAL NATURAL FINANCIAL PHYSICAL

P Li ve l ih oo d S In st i tu t io ns Ri sk s Vulnerability context As se ts H Transforming structures and N Influences processes Livelihood & access strategies ------Processes F Institutions Policies IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE Livelihood assets st ra te gi es SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Livelihood Outcomes

PRINCIPLES OF THE SLA • People-centred • Responsive and participatory • Multi-level [micro/ macro] • Conducted in partnership • Sustainable • Dynamic • Holistic in perspective

Important components in Honduras project • Technical hillside agro-forestry (training by national teams) • Reinforcement of adult and vocational education • Community development organizations are trained and manage actual activities • Marketing • Roads • Health • (reinforced by existing communal banks)

• The livelihoods project in HONDURAS, department of LEMPIRA SUR, aimed to • Improve food security through experiments with local farming systems • Incorporate women into the communal structures • Promote community institutions • Assist the developing network of communal “banks”

The “Black hole” of development In Honduras : 85% of people in Lempira are below poverty line

“Food Security” included metal silos for storing grains And improved stoves on which to cook them

But the major question was food production Lempira is a mountainous zone with poor soil, poor people, and few roads. 85% of the population is below the poverty income level for Honduras

• The traditional farming method has been “cut and burn” • Good harvests of corn and beans for 2 years, but then abandoned for 10 years to recover fertility • Cut-and-burn works if there are few farmers • Now there are too many farmers and too little land. • The degraded hillsides erode in the tropical storms of the rainy season

And it’s not only the crops and the soil fertility which are lost….

A hillside farming improvement, the “Quezuangal” zero tillage approach, gives three layers of protection to the soil: • Debris placed on the ground • The crops themselves (corn, beans, sorghum) • the trees, source of wood, fruit, animal feeds, and soil consolidation • • • Soil fertility and moisture retention increase. Drought resistance improves Fields can be used continuously, year after year

• Debris from clearing - and some growing trees – are left on hillside during first rainy season • Decaying debris provides for nutrients, water retention, and erosion resistance. • Corn (Maize) production increased from 0. 9 tons/ manzana per year (cut and burn) to 2. 0 tons per year • Economic returns for each day of work are significantly higher.

• 5000 small farmers have adopted these agro-forestry techniques AGRICULTURA • The department has become self-sufficient in grains, and an EXPORTER to the rest of the country.

But success and sustainability of technical improvements was linked to other critical factors, : • Establishment and strengthening of Community Development Associations (over 50 in the Department) • Adult education • Training for organisational development • Training for vocational needs • Locally-based financial services in the local “Community Banks” • A local commitment to working together, within the villages and between villages

• COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION Training for organisational development Training for adult education Practicsing the lessons on real actions El EJE DE LA INSTITUCIONALIZACIÓN ES LA FORMACIÓN HUMANA: Educación Formal y Capacitación en Servicio

• The project itself often CATALYSED the first pilot efforts at improvements in these areas • Other agencies/ ministries with mandate for that function then took over and expanded them

How “piloting” by the project works YEAR 1 project YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Hillside farming Project pilot Adult Education Ministry Educ. Adult Education

Some additional project accomplishments • 10, 000 locally made metal grain silos, each storing 500 kg, to stock grain surpluses safely at home • 5000 graduates of adult education classes • Reconstruction of secondary school education in Lempira department

“THE MAP” Community “Banks” Once this system Profit generating Each element activities (for example better hillside farming) Health Education Community Benefit Activities is working well Other programmes projects & Ministries reinforcing other elements Community Development Association Local Governance Then “pump priming” by the PROJECT is no longer needed Organisational Vocational / Technical Training Development Training provided by local trainers catalyzed by project Government’s Regional CDA Support Unit

Yemen Community-Based Regional Development Project • 1 - Aims to bring community (including their poor members) into profitable development action through strong village-based Community Development Associations

Some community development associations and their meeting places (women ARE members, but are not in the photos)

• (AIMS, continued) • 2 - Help these Community Development Associations to build active collaboration linkages with other projects and institutions • 3 - Assist the national government to set up systems for expanding the approach

• 45% of the district’s population is below the poverty line. • Each Community Development Association has identified their own community’s poor. • The Community Development Association is responsibile for decisions on training, education, credits, and village development plan • 80% of training funds attracted from other agencies and programmes.

The same map, again Investment Fund (from project) Community Loan Fund (revolving) Profit generating activities Health Community Benefit Activities Community Development Association Organisational Development Training provided by local trainers Vocational Training catalyzed by project pilot phase Education Other programmes projects & Ministries Local Governance Government’s Regional CDA Support Unit

• The approach is based on attention to ecological zones • Support teams (partly trained by the project) provide assistance and follow-up to proposals for credit and training • Proposals accepted from CDO members as – Groups of households – Community benefit projects – Individuals (reserved for women)

Some of the projects

Some of the Vocational training

• Average income of those who participated in BOTH the training & loan programme increased by 30% • 55 Community Development Organisations established/ strengthened • Over 5000 people trained • 9000 households have participated in credits • Women are actively involved

• The Yemen programme is scheduled to be going into Phase II, expanding to new districts in the country

West Africa Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood Programme (SFLP) An FAO/ DFID programme serving 25 West African countries

The SFLP is developing middle and community level “entry points’ for livelihood approaches in fisheries communities. Entry Point pilot testing is now going in all 25 countries Entry Point activities are actions which have been specifically requested by the fishing community Elmina Harbour, Ghana

Adult (and child) literacy programmes

Here is an entry point small project in a fishing village in Congo • improved practices for fish drying, to sell the product for a better price

Each country has its own National Coordinating Unit – composed of representative stakeholders The National Coordinating Unit supports fishing communities in identifying, planning, and carrying out their projects

Some other themes of the 62 ongoing “community projects” include Improved marketing channels Adult literacy training for fishwomen Near shore Fisheries Surveillance by Small-open boats with twoway radios

Congo • strengthening groups of Community Development Committees in a single District

• The DFID-UK financed SFLP is now starting to carry out a few livelihood development projects at combined village/ district level, as in Honduras and Yemen. • Partnership with other development agencies (especially those with strong technical orientations) would allow more of these district level projects to take place.

Coordinated livelihood projects DO seem to work, and to work well, especially • When they take into account the range of different inputs and actions necessary, and • When they work with very poor people