FAO experience with Livelihood Approaches

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FAO experience with Livelihood Approaches

• Some examples

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Development approaches -
Development fashions ?
Technology transfer
Appropriate technology
Top-down
Multi-sectoral
Integrated approach
Learning to listen
Area management planning
Untied-aid
Participation in analysis
Sustainability
Build on strengths
Collaborative partnerships
Micro-macro linked
Participation in decisions
Livelihoods perspective
Demand driven
People centred
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(But first, some groundwork) What are Livelihood
Assets?
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HUMAN, PHYSICAL, SOCIAL ASSETS
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GREATER SOCIAL ASSETS, Working together
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Livelihood assets
HUMAN
SOCIAL
NATURAL
FINANCIAL
PHYSICAL
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SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
Livelihood assets
Vulnerability context
Transforming structures and processes ------- Pr
ocesses Institutions Policies
Livelihood Outcomes
Risks
Livelihood strategies
Institutions
Assets
Livelihood strategies
IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE
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PRINCIPLES OF THE SLA

• People-centred

• Responsive and participatory

• Multi-level micro/ macro

• Conducted in partnership

• Sustainable

• Dynamic

• Holistic in perspective

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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)

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• 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

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The Black hole of development In Honduras
85 of people in Lempira are below poverty line
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(No Transcript)
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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
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• 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

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And its not only the crops and the soil
fertility which are lost.
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• 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

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• 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.

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AGRICULTURA

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

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• 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

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Sustainability and expansion

• of these technical improvements depended on
  mutual reinforcement with other livelihood
  aspects
• Education and training
• Community Development Organisations local
  governance
• Health
• Transport
• Finance

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• 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
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• 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

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How piloting by the project works
YEAR 2
YEAR 3
project
Hillside farming
Hillside farming
Project pilot
Adult Education
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Some additional project accomplishments

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

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

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

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• 45 of the districts population is below the
  poverty line.
• Each Community Development Association has
  identified their own communitys 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.

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

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Some of the projects
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Some of the Vocational training
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• 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

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

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West Africa Sustainable Fisheries Livelihood
Programme (SFLP)

• An FAO/ DFID programme serving 25 West African
  countries

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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
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Adult (and child) literacy programmes
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• 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

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Each country has its own National Coordinating
Unit composed of representative stakeholders
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Some other themes of the 62 ongoing community
projects include
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• Congo
• strengthening groups of Community Development
  Committees in a single District

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• 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.

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• 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