Advocacy gives the voiceless a voice |
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| Developing and promoting mechanisms for the delivery of improved rural services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
'Facilitated Advocacy and Consensus Building' is now giving a voice to poor people from remote rural areas in eastern India. Previously, they were excluded from services and opportunities to both influence policies that affected their livelihoods (aquaculture) and draw down the rural services they needed. Following participatory research, priorities are now agreed with senior decision makers and advocacy activities are using high-quality knowledge resources, such as best practice guidelines, and novel ways of communication. There has been widespread adoption of the process in Orissa and West Bengal, and in Pakistan and Vietnam. To date over 100,000 copies of publications have been distributed, and over 100,000 digital copies have been downloaded from the STREAM website during the last year, over half these in local languages from 10 Asia Pacific countries. Project Ref: NRSP21:
Research Programmes: Natural Resources Systems Programme Relevant Research Projects:
The output "Developing and promoting mechanisms for the delivery of improved rural services" was produced in eastern India between 1996-2006 by a suite of NRSP projects (R6759, R8100 and R8334). The problem it aimed to address was that: Extremely vulnerable poor people from remote rural areas with few assets who were socially, economically and politically excluded from services and opportunities required support to influence policies that impacted their capacity to develop appropriate livelihood options (in this case aquaculture) and to draw down the rural services they needed to assist them. The outputs which addressed this problem were as follows: Participatory research with poor farmers, defined and conducted by primary stakeholders, addressed their questions in environments in which they operated with support from researchers and identified and developed livelihood options using natural capital assets available to them (in this case a fish culture system for seasonal water bodies). Before this research validated their chosen approach, government and banking support could not be used to exploit seasonal ponds, the research effectively increased access to natural capital which was locally abundant. The next step involved negotiating a partnership with primary stakeholders in a process of Facilitated Advocacy characterized by long-term commitment, relationship building, strong assertion (self-assertion) and solidarity (by outsiders, with people who are underprivileged) - not representing others but supporting them to represent themselves. Through this process detailed case studies, recorded personal interviews, film documentaries and live drama were developed to share primary stakeholders recommendations for policy change and improved service provision that would make it easier and more feasible for poor people to engage in their chosen livelihood (in this case aquaculture). Senior Policy Makers and Shapers and Policy Implementers from Government Organisations and Non-Government Organisations were then encouraged to prioritize the improved policy and services recommendations using an eight-step consensus building processwhich brings through the voices of poor people, maintains the benefits of group working and avoids hierarchical bias. Once priorities were agreed, building on the relationships developed, priority recommendations were nurtured into practice. This included advocating piloting of the recommendations, making these highly visible through dialogue, high quality documenting, exposure visits and building an institutional memory for policy makers and implementers about the successes and problems with pilots. Drawing on R8363 outputs, high quality knowledge resources (Better-Practice Guidelines) and communication processes (Communications Hubs, One-stop Aqua Shops) were developed to facilitate implementation of new livelihood options by primary stakeholders.
The main commodities were fish (and other aquatic resources). However the commodity is almost irrelevant in this case, as the process or methodology could be applied to other commodities. Participatory research and facilitated advocacy, consensus building and promoting and nurturing change into practice represents a mechanism to get research products that are relevant to extreme and moderately poor people, and the actions they imply, into policy and service provision domains and to facilitate the implementation of new livelihood options.
A number of RNRRS project outputs have engaged constructively with elements of development and promotion mechanisms for the delivery of improved rural services. Value may be added to processes for decision making and building consensus which might find application more broadly including in Africa by clustering with R8334 the experiences and methods developed for the special case of common property resources by R7562, PD131 and R7973, and the decision making tool and institutional analysis of R6961and R7408 as well as the evaluation of trade-offs in R6919. The utility of the R8334 process in relation to constraints faced by poor people in peri-urban contexts may be better addressed through clustering with R7867, R7959 and R8084. Clustering with R8363 will add value to the process of developing and sharing high quality knowledge resources (Better-Practice Guidelines) to facilitate implementation of new livelihood options by primary stakeholders. How the outputs were validated: The Facilitated Advocacy and the Consensus Building Process were validated in India working with extremely vulnerable poor farmers and fishers as well as fisheries and community leaders and building links with meso- and apical policy makers and shapers, where successful pilot responses to six of 13 priority policy change recommendations derived from farmers associated with this process have been implemented during the period of the R8334 project.This output was further validated by FAO working with extremely vulnerable poor farmers and fishersin the development of the "National Policy Framework and Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in Pakistan" under project TCP/PAK/3005 (A) and adapted for an FAO manual entitled "Guidelines for policy development and implementation through consensus and participation: examples from the fisheries/aquaculture sector". Facilitated Advocacy in Pakistan was described at national workshop in Islamabad in May 2006 by Mr Ismail Qureshi, Government Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries Agriculture and Livestock as the most participatory policy process ever undertaken by the ministry. ADB working with poor inland fishers in Siem Reap in Cambodia on revision to the Fisheries Law also successfully adopted the Consensus Building Process in its approach. The improved efficiency of rural service provision through One-stop Aqua Shops was validated in pilots by 1500 extremely vulnerable poor farmers through Government of Jharkhand, Government of Orissa, the NGOSahabhagi Vikas Abhiyan, the Orissa Watersheds Development Mission (OWDM), the DFID Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project and a Federation of Self-Help Groups in Kaipara West Bengal pilots. There is a published plan to upscale the OAS approach from the Chief Minister of Orissa. Shared by STREAM the approach has been validated by DANIDA Fisheries Sector Program Support in Vietnam establishing four OAS and by a Punjabi NGO in Pakistan. The DFID Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Program and OWDM (Review Mission Report, 2006) reported "It is currently too early to comment in depth on the efficacy of the OAS. The pilot phase is almost complete. Many people are becoming aware of the OAS and many in villages knew of the development nearest to them. Better Practice Guidelines are proving popular with Primary Stakeholders, with group Secretaries and Presidents reading these in group meetings and everyone viewing the diagrams and photographs". The World Bank Report (WM 36622-GLB, 2006) guiding sustainable aquaculture to decision makers in the international development community and international finance institutions drew on aquaculture evaluations by ADB, CIDA, DFID, DANIDA, GTZ, IFAD, USAID, and FAO to identify weak extension as a major constraint to upscaling and highlighted OAS as potentially more responsive to the new challenges and opportunities, and the demand of farmers. The European Community's Poverty Reduction Effectiveness Programme paper 'The International Seafood Trade: supporting sustainable livelihoods among poor aquatic resource users in Asia' reported OAS as a valuable potential tool to support capacity development of poor producers through local access points for supporting media and service provision which can act as beacons to help poorer producers to act together and draw in the services and support which they need. Where the Outputs were Validated: The Facilitated Advocacy and the Consensus Building Process were validated in India with extremely vulnerable poor farmers inJharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal) (in rainfed, cross-cutting, high potential, land-water production systems) (2003-6). In Pakistan in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP provinces (in rainfed, irrigated, coastal artisanal fishing, cross-cutting, semi-arid, high potential, land-water) (2004-6). In Cambodia (Siem Reap) (2004) (inland artisanal fishing, cross-cutting). The improved efficiency of rural service provision through OAS has been validated with extremely vulnerable poor farmers in Jharkhand (Ranchi) (in rainfed, cross-cutting, high potential production systems), Western Orissa (Nuapara, Bolangir) (in rainfed, cross-cutting, high potential production systems), West Bengal (Purulia), in Alipur, Punjab, Pakistan (irrigated) and in Vietnam in Thanh Hai, Hai Thai, Doi May and Trang Tien villages, Tien Yen District, Quang Ninh province (inland artisanal fishing, cross-cutting, land-water). The One-stop Aqua Shops have been reviewed by the Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project/Orissa Watersheds Development Mission Joint Review Missions in March and June 2006 and visited by senior Government of Orissa personnel before designing a program for upscaling these in up to 255 blocks within the state announced in August this year. Going to scale by the Government of Orissa with a delivery output from R8334 represents a validation of the Facilitated Advocacy and Consensus building outputs of R8100. Who are the Users? Bolangir OAS operated by Department of Fisheries is used by 133 registered members and has facilitated the supply of fish seed to four SHGs from Western Orissa Development Corporation. Better Practice Guidelines (BPGs) have been shared with the members. BPG on disease prevention and culture practice are in demand. Patnagarh OAS operated by Department of Fisheries is used by 132 registered members training is arranged in Fish Culture, Saintala OAS operated by the NGO Sahabhagi Vikas Abhiyan is used by 114 registered members has organised free replacement seed from Western Orissa Development Corporation as this corporation is helping the farmers who lost their stock due to flooding and shared 1900 BPGs. Khariar OAS operated by Department of Fisheries is used by 67 registered members has trained 35 members in Fish Culture and shared 1007 BPGs. Bilenjore OAS operated by the NGO Sahabhagi Vikas Abhiyan is used by 290 registered members and provides carp seed from its mini hatchery to a network of 61 SHGs who nurse fish seed, Nuapara OAS operated by Department of Fisheries is used by 74 registered members and has shared 570 BPGs, Ranchi OAS operated by Department of Fisheries is used by 515 registered members provides seed, information of government aquaculture schemes posters in 378 enquiries about Govt schemes, distributed 57 SJs, 39 BPGs and 123 other enquiries. Kaipara OAS is used by 176 registered members. 170 copies of each the Jabarrah and Kaipara stories have been shared, STREAM journals, and information about Self-Recruiting Fish Species. Where the outputs have been used: A Policy Brief and Better Practice Guideline about the Consensus Building process are widely distributed and are currently in use in Pakistan. One-stop Aqua Shops are currently in operation in Bolangir, Patnagarh and Saintala in Bolangir District, Orissa, Bilenjore, Nuapara and Khariar in Nuapara District, Orissa, Ranchi, Ranchi District, Jharkhand, Kaipara, Purulia District, West Bengal, in India; Alipur in Pakistan and in Thanh Hai, Hai Thai, Doi May and Trang Tien villages, Tien Yen District, Quang Ninh province in Vietnam. Better Practice Guidelines are proving popular with Self-Help Groups in villages across eastern India, with group Secretaries and Presidents reading these in group meetings. During WORLP Joint Review Missions people commented that in this way literacy problems are overcome and people value having hard copies of such documents in the village for reference. Communications Hub Managers in 12 Asia Pacific countries are reviewing copies of Better Practice Guidelines and there is demand for adaptation and the introduction of local content to these to reduce the production cost of extension media. Scale of Current Use: The Consensus Building Process and Facilitated Advocacy is currently in use in all Provinces of Pakistan. To date 104,342 hard copies of Policy Briefs, Better-Practice Guidelines, STREAM Journals and stories have been shared through the STREAM Communications Hub and the existing OASs, by the OAS Information Service (OASIS) operated by the STREAM Initiative and supported by WORLP. In addition 100,155 digital copies have been downloaded from the STREAM website during the last 12 months, more than half of these (54,471) are in local languages from 10 Asia Pacific countries. There are over 1500 registered OAS users in rural areas of eastern India with bar-coded membership cards. However this is still an early stage in the development and people are still becoming aware of the OAS and the nearest one to them. A poster campaign is being piloted in 530 villages in 20 blocks in Ranchi, Jharkhand and the membership and visit frequency will be monitored. The Chief Minister of Orissa has announced a 'Special package for farmers of Orissa on 29th July 2006'(Published in Oriya in the daily newspaper "Samaj" on 15th August, 2006) including 'a 20% capital cost grant that will be given to interested entrepreneurs through a self employment schemefocused on theestablishment of independent centers (One-stop Aqua Shops) in each block for the sale of fish seeds and necessary inputs and knowledge sharing. The scheme will support the establishment 255 of these Aqua shops. Policy and Institutional Structures, and Key Components for Success: Linked local and international networks with a secure funding base are key platforms. A constant presence of national Communications Hubs that are also linked with as many local institutions as possible can facilitate knowledge sharing. The catalysing and nurturing of good communications practice is a central tenant of the capacity to reach poor people in remote areas effectively and the capacity to link people with their governments/policy making environments. This has been effectively demonstrated in India as a cost effective mechanism to reach very large numbers of extremely vulnerable poor people. A international communications network with national Hub Managers in regular connection, sharing approaches in a common language (probably English) and each translating between English and local languages is a very effective way to share processes and technologies such as those illustrated here across conventional communication barriers of language and culture. Key to success is continuity of a communications platform (long term support), capacity building to translate meaning (not words) across language, cultures and overcome power-relations, and constant engagement with primary stakeholders, those that work closely with primary stakeholders and those that shape policy. Support is needed for core funding and not just for projects. Often the things that network members value most in their networks are the things that take the most time to develop, but require the least amount of money. That being said, it appears that donor support is most crucial in the network startup phase, lasting approximately five years. Donors can help by de-linking networks from the formal project cycle. A degree of independence from governments, intergovernmental agencies and major NGOs is advisable as communications networks derive much of their flexible, effective and democratic working structure from their level communications and management structure. This can be undermined by being linked into hierarchical structures in formal institutions and also leaves communications networks vulnerable to changes in institutional leadership and policies which may be inconsistent with pro-poor communications networking. Lessons Learned and Uptake Pathways Promotion of Outputs: An uptake and promotion project built awareness and sharing continues through workshops, exposure visits and training programs initiated with project funds but now leveraging funds from other sources especially the DFID WORLP (e.g. for: an OAS planning workshop with 70 stakeholders, training for aquaculture service provision 'training of trainers' series, aquaculture for irrigation engineers workshop, aquaculture monitoring and evaluation workshop). In 2005, the STREAM Initiative launched a One-stop Aqua Shop Information Service (OASIS) to supply communications materials, including Policy Briefs, Better-Practice Guidelines which are published in English, Oriya, Bengali and Hindi. They have subsequently been translated and shared in ten other Asia-Pacific languages through DFID-NRSP project R8363. To date 104,342 hard copies of PB, BPGs and stories have been distributed through the STREAM Communications Hub and the existing OASs. Communications Hubs in Iloilo Philippines, Islamabad, Pakistan, Bhubaneswar, India, Kathmandu, Nepal, Phnom Pen, Cambodia, Yangon, Myanmar, Hanoi, Vietnam and Teheran, Iran are actively promoting the outputs. Over 100,000 digital copies of PB, BPGs, STREAM Journals and stories were downloaded in the last 12 months from the STREAM website. Potential Barriers Preventing Adoption of Outputs: The adoption of policy oriented outputs is slowed in India (and many other countries) by the regular rotation of senior policy makers and implementers in institutions and the resultant limited institutional memory. Policy making tends to take place within limited domains without much scope for engagement with primary stakeholders and those who implement policy. Accessibility and availability of communications in appropriate media for different audiences is very limited, extension services are weak. Rural infrastructure is limited and often seasonally compromised. Very large numbers of people are excluded or marginalized by hierarchical process of administration and perceptions of difference. How to Overcome Barriers to Adoption of Outputs: The outputs themselves - Facilitated Advocacy and the Consensus Building Process are important mechanism to promote inclusion, accelerate communications, breakdown exclusion, and increase inclusion in policy making processes of recipients of policies and services. Linked local, national, regional and international communications networks which make use of combined digital and human communications mechanisms are an essential to promote social, economic, cultural, and linguistic access to outputs. Beginning with very local institutions (like One-stop Aqua Shops) to facilitate reach to extremely vulnerable poor people and provide a mechanism for people to draw down the services they need, and operate collectively where relevant. Promoting better extension communications through expanded use of drama, mass media and imaginative printed materials (like Better-Practice Guidelines, Policy Briefs) and long production timeframes is effective. Greater efforts towards inter-regional and international knowledge sharing investing in mechanisms to diminish social, cultural, and linguistic barriers (through capacitating and linking Communications Hubs) and providing for experiential learning and adaptation of 'other peoples quite good ideas' to highly appropriate local solutions. Lessons Learned: Appropriate outputs are always well used. Nurturing ownership of outputs is an excellent way to promote their use. Many people learn by doing more than reading it is important to involve people where possible in the development/refinement or adaptation of outputs. Sharing in output development or even the development of media about outputs is also effective. Drama and video are good mechanism of sharing ideas and in poor communities often a good source of entertainment. In hierarchical decision making scenarios influential drivers of change are also crucial. If attractive, well targeted, piloted, written content can be made available to institutions local to farmers (like One-stop Aqua Shops) it will be collected by interested parties and has a monetary value even to extremely poor people. Better-Practice Guidelines are popular - written in simple local language with minimal written components and local photographic content and cartoons in a short (e.g. 4-page format) are effective for describing "procedures to improve ways of working". They need to be short, informative and lively. They can reach illiterate colleagues in the context of Self-Help Groups where literate members read these. Policy Briefs designed to give "succinct direction for busy professionals" in e.g. 2-pages or less with a summary panel on page one as an aide memoir for short meetings and back page leads to other sources of information are excellent for sharing ideas with key professional, are effective in engaging politicians, policy administrators, policy advisors and consultants, donor agencies and planners. They can later be passed to others without loss of meaning and represent an efficient and accurate mechanism for delegated to follow up links. Poverty Impact Studies: Natural Resources Systems Programme (2004) High Potential Production System Visit to project R8334 Promoting the Pro-Poor policy Lessons of R8100 with Key Policy Actors in India' 5-7 August 2004 R8334 FTR Annex A (2005) A critical assessment of project impact and supporting evidence P53-67 Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods project (2006) Joint Review Mission Report - Report On Aquaculture Development. Orissa Watershed Development Mission/nr international/STREAM Initiative/WORLP February, 2006. Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods project (2006) Joint Review Mission Report - Report On Aquaculture Development. Orissa Watershed Development Mission/nr international/STREAM Initiative/WORLP. June, 2006. Back to Jabarrah A closer look at the successful aquaculture Self-Help Groups in rural West Bengal, the discovery of new uses for local resource systems and the energizing effect of flexible rural credit. A STREAM Story www.streaminitiative.org/Library/pdf/pdf-india/jabarrah.pdf The Kaipara story A closer look at the benefits of working together, the evolution of a federation of aquaculture self-help groups in rural West Bengal. A STREAM Story www.streaminitiative.org/Library/pdf/pdf-india/TheKaiparaStory.pdf The Khandhklegoan story. A bold bid by women in Kandhkelgoan village, Saintala Block, Bolangir District to break out of their poverty trap. A STREAM Story www.streaminitiative.org/Library/pdf/pdf-india/TheKandhkelgaonStory.pdf R8334 Publication 8: Final Workshop Report, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 30-31 August 2005. www.streaminitiative.org/Library/pdf/pdf-india/Finalworkshop.pdf R8334 Publication 7: Second Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop at the One-stop Aqua Shop in Kaipara, West Bengal 17-18 May 2005 www.streaminitiative.org/Library/pdf/pdf-india/SecondM_EWorkshop.pdf WORLP (2006) Fish in our watershed - A booklet from the Western Orissa rural Livelihoods project. WORLP/OWDM. Edited and Published by NR international. WORLP (2006) Talking with Women - A booklet from the Western Orissa rural Livelihoods project. WORLP/OWDM. Edited and Published by NR international. How the Poor have Benefited (including gender and other poverty groups): In India: During R6759, 4,500 extremely vulnerable poor people benefited directly from developing aquaculture in seasonal water bodies (previously unsupported for aquaculture but now part of government and rural banking support schemes and benefiting many thousands each year). This increased their human capital (through better availability of high quality protein, long chain omega-3 fatty acids and a range of micro-nutrients poor available from other sources) as well as financial capital from commodity sales. Seasonal ponds which are much more accessible to people who are poor represent an expansion of natural capital. During R8100 and R8334 through the adoption of Facilitated Advocacy and the Consensus Building Process and building on relationships developed during R6759 six recommendations of primary stakeholders, prioritized by secondary and tertiary stakeholders were implemented. These include: piloting infrastructure for timely production of fish fingerlings* at local level by the Government of Orissa, the pilot benefits 35 Self-Help Groups of extremely vulnerable poor people and upscale is being proposed by the Government Secretary. Membership of the hatchery's nursing network expanded social capital and rearing fingerlings as a new livelihood option increased financial and human assets. Many dug nursery ponds expanding their physical capital. A policy of providing leases to SHGs and extending leases for more than one year in Orissa* increased the interest in leasing manifold according to Fisheries Extension Officers (with several hundred additional SHGs in the first year). In 2004 and 2005, DFID working in Western Orissa reported several hundred SHGs deriving benefit and utilizing around 1000 ha of water resources. 75% were women's groups. Fish rearing within the project is now contributing to livelihoods of around 12,000 extremely vulnerable poor people. Many reported that the policy change in leasing period had catalysed their interest. The development of 'OAS'* pilots in Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand has stimulated 1500 people to register as members facilitating building of human and social capital. Changing the way in which information is made available to farmers and fisher through OASs and the launch of an information service (OASIS)* and simplified procedures for getting government schemes and bank loans* has further improved access to human, financial and social capital. Evidence of specific impacts from these changes in Government's service provision on the lives of people who are poor emerged through monitoring via stories (especially from communities in Jabarrah, Kaipara and Kandhkelgaon) including participatory monitoring through Significant Change Stories. Experiences from eastern India were shared with eleven other countries in the region, giving rise toan OAS in Vietnam and Pakistan andsharing of CBP in Pakistan by the FAO funded 'Support to Fisheries Sector Policy and Strategy Formulation' TCP/PAK/3005 (A). The impact on poverty of well formulated policy and well specified service provision can be immediate, providing new opportunities such (access to natural capital or micro-credit) valued by extremely vulnerable poor people or indirect and long term through development of a suitable platform for people to articulate their needs to raise themselves out of poverty. (* = policy recommendation from R8100 output) Direct and Indirect Environmental Benefits: As this output considers and discusses policy and environmental consequences from the perspective of all stakeholders it is to be supposed that the application of the output and any policy action with local governments or multinational agencies will facilitate the creation of environmentally sound policies or programmes. The inclusion of primary stakeholders in the process will help to uncover local environmental challenges. The output is essentially a learning and opinion-collection activity to inform the development of pro-poor policy and rural services for (in this case sustainable aquaculture) development. As a policy tool, this offers the potential for minimising significant negative environmental impacts and may provide a mechanism for continued dialogue with poorer stakeholders on local environmental issues. Adverse Environmental Impacts: It is difficult to envisage how increasing informed dialogue will have adverse environmental consequences. Coping with the Effects of Climate Change, or Risk from Natural Disasters: The outputs contribute to the development and promotion of efficient systems for the provision of rural services to poor people including extremely vulnerable poor people. The understanding developed amongst participants of the current context of climate change and risks of natural disaster will include rural service provision for specific groups of poor people related to disaster preparedness and highlight constraints to the delivery of services essential to coping with the effects of climate change. The inclusive process and building of relationships between farmers and fishers, state- and national-level government and NGO actors provides a learning platform given poor people a voice in policy processes, including those related to climate change that affect their lives. The facilitation of a diversity of voices and the mediating of policy review and debate amongst stakeholder groups - through carefully selected and developed media (film and live drama) and processes such as semi-anonymous, iterative consensus-building - represent tools for understanding contexts, mediating transaction processes and engagement in policy change. The training needs of key individuals might then be supported by appropriate officials and very local institutions in this case One-stop Aqua Shop may play a role in the delivery of such services. Relevant Research Projects,
with links to the
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For relevant research projects, with links to further information Geographical regions included: India, Pakistan, Vietnam,  Target Audiences for this content:Crop farmers, Livestock farmers, Fishers, Forest-dependent poor, |
