Mobilizing city-edge communities for action |
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Experiences from participatory work to help the poor in peri-urban areas cope with rapid city growth, and safeguard their natural resources, offer insights for planning efforts around the developing world. As urban areas expand, farming and livelihood systems are forced to change fast. To overcome local problems arising from this, such as soil erosion, deforestation, and the silting-up of irrigation tanks, six communities on the fringes of India's Hubli-Dharwad city developed wide-ranging action plans and put them into practice. The plans worked at different levels: from household and self-help group to village and district administration level. Around 40% of the poor and very poor in these communities have benefited so far. Plus, work on policies which recognize the uniqueness of the peri-urban zone is already bearing fruit. Project Ref: NRSP31:
Research Programmes: NRSP Relevant Research Projects: R7867, R7959, R8084, PD138 R7867
R7959
R8084
The problem being addressed was twofold: a) Rapid urbanization was changing the peri-urban interface and a forerunner project (R7867) had indicated that the poor were most vulnerable to the effects of change and least able to adapt to changing circumstances. b) Rapid change in the PUI was leasing to a neglect of the natural resource base due to rapidly changing agricultural systems and practices. Examples of degradation were soil erosion, silting up of irrigations dams ('tanks'), deforestation, fragmentation of land holdings into sub-economic units, sale of land and abandonment of farms, mining of clay from fields for brick making. The project response was also two-fold. To address a), the project established village level self help groups, informal savings and loans schemes and the market oriented value enhancement programme for business development for the poor, landless and illiterate. These are the subjects of separate proformas. To address b), at village level the project developed action plans and implemented them at a series of levels; household, self help group, user-group, whole village and district administration level, to rehabilitate and enhance the natural resource base. The output was a series of multi-dimensional plans (for each of the levels listed) for six peri-urban villages around Hulbi-Dharwad, Karnataka, and for the local administrations, namely the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation and the Dharwad District Panchayat (Council), and the implementation of those plans. In additional, discussion on policies for administering the PUI as a single, dynamic zone of interaction were initiated at District and State level.
How the outputs were validated: These outputs were validated externally through a mid-term assessment of the Participatory Action Planning project R7959 by a member of the NRSP Steering Group. The mid term evaluation led to a crucial new goal being added namely community mobilization as a precondition to participatory planning. The action plans that emerged from R7959 were implemented in R8084. For R8084, the mid-tern review was undertaken in August 2003, again by a member of the NRSP Steering Group. Social groups targeted were the poor and very poor living in peri-urban villages, usually from lower castes, and often illiterate and landless. Impact assessment of R8084 was conducted by ITAD, a consultancy company, on behalf of NRSP, in January 2005 (NRSP PD 138) and by Cambridge University which was a gender assessment. Where the Outputs were Validated: This output was validated in the peri-urban interface of Hubli-Dharwad, Karnataka State. Hubli-Dharwad is located in the semi-arid rainfed zone, although for the output under consideration, agro-ecological zone is not important. Social groups targeted were the poor and very poor living in peri-urban villages, usually from lower castes, and often illiterate and landless. The mid term assessment of R7959 took place in 2001, in a mid term assessment of the implementation phase (R8084) by NRSP August 2003. The final impact assessment tool place by the ITAD team in January 2005 (PD138). Who are the Users? At end of project, action plans had been implemented in six PU villages around Hubli-Dharwad. Various issues were taken up as a result of the action plans which demanded the need for rural urban collaboration. Some issues could be dealt with within the villages themselves. Examples include tank restoration initiatives spearheaded by the local community in Mugad village and then undertaken in other project villages. Other initiatives include agro-forestry in Channapur and forest based initiatives in several project villages. Where the outputs have been used: In six PU villages around HD in India thus far. Scale of Current Use: Project estimates are that 40% of the poor and very poor in the six project villages have benefited from some aspect of the project and from the implementation of the action plans. Those who have been engaged in the plans have been engaged in the implementation process from the project villages only. Policy and Institutional Structures, and Key Components for Success: Success of the project was down to the dedication of the project team, consisting of NGOs and academics, and the willing participation of the primary beneficiaries. Some outputs of the project will endure beyond the lifetime of the project, such as MOVE and self help groups (described in other proformas). However, those outputs which address environmental degradation in the peri-urban interface lack official support because of the lack of a governmental appreciation of the need to manage the PUI as a particular entity. Issues requiring collaboration between urban and rural administration include provisions for market access for poor producers, access to farmers markets set up for direct interface between rural and urban areas, sewage treatment where the sewage from the cities flows into peri-urban areas and untreated sewage was used for vegetable cultivation which led to E. coli being present in the vegetables, rehabilitation of urban watersheds (or those that straddle the arbitrary rural-urban administrative boundary) and so on. Skill building for livelihoods for the periurban poor in nearby urban markets such as retailing and services is also an unaddressed need. Housing needs of the urban areas and the needs of the construction industry in the form of skilled labour and environmentally friendly materials are needed to meet this demand. Education and skill needs of urban areas need to met through better education services and infrastructure for urban and periurban populations. The health sector also requires improved facilities to cater to greater volumes especially of the surrounding periurban areas. The local government needs to be able to subcontract its services to self help groups and to non governmental organizations which have to be further trained to meet this need. This can all happen only if the local government and the Development Planning Committee (DPC, an official body but is nowhere functional yet) officials are sensitized to these new needs, the importance of rural urban collaboration and the need for engaging with civil society. Some of these issues were discussed in the ad hoc District Steering Committee (DSC) set up by the DFID-funded projects and an rural urban task force was set up which did not continue due to the transfer of officials. However these bodies had to be set up because of the absence of a functional DPC. The DPC then was seen as a political body with only advisory powers and no budget. It is constituted of elected officials and the bureaucracy and seen as more of a political body than a planning body. However with Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) now in place whose reforms require the setting up of functional DPCs, it is now a need to facilitate the formation and functioning of the DPCs. Thus there may be considerable scope for managing the peri-urban interface as an entity in future. Lessons Learned and Uptake Pathways Promotion of Outputs: No active promotion at the moment. Policy briefs on governance and on natural resource management in the peri-urban interface, and videos on CD were distributed to a mailing list of several hundred government and civil society personnel. As these are tangible products, their effect may still be maturing. Potential Barriers Preventing Adoption of Outputs:
How to Overcome Barriers to Adoption of Outputs:
The National Steering Group (NSG) may consider addition or deletion of cities/ Urban Areas or towns eligible for JNNURM (other than State capitals) based on the suggestions received from State Governments. The total number of cities under the Mission shall, however, remain around 60. Currently proposed cities under 1 million are: Guwahati, Itanagar, Jammu, Raipur, Panaji, Shimla, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Imphal, Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima, Bhubaneshwar, Gangtok, Agartala, Dehradun, Bodhgaya, Ujjain, Puri, Ajmer-Pushkar, Nainital, Mysore, Pondicherry, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Mathura, Haridwar, Nanded. Lessons Learned:
Poverty Impact Studies:
How the Poor have Benefited (including gender and other poverty groups): Examples of benefits at three levels will be given; community, household and self-help group. Benefits of water feeder channel and tank rehabilitation in Kotur village in 2005 were:
Soil and water conservation measures in Channapur village (pits and bunds around field perimeters with tree and shrub barriers) three years after establishment resulted in a mean increase in crop yield of 45% (averaged across several dryland crop species; soybean, cotton, sorghum, pigeonpea) and an average monetary increase of £33.75 per farmer per hectare per season. All but one of the farmers sampled in Channapur were in the very poor or poor wealth categories. SHG formation has had many impacts at the personal as well as at the social level. An independent assessment done by Cambridge University (PD123, p13) found that SHG formation led to various forms of empowerment: personal, social, political and economic Training and exposure visits increased their awareness level. Women said that they were more confident to go out of their houses alone and speak to any man in the village or in any government agency. The SHGs have saved and taken loans for starting income generating activities like dairy, goat rearing, poultry, tailoring, soap making and bangle selling to name a few. Data shows that among the loans taken, 42.2 percent of these loans were taken for production purposes. These production loans were taken to enhance or expand existing livelihoods and some were taken for new livelihood options. This has improved their earning, thus enhancing their livelihoods. Relief from moneylenders is one of the important outcomes of SHG formation where the poor were entangled to the moneylenders. The SHG members there are now moving away from taking loans from moneylenders to taking loans from the SHG. Average savings per poor SHG member increased from £3.80 in 2001 to £28.50 in 2005 (data from PD138). Direct and Indirect Environmental Benefits: Implementation of action plans for agroforestry and catchment rehabilitation had a positive effect upon the environment, in that soil erosion by water was reduced and crop land was in use for longer in the year, so reducing the potential for wind erosion of soil. Implementation of alternative uses for sewage irrigation (non-food crops, trees) would reduce levels of pollution in waterways and negative health effects. Composting (either by aerobic decomposition or using worms) reduces the quantity of municipal solid waste and facilitates access to organic matter by farmers, reducing the need to apply artificial fertilizers. Agroforestry supplies wood fuel, relieving pressure upon the natural forests which are being rapidly depleted. The installation of more fuel efficient, smokeless stoves both reduces the requirement for fuel wood and respiratory diseases and eye conditions of the women who do the cooking. Adverse Environmental Impacts: None anticipated. Coping with the Effects of Climate Change, or Risk from Natural Disasters: Implementation of catchment rehabilitation and agroforestry increase the overall resilience of the landscape to adverse climatic effects such as drought (observed during the project) and unseasonally heavy rainfall. Relevant Research Projects,
with links to the
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For relevant research projects, with links to further information Geographical regions included: India,  Target Audiences for this content:Crop farmers, Livestock farmers, Fishers, Forest-dependent poor, |
