Promoting Success: Partnerships, Policy&Empowerment

Natural Resources Knowledge

Promoting Success:
Partnerships, Policy and Empowerment

Natural Resources Knowledge

A collection of summaries describing key outputs from clusters of projects run by DFID's recently completed 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.

	Planning and Policy
	Community Development
	Information and Tools

Planing and Policy:

	A better method of planning for city fringes - Participatory Action Planning and Implementation (PU - PAPI)	NRSP29
	Developed in Kolkata in West Bengal (India), a new planning approach is available to help decision makers apply participatory planning in difficult peri-urban environments. Conventional planning systems are unsuited to the complexity of peri-urban areas. To overcome this, the 'Peri-Urban Participatory Action Planning and Implementation' (PU-PAPi) method combines established participatory planning methods with new features, and so is better suited to such complex settings. The method has already been validated in India and Bangladesh, and is expected to be applied at various locations worldwide. An adapted form of PU-PAPi is already being used in the EC MANGROVE Project working with poor communities in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
	Changing global seafood trade standards harm poor fishers - Globalisation and seafood trade legislation: The effect of poverty in India	PHF14
	New research is warning policy makers that globalisation is harming poor fishing communities. These communities already have a smaller share of the market because of new regulations. More controls in the pipeline mean further downsizing. Poor fishers have no way of coping with these changes and must either be helped to find other ways of making a living or helped to adjust to the new standards. Involving communities in managing fisheries and in drawing up quality control processes is a start to helping them adapt. Governments, and development agencies and NGOs such as FAO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, CARE and Oxfam, are already taking these new findings into account to plan fisheries developments that will help poor fishers cope with globalisation.
	Fairer use of shared forest resources - Forest CPR management and use in Nepal: Hills	NRSP25
	In the mid-hills of Nepal, work has been conducted to ensure that the poor benefit more from the community forests on which they depend. Nearly 33% of the 10 million people found in these hills live in poverty and rely on community forests. Currently, 23% of the mid-hills forests are managed by 12,500 Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs). These CFUGs have succeeded in reversing forest degradation. However, they tend to marginalise women and the poorest groups, restricting their access to the forest. Working closely with stakeholders, researchers have devised a whole range of management options which could improve the services CFUGs provide to the poor. Examples include micro-credit provision, support for forest-based enterprise and the promotion of trade linkages.
	Mobilizing city-edge communities for action - Participatory planning and implementation	NRSP31
	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.
	Participatory systems put farmers knowledge into research - Integration of participatory technology developed into research and extension	NRSP20
	A participatory process in Ghana is developing technologies with key input from end users. Participatory technology development (PTD) is helping to convert current land use - based on growing crops in rotation with bush-fallow - into more productive systems. The PTD method incorporates farmers' local ecological knowledge about fallows into designs that fit in with local tenure rules and farming practices. It's also behind two pilot decision-support tools. These garner locally appropriate information, to improve the way fallows are managed in West and Central Africa, and to produce custom extension materials that aim to boost yields in cocoa-based farming systems. The PTD method is currently being used in Ghana, while the decision-support tools (that are available from several websites) are used internationally, including in the West Indies, Venezuela and Mali.
	Policy reforms lead to improved livelihoods - Achieving alternative livelihood strategies	NRSP10
	New guidelines show how to promote integrated pro-poor natural resource management, supporting sustainable traditional and alternative livelihoods, in the coastal zones of the Caribbean. Previously, there was a large gap between existing policy and its implementation, and these guidelines aim to help fill this gap. The central point is collaboration and partnerships among key stakeholders to carry out activities to cut poverty through better livelihoods for the poor. Community Based Sustainable Tourism (CBST) is an example of a framework within which natural resource based livelihood options - fishing, farming, agro-processing and tourism - are considered. The guidelines are in use in Belize and Grenada. In St. Lucia, the Heritage Tourism Programme used the findings to validate some of their own priorities.
	Spotlighting development in peri-urban areas - Less poverty for rural to urban change	NRSP32
	Valuable knowledge has been generated about production, livelihoods and poverty at the boundaries between rural and urban areas. This will help policy makers and development agencies target support for the livelihoods of millions in these peri-urban areas which are growing rapidly as cities expand. The synthesis of lessons learned and future directions covers 10 years of results from DFID-funded research in three city regions: Kumasi (Ghana) and Hubli-Dharwad and Kolkata (India). It found many issues common to all three regions, and tackles concerns ranging from growing higher value crops for sale in urban markets, and start-up training for small businesses, to urban waste-management policy.

Community Development :

	Advocacy gives the voiceless a voice - Developing and promoting mechanisms for the delivery of improved rural services	NRSP21
	'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.
	Community Parliaments make voices heard and needs felt - inventory credit schemes (community parliaments)	CPH11
	Community Parliaments (CPs) offer well-structured, innovative mechanisms for making local voices heard. They also improve coordination and dialogue among community groups, creating an empowering platform to steer local development. In Kenya, farmers had little access to market-chain information, and lacked basic farm inputs, labour and credit. Intermediaries, who deprived farmers of their profits, ran markets. Finally, poor infrastructure made it difficult to get farm produce to markets. Community Parliaments have helped to change this picture in four parts of Kenya, addressing these and other problems. Micro-credit is one of the important services they offer. The government, private companies, and development agencies are using CPs to reach almost 10,000 people in the four locations and the model is quickly spreading to other parts of the country.
	Creating a dialogue to influence policy - Empowering the rural poor to communicate with and influence government	FRP48
	Communities in Malawi use video as a tool to create dialogues and make their voices heard. Using video helps villagers first review their own position critically. Then, their representative can present their case at crucial meetings, reinforced by the video of statements from villagers. Through this process, communities discover new skills: researching, analysing, expressing themselves, making presentations, negotiating and team building. They become self-confident. Women speak up, even outside their communities. Spokespersons find out who to meet with, and what they need to do to become part of decision making. Villages get together to plan around common needs. And, their representatives become accustomed to reporting back. Proven in Malawi, these dialogues are now spreading to Vietnam, Ghana, and Sierra Leone.
	Credit and know-how boost farm incomes - Enhancing livelihoods and income through integrated land management and credit provision	NRSP16
	Farm households in the highlands of western Kenya are improving their livelihoods using a community credit scheme and a set of decision-support tools. Depleted soils, due to continuous maize cropping, together with Striga infestation, have trapped farmers in a cycle of low yields and poor soil fertility. To diversify into higher value crops on their limited land, households must intensify maize production. The credit scheme lets farmers invest in fertilisers, while the decision-support tools help borrowers with land management questions. Although developed in Kenya, these tools are applicable to many areas of Africa dominated by poor, food-deficient, semi-subsistence farm households. In Kenya, the tools are promoted by a World Bank-funded project, and they have also been introduced in Uganda.
	Getting farmers involved - Incorporating local knowledge in participatory technology developed of soil and water management interventions in the middle hills of Nepal	NRSP26
	In Nepal, work to manage water and address soil and nutrient losses has focused on farmer participation. This is seen as the best way to produce appropriate outputs and ensure that technologies are adopted. Mixing scientific know-how with local knowledge also offers innovative ways to tackle local problems. To help with this, new methods have been developed to document and analyse local people's knowledge and perceptions of soil and water conservation methods. Researchers have also worked closely with farmers to produce adaptable ways of minimising the nutrient losses caused by erosion and leaching. At the project sites, 25% of those farmers not actually involved in the project have adopted the new soil and water management interventions - indicating the project's success.
	Helping themselves out of poverty - Community mobilisation for self sustaining development in Africa and Asia	NRSP30
	Self-help groups are being used to improve the lives of poor, vulnerable women in-peri urban areas. The poorest women in such locations often have no assets and very little time. And, most feel trapped in a situation they feel it is impossible for them to change. As a result, development efforts find it very difficult to motivate or help them. Self-help groups such as those set up in Karnataka (India), however, empower women, allowing them to pool their resources and find ways to earn an income. They can also provide women with the support they need to cope with partners who damage the financial stability of the family by drinking and gambling - two common problems in peri-urban areas.
	Irrigated gardens reduce poverty and build empowerment - Partnerships and empowerment: Scaling up irrigated gardens in the semi-arid communal areas of southern Africa	NRSP18
	Scaling up of the productive use of water, especially through use of irrigated gardens, is cutting poverty in southern Africa. High livestock densities, damage to the environment and small, uneconomic holdings lead to widespread poverty. Developing strategies for sustainable livelihoods and managing common property resources is the best way to fight poverty. In particular, water points (wells, boreholes, dams) act as incubators for economic and institutional development and empowerment. They can therefore help to alleviate poverty while building capacity and self-respect. Various NGOs are using these approaches in the semi-arid zones of southern Zimbabwe and South Africa's Limpopo province. These include CARE (in small dam construction and rehabilitation), Plan (in water development and enhancing communities' livelihoods and empowerment), the Lutheran World Federation and GTZ (structured learning).
	Lessons learned - managing shared resources - Common pool resource management and poverty	NRSP24
	In India, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, participatory forest management projects have conducted studies to help us better understand how and in what way the poor depend on shared resources. The results of this research can be used to improve policy and prevent future conflicts arising over shared resources. The projects involved produced a range of useful outputs. Examples include conflict management strategies that were developed in partnership with local target institutions and an analytical framework to help decision makers recognise and understand the implications of possible policy options. The outputs produced by these projects are now being used by a range of in-country partners.
	Partnership-based innovation helps break bad habits - Principle for enabling partnership-based innovation	CPH12
	An innovation systems concept pioneered in India provides a new conceptual framework for improving the responsiveness of research to the needs of diverse technology users; the integration of research into the wider set of development activities; and the cultivation of practices that facilitate integration. Partnership is increasingly important for improving the use of research in development. Yet long-standing issues (habits, routines and practices) often make partnerships difficult to establish and sustain, keeping innovation from taking place. This conceptual framework is currently shaping a diversity of programmes. Investment in capacity strengthening will enable numerous organisations to apply the approaches effectively.
	Planning community forest management to benefit the poor - Forest CPR management and use in Nepal: Terai	NRSP34
	Much-needed options for ensuring pro-poor benefits of community forest use have been identified for Nepal's lowland Tarai region. These options are already being used in Government policy debates and donor-funded development projects. They focus on empowering the poor, and on democratic and transparent decision-making, monitoring and fund management. To avoid benefits going mainly to the wealthier, extension support should focus on getting women, and tribal and poor people to participate more actively and making them aware of their legal rights. Public audits and pro-poor cash dividends would also help money reach the poor. A benefit modelling system to show who gives and gets what, and who could potentially give and get what, based on wealth-rankings and needs, will be a useful tool.
	Simple transport solutions cut drudgery and improve livelihoods - Building partnerships for sustainable rural transport development	CPH27
	In Uganda, Intermediate Means of Transport (IMTs) - such as pack animals and ox and donkey carts - are lessening rural women's burden by helping to move crops, water and firewood. Previously, women covered their transport needs by head-loading, carrying heavy bundles from the field to the homestead and from there to the market. The use of oxen for ploughing is also enabling farmers to pay back quickly the loans they take out to purchase draught animals and carts. At the community level, IMTs are being used to haul building materials for community centres, schools, and churches. The Uganda Transport Forum Group has helped to spread the use of IMTs, coordinating project activities among farmer groups, intermediary organisations and international research institutes.
	Strengthening local organisations gives farmers more say in local policy - Strengthening Social Capital for Improving Governance of Natural Resources in Highlands of Eastern Africa	NRSP17
	Rural livelihoods are improving thanks to stronger social capital and the creation of conditions in which local people can help to start and effect policy change. Despite recent decentralisation, local communities in the highlands of Uganda were still not able to influence policy and the take-up of new natural resources management solutions. To be effective, decentralisation must be supported by strong local institutions or mature social capital. This methodology is used by professionals working with rural communities to improve their livelihoods using participatory approaches. It is currently used by CIAT's Enabling Rural Innovation project in Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, D.R. Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
	Successes in improving the livelihoods of the poor and extremely poor - Scaleable and sustainable community-level institutions that facilitate livelihood improvement for the poor and the extreme poor	NRSP33
	A remarkably successful approach involving self-help groups and micro-credit - which is both low-cost and self-sustaining - is empowering the poorest in Indian farming communities and reducing hunger and vulnerability. The so-called 'dialectic approach' encourages self-help group members to debate and identify the solutions best for them. And the micro-loans provide a valuable safety net in times of dire need, helping many who otherwise had no access to credit. Self-help groups have sprung up rapidly after NGOs took up and spread the idea: over 1000 groups now exist in over 500 villages. Banks and micro-finance providers are now also using the approach. The model has huge potential for central and northern India, as well as for other parts of South and South East Asia.
	Tackling peri-urban problems - Supporting innovation - West African Peri-urban Poverty Policy Platform (WAPPPP)	NRSP28
	In Ghana and India, better understanding of the problems faced by people living on the margins of towns and cities offers new help to policy makers, planners and development workers. Many people living in these peri-urban areas struggle to adapt their traditional rural activities in the face of urbanisation. This particularly affects the most vulnerable groups, such as women and children. Working closely with local partners, various projects identified a range of issues that policy makers need to bear in mind. For example, it's important to remember that farming and trading still play crucial roles in these areas. Also important is the fact that people living there need fast cash returns on new activities, because their rural, largely non-cash livelihood activities are fast disappearing.
	Consensus-building tool brings participatory planning to the floodplain - Participatory Action Plan Development for NRM and rural development - utilising and building consensus	NRSP01
	Participatory Action Plan Development (PAPD) is giving the community a say in how natural resources are managed. Although this is not a new idea, there are few success stories from the many previous attempts in the Bangladesh floodplain. It's used early on to assist in setting up new institutions or before new phases of a project, and helps identify those features likely to influence their sustainability. PAPD is widely used in Bangladesh in the land-water interface and floodplain fisheries context. It has been adapted for the charlands (river islands), and recently used in areas such as disaster preparedness and agroforestry systems. Outside Bangladesh, PAPD is used by the WorldFish Center in Vietnam, and in coastal India (Kerala) and Cambodia.

Information and Tools:

	Working more closely with producers - a new guide - Participatory livestock research	LPP27
	'Participatory Livestock Research - A Guide', is a new book designed to help researchers avoid the problem of new technologies not being adopted by small livestock keepers. Many technologies have not been adopted in the past for a range of reasons. Some, for example, did not take into account the limited resources of poor users, like lack of land, while others targeted problems that poor producers did not feel were urgent. The new book teaches its readers how to work more closely with end users, to ensure that the final result is something that is wanted and can be used. It details the methods and principles applied to participatory technology development, and backs this up with a range of case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.
	Access to knowledge can make change a reality - Policy advice and planning frameworks to help strengthen pro-poor institutional learning and change	CPH13
	New knowledge is shedding light on how pro-poor institutional learning and change occur, and how to encourage and promote them. It includes syntheses of principles and procedures as well as lessons that can be useful to a range of actors. These insights are part of a pro-poor innovation framework that can be used to guide the application of knowledge, technology and information for pro-poor economic and productive impact. Numerous organisations are using the framework to guide policy making for change in norms, habits and practices, including the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, International Livestock Research Institute, Institute of Rural Management (India), as well as several civil society organizations.
	Sustainable use of medicinal plants - Participatory science for sustainable forest harvests	FRP38
	New methods are available to help communities extract medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs) from their community forests in sustainable ways. More and more communities are now managing or co-managing their forests and pastures, and this is boosting the amount of medicinal NTFPs being collected. To ensure that resources like medicinal plants last, researchers have worked closely with communities in India and Nepal to develop appropriate ways of ensuring sustainable use. The project has produced a variety of useful outputs, ranging from a method of assessing the sustainability of extraction activities to a handbook to help extension workers train villagers in the new techniques. The methods developed are proving popular and have recently been taken up and transferred to Peru by the UK's Darwin Foundation.
	Protecting consumer health in cities - Mobilising policy systems and stakeholder networks to improve food safety for the urban and peri-urban poor	CPH06
	New knowledge about the policy linkages between food safety, poverty and environmental pollution has had a major impact in guaranteeing consumer health India. A key factor in the formula for success was the creation of a food-safety forum involving representatives from government, the private sector, and non-government and community organizations. They worked together on policy advocacy and developed and tested food-safety strategies. Environmental pollution can lead to contamination of fresh produce, endangering the health and livelihoods of people living in and around cities. The valuable institutional lessons, policy perspectives and processes that emerged from the Indian experience can help to promote pro-poor food-safety policy in other countries and contexts.
	Database provides link between rural groups and policy makers - Informing the policy process: Decentralisation and environmental democracy in Ghana	NRSP19
	A district-based information system in Ghana is opening up the policy process to debate, dialogue and consensus building. Previously, rural communities had often been indifferent to policies, meaning they were often not put into practice. The new system is a simple, participatory geographic information system (GIS). Its key features build on the local knowledge of the community, to collect data on natural resources and livelihood activities. Local networks of producers are encouraged to develop and state their demands for policy change and for information, and to organise platforms to put these demands to policy makers. The system is in use at the North Kintampo district assembly. The district agricultural department is also interested in using the method to develop its own district-wide surveys.