Livelihoods Support

Way Forward

AKSHARA

AKSHARA

Context: Trends

Context: Trends

• Government NGO

• Staff of NGOs Moving Out

• Govt. Projects, CSR Foundations, Large NGOs, CBOs Edge out ‘small’

• Reducing Charity; Most money for Foundations, Trusts; Venture Capital

• Micro-finance and other priorities; Bank Linkages

• Ideas to invest money not many

• South North; GOI discouraging small donors

Context: Trends

• Appreciating Rupee, Weakening Dollar

• Globalisation, Liberalisation

• Climate Changes

• Increased Pace of Life

• Secure livelihoods ‘off’

• Rules/Sanctions: Bhartrihari

• Huge Human Resource Gap in servicing poor

Context: Trends

• Increasing differences between poor and rich

• State withdrawal

• Retail Boom; ICT shining; Real Estate zoom

• More ‘Urban’; PURA; SEZs

• Dying Traditional Occupations

• Greying Population; Youth reluctant

• New livelihoods opportunities

• New divides

AKSHARA

Livelihoods Framework

Livelihoods of the Poor Overarching Vision

• Every individual Poor family is able to have a portfolio of decent livelihoods

Livelihoods of the Poor Key Principles

• The Elephant

• Seven Fish (The Ant)

• Meta fish/skill

• Equity

• Contribution/Repayment

• Institutions – social animals

• Sustainability

Livelihoods of the Poor Some Questions

• % of Rupee

• 3000 vocations

• Quality, Scale

• Interaction with markets

• Local Markets

• Holding capacity – stamina, infrastructure

• Integration with other livelihoods

LivelihoodsPlay of

Six CapitalsTowards

Within

Four Contexts

Livelihoods Framework

Four Contexts

Six Capitals

Four Arrows

Interventions

Four Contexts –Ecological, Techno-economic, Distribution Pattern, Investment-Expenditure PatternsSix Capitals – Natural, Physical, Social, Human, Financial and Spiritual – Knowledge-Skills-ResourcesFour Arrows – Income, Expenditure, Employment, Risk - Outcomes

Livelihoods

Livelihoods Enhancement Formula

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Critical Concepts within Livelihoods Framework

• Existing Livelihoods First

• Least Cost Interventions First; Skills First

• Address the entire value-chain

• Collective vs Individual; Partnerships

• Wage Labour – focus; Common Properties, lease, additional livelihoods!

• PK+OK+OK+? in the KSR system; knowledge-skills-resources system

• Best Practices within

Critical Concepts within Livelihoods Framework

• Market (particularly local market) First

• Micro-Macro Play

• Feasibility, Viability, Cost-effectiveness; Productivity, Equity, Sustainability

• Community Contribution; Repayment

• LEAPs (Livelihoods Enhancement Action Plans) in village and at higher levels

• Multiple doses of support

• People’s Projects

Livelihood Enhancement Action Plan (village)

• Social and Resource Maps

• Traded-in & Traded-out;

• Income & Expenditure Patterns

• Livelihoods, Value-chains, Farming System Analysis

• Opportunities

(for Wage Labour, CPRs, NTFP, Local Opportunities for existing and new products/services, Jobs and Enterprises)

Carried out by Community with support from CLFs/Activists and Professionals

The People’s Project Process (Timeline)

Organise Community

Project ideas (PES criteria)

Prioritise

Proposal

Resources/Funders

Appraisal

Linkages

Implementation

Evaluation

Follow-up

(+ use of repaid amounts/leveraging)

Technical Support through out

LF: Contours

• Poor are Consumers and Buyers; Producers and Sellers

• Poor can come together; add value; add new lines

• Livelihoods of the Poor are Risky

• Poor need Market Intelligence; Sub-sector Expertise

• Science can help Poor

• Poor can be de-skilled and re-skilled

• Poor need support of Activists/ Paraprofessionals; Human Resources for LF and their capacity building

LF: Contours

• Some Poor can be entrepreneurs; New Micro-enterprises; New Service-based enterprises; Group/Collective Enterprises of the Poor

• Meet the Credit needs; Livelihood Support Finance Mobilisation; People’s Bank(s)!?!;

• Infrastructure to increase the capacity to hold

• Partnerships

• LF Interventions ‘Endogenous’

• State Support• Some Paradoxes

– Credit; Infrastructure; Commodity Markets; Jobs

AKSHARA

L-Vulnerabilities

VulnerabilitiesChanging Contexts – Ecological and Environment, NRM Status,

Climate - Melting Glaciers, Depleting Reserves, Drying Groundwater, Pollution, Changing Food Habits, Demand-Supply

– Techno-economic, Technology, Economic changes, Increasing service sector, reducing agriculture in GDP,Competitive Edges – Chinese Goods, Indian Software,

Sweden Milk, Liberalisation, Globalisation, Appreciating and weakening currencies,

– Distribution Patterns, Poverty Line Definition, Targeting

– Income and Expenditure Patterns, State withdrawal, Social security, (food, wage, employment

security)

VulnerabilitiesChanges in Capital Structures including Policy [Rights, Access, Commons]

Natural, Physical, Social, Human, Financial, Spiritual

Four ArrowsIncome, Expenditure (Money, Time, Energy), Employment (no, less, skills)Risks (Covariant, Idiosyncratic) – Life, Livelihoods, Wages,

Accidents, Assets, Credit worthiness, Savings, Investments, Enterprise; Disasters

Impact of Vulnerabilities

– Vulnerabilities – contexts, capital structures and four arrows

– Impacts are higher for poor; Triple and Multiple Burden– Small livelihoods ignored/lost; diverse but small variants

lost– Coping Mechanisms becoming less effective– Without Risk Cover– Multiple Livelihoods lost, Dynamic Livelihoods – at loss – More than fall in incomes, spurts in Expenditure impact– Push Migration and some times, pull migration– Inter-generation impact – nutrition for example

Impact of Vulnerabilities

– Lack of Ideas for ‘realigning livelihoods’– Debt-trap– Dependency , Beyond? (on state, NGOs etc.)– Scant Investment to address Vulnerabilities– Costs of coming together– ‘Enough for everybody’s need’ but not greed

AKSHARA

L-Way Forward

Way Forward

– Help the poor to analyse their situation and take decisions

– Nothing really new – best practitioners and best practices

– Diverse Livelihoods –Farm; NTFP; Non-farm; Services; Migration

– Remember Multiple Livelihoods; Dynamic livelihoods

– Go ‘beyond fishing’; Information, Intelligence, Knowledge, Skills, Metafishing/Metaskills

– Jobs, Self-employment, Individual and Collective Enterprises

– Focus on Four Arrows, including costs and risks

Way Forward

– Look at ICT, Rural-Urban Continuum, Migration– Research – Livelihoods of Marginalized; Small

Livelihoods– Livelihoods Security; Food; Employment– Risks – appreciate, prevent, reduce impact, relief, cope, restore– Institutions, institutional processes

– Best Practices – dissemination for people’s informed choices

– PRIs for infrastructure needs– ‘Poor’ and ‘Non-poor’ collaborations– Going beyond ‘rhetoric’ Sustainable livelihoods [PRA!] – Environment Costs – who has to put the bill!– Incremental vs Steep Shifts; Oases vs Scalable/replicable

models

Way Forward

– Generalists at the interface with people – Professionals and paraprofessionals; Staff for CBOs –

CB– Livelihoods Orientation and HR at various levels – BIG

GAP– Differentiate Non-profit and not-for-profit– Prosperity Paradigm– Improved access to Finance; Finance for various needs– Finance vs. Ideas– Resource Optimisation, Endowments, Entitlements, Access,

Divides– Businesses for poor and by poor; Collectives

Way Forward

– Programs in Livelihoods Management– Livelihoods Learning Programs for workers, leaders,

facilitators– Occupational/Livelihoods Gurukulams– Livelihoods Orientation Campaigns– Livelihoods Support Organisations and Individuals– Field Partners and Field Stations– Collectives of L-workers– L-volunteers– L-dissemination

AKSHARA

AKSHARA Activities

AKSHARA

• GENESIS

– To address ‘Professional’ support gap in the development sector in general and in the livelihoods domain in particular

– With the Core Philosophy - “Application of management concepts, tools and techniques to development in general and Livelihoods Enhancement for the Poor, in particular, with the realisation that Livelihoods Management is potentially an independent discipline”

AKSHARA

• ACTIVITY FOCUS – Mentoring - Identifying, catalysing, facilitating,

supporting and mentoring – 5i for 5L5i - Ideas, initiatives, interventions, individuals, institutions for 5L - Life, Livelihoods, Leadership, Learning and Love

– Professional Support - professional tool kits/products/services

– Building replicable models of development/development processes

– Taking up programs that are important but not being addressed adequately at present

AKSHARA – Key Initiatives

– Akshara Livelihoods (Consulting)– Akshara-Gurukulam – D-school– Livelihoods Learning Programs– Partnerships for field practice and livelihoods management

orientation– Field Partners and Field Stations (Pochampally – scaling-

up!!!!!)– Visioning of organizations– Akshara Sakthi, an independent livelihoods volunteer

force– Livelihoods Life Workers– Livelihoods Support Organisations (LSOs) – LSO

Network(s)

AKSHARA – Key Initiatives

– Livelihoods (Poverty Reduction) Project Design Support – Long-term Support in livelihoods domain (lead orgns/projects)

– Community Livelihoods Facilitators’ Forum– ‘Chelama’ Livelihoods Professionals’ Collective

– Akshara Jobs/Jobs Exchange

– Akshara Livelihoods Books, ‘Jeevanopadhulu’, livelihoods

– Specific demand-based support - HR Processes, Training and Module Development

– Sub-sector Analysis, Country Reports … Dairy

AKSHARA

Thank You