Background:
Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia and, according to the United Nations, one of the very poorest countries outside Africa. About 44 percent of the population of 23.5 million is under the age of 15. Poverty is particularly hard in rural areas of northwest Nepal, which are isolated, lacking roads for vehicle transport (people generally travel on foot or by pack mule), and subject to droughts save for a short rainy season.
Mission East's project takes place in the Humla and Mugu Districts, in the so-called "Soru Belt," near where Nepal abuts China and India. The area was especially hard-hit by the Maoist uprising in the country and by govenrment counterinsurgency campaigns, which forced many to leave the area or to give up their traditional agriculture practices. Sparse incomes were disrupted and families stopped producing grain for food. With a new government in place since the Maoists and the government signed a peace agreement in 2006, long-term solutions to the social and economic problems faced are now becoming more possible and new government structures in the countryside hold the potential to involve new actors in local decisions.
Mission East has teamed up with a Nepali organization, the Karmali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC), to address the problem that residents themselves identified as most pressing: lack of ways to earn money over the long term (as opposed to one-time humanitarian aid distributions of food). There is a strong community desire to work together with the government, social groups, KIRDARC, and Mission East to improve living situations in the region. This readiness to participate in improving the community's perspectives is the cornerstone of this project.
Action:
The cooperation between these groups to improve long-term ("sustainable") livelihoods will focus on several project components.
Two communities will build irrigation systems with help from Mission East and KIRDARC. The villagers will form a group to manage and maintain the systems, giving them a voice in the use of the water for growing crops.
40 farmers will learn better techniques for growing and storing food. These 40 people will teach the same techniques to other farmers in the region. At all levels, representatives of government, Nepalese civil society and development organizations, and farmers will work together to that they may continue this work and introduce similar programs to other nearby areas. |
Project Aims:
This project aims to develop the capacity of communities, civil society organisations, and local authorities to improve livelihoods for up to 5,000 people (including women and other marginalized groups) suffering from chronic poverty in the "Soru Belt," Mid-Western Nepal. This will be achieved through developing representative structures to manage community assets and promotion of local development priorities, improving food production capacity of up to 5,000 people through the construction of two irrigation systems and a network of 40 farmers-trainers disseminating improved farming techniques, helping KIRDARC itself to become more and more capable of managing large long-term projects, and bringing local authorities into more contact with community-level representative groups to work on common projects.
Major Donor: Danish Missionary Council Development Organisation
Project Code: Nep-DMCDD-001
Location: North-western Nepal, Humla and Mugu Districts |
