III. Recommendations

i) Country action plan for governments
ii) Action plan for NGO/private sector
iii) Action plan at the SHO level
iv) Regional action plans/activities
v) Role of FAO and other agencies

After the three working groups presented their reports the workshop recognized the self help organization approach as an improved strategy for Participatory Decentralized Rural Development with a special focus on poverty alleviation, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. The workshop unanimously adopted the following recommendations:

i) Country action plan for governments

• Since the macro framework is too uniform, rigid and is often unresponsive to local realities, it is necessary to liberalize the legal framework to encourage farmers to cooperate to help themselves and to pursue development activities through participatory approaches based on their needs and capacities;

• National level development policy frameworks should be tailored to the complexities of rural livelihood systems with a better focus on the rural poor; local land tenure and use systems should be compatible with indigenous property rights;

• National governments should promote participatory decentralized rural development framework backed by resource allocation to local areas (districts, subdistricts, villages). Programmes at the central level should converge at the local level, using and improving both the pre-existing and the newly-created local structures to ensure that resources are deployed to meet local needs;

• Collaborative mechanisms to bring together government, NGOs, CSOs, private sector and self help organizations and the community to achieve better targeting and improve the quality of implementation of projects and programmes through a local participatory process should evolve or be established. Collaboration between the government sector, with its significant human resources and material, and the NGO sector, with its flexibility and outreach, would yield dramatic results on poverty alleviation and ensure sustainable agriculture and resource management;

• Institutional capacity building should be enhanced by upgrading the skill level of those working in these institutions;

• Increased participation in local governance should be ensured through greater devolution to local self-government authorities and to provide more resources to CSOs;

• Organize PDRD training (orientation, conscientization and sensitization) for all government officers on poverty alleviation, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management;

• Create a "single window" framework to support NGO/SHOs for registration formalities, supervision of their work and regulation of their activities.

• Promoting networking/alliance building is an important aspect of a meaningful SHO approach. NGO/SHO networking creates synergies, which can be used for poverty alleviation, sustainable agricultural development and natural resource management.

• Evolve mechanisms promoting the flow of information at different levels so that convergence and complementarity of information and knowledge systems can be tapped. Such a process should facilitate experience sharing, information dissemination and building a knowledge base.

ii) Action plan for NGO/private sector

The NGO/private sector should:

a) assist the participatory process and develop methodologies for formulating management plans according to local realities and capacities, taking into consideration local livelihood systems;

b) devise support systems specific to the needs and capacities of different areas (e.g. from micro-finance to more developed credit systems);

c) advocate and lobby for necessary amendments to restrictive legal frameworks and help formulate them in a manner conducive to participatory decentralized rural development, duly filling the institutional vacuum from district to village level;

d) assist in defining the role and mandate of the different stakeholders and evolve a human resource development programme responding to the needs of these different layers of decentralization;

e) provide training, resource material, exchange of success stories to strengthen SHO capacity to:

• Improve financial capability;

• Provide technical support;

• Enhance entrepreneurial capacity;

• Build "people-to-people" alliances;

• Develop conscientization, animation and facilitation through training and social mobilization. Finally,

f) NGOs with a comparative advantage in networking, alliance building, information and communication should embrace PDRD and take all steps for its adoption and implementation at the field level.

iii) Action plan at the SHO level

a) The greatest challenge in poverty alleviation is to enable the poor to perceive the possibility of change. SHOs should therefore adopt conscientization and awareness building among the poor and organize them into self help groups and then into bigger organizations so that they can take total control of their own lives;

b) They should strengthen local managerial, financial and administrative capacities so that the poor can take up their new responsibilities and challenges;

c) SHOs should facilitate village level planning by the community to enable the poor to implement, monitor and evaluate it.

d) SHOs in collaboration with NGOs should organize local communities to bring pressure on service providers - be it government or private sector - for effective and appropriate delivery of services to the village community, and to provide feedback to the appropriate forum/authorities concerned.

e) They should develop built-in mechanisms to sustain their operations for a longer-term. Built-in mechanisms include group management, organization and development, information sharing, saving, creation of seed capital and training for responsible leadership.

f) SHOs should focus on the poor and disadvantaged community and proactively organize and build their capacity for self-reliance and development.

g) They should act as a bridge between the GO/NGO and the local community, and promote participatory approaches to development with people's participation.

h) Poverty alleviation programmes should combine on- and off-farm activities, micro enterprises and additional skill development with improved access to microcredit to bring about a sustainable change in families' cash flow.

i) Economic and social activities such as agriculture, health and education should be implemented in a multi-sectorial approach since the complexity of poverty renders its alleviation unlikely if mono-sectorial approach is followed;

j) Farmer to farmer training should be the viable and effective strategy for sustainable agriculture using indigenous technology and knowledge;

k) Sustainable agriculture and natural resource management should be linked to food security as a first step of poverty alleviation;

l) PDRD should pursue self-reliance strategies using all available local resources so that undue dependence on external assistance is avoided.

iv) Regional action plans/activities

Regional offices of United Nations/international bodies such as FAO and ESCAP should advocate/support the strategy of participatory decentralized rural development.

a) They should identify and document successful supportive policy environments for participatory decentralized rural development and impress upon national governments the need to promote the adoption of such policies.

b) They should use their platform to advocate national and international policies favourable to Participatory Decentralized Rural Development.

c) They should provide a platform for policy advocacy that promotes public and private sector collaboration in the PDRD.

v) Role of FAO and other agencies

FAO and other international agencies should:

a) Identify and document "centres of excellence" where participatory decentralized rural development is practised successfully for replication and adaptation;

b) Organize exchange visits, study tours for SHOs and facilitate follow-up action;

c) Sponsor training, preparation of training materials, manuals, etc., through centres of excellence;

d) Identify and document "best practices" and "centres of excellence" to help implement PDRD strategy;

e) Institute awards (e.g. presenting the United Nations flag or certificates of recognition) to honour those countries which practice and promote "best practices" in PDRD.