August 2002
by Robin Marsh1
Agricultural Economist
Director of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development
University of California, Berkeley
Part 3 of 3
The research findings on local institution-rural livelihood linkages shared in the preceding sections provide an empirical basis on which to draw some key analytical conclusions, presented below17. Together, these conclusions contribute to a better understanding of the attributes of local institutions and their interactions, weak or strong, with the livelihoods of the rural poor. As such, they can provide guidance on working constructively with local institutions to support sustainable livelihoods. In the final section these points are distilled in institution-specific policy implications and recommendations.
The case studies show that inclusive, "bonding" local institutions - based on traditional norms of solidarity and reciprocity, are key elements in household livelihood strategies and community cohesion. Together these institutions (e.g. traditional authorities, common property rights, asset-sharing arrangements, mutual assistance, informal savings & credit, etc.) ensure a minimal level of food security and safety net for the most vulnerable groups. They govern access to communal natural resources that provide sustenance, especially for the poor and in times of crisis. They organize and finance community public works and civic-religious-cultural festivals and traditions. Their relative strength or weakness is often associated with relatively greater or lesser levels of social capital and intra-community conflict.
The evidence does not show a strong link, however, between participation in these types of bonding institutions and achievement of higher levels of income and consumption, or social mobility. They lack the influence, resources - and rationale, in some cases, to move beyond maintaining the social order. In the Mozambique study, for instance, participation in most of the local institutions profiled was not found to be an explanatory factor in differentiating poorer and wealthier households.
Local institutions that are heterogeneous- bringing together members of different social and economic positions and influence, often with outside assistance, can be effective means for the poor to achieve some social mobility. Examples include the dairy co-operatives [and related cattle-share arrangements], migrant associations, watershed user committees, political parties, churches, and local governance institutions. These institutions afford an opportunity for their poorer members to gain access to information and technologies and NGO and government initiatives that they may not learn about otherwise. In the four Mozambique villages, belonging to a formal organization, such as a church or political party, is associated with greater access to outside interventions. "Being active in community affairs leads to more opportunities for getting ahead". (Mozambique Final Report)
Nevertheless, we have seen that power inequities within these bridging institutions often limit the full participation of the poorer members. For instance, the landless and marginal farmers are typically forced to accept exploitative terms with land and cattle owners to gain access to a head or two of cattle required for membership in the dairy co-operatives. Upper caste men have historically run the Gram panchayat, and corruption has kept the poor from enjoying access to government schemes designed on their behalf. This is changing in the face of two types of pressure - strong progressive national legislation and community mobilization.
Local economic institutions are typically more inclusive than formal extra-local institutions and projects that require participants, members and/or managers to have minimal levels of education and wealth (e.g. rural banks, agricultural extension & training projects, even certain anti-poverty schemes). Moreover, non-local interventions may simply bypass the poor and other marginalized groups because their needs and capacities are "invisible" to outsiders. In traditional mutual assistance and lending arrangements, trust based on social standing can substitute for financial or asset-based collateral. These arrangements have lower transaction costs and default rates, as compared with formal credit institutions, because they are based on intimate knowledge of seasonal cash requirements, individual and household capacities to repay, as well as social pressures for both lenders and borrowers to retain their good standing in the community.
The profiles show several instances where government policies have repressed traditional institutions in order to exert political authority and control over local resources. In Mozambique, from the colonial era until today, traditional authorities have been co-opted by central government to gain access to rural communities, often undermining their legitimacy with these same communities. The imposition of State Marketing Boards and dismantling of traditional market and barter mechanisms during the socialist period has left rural post-war Mozambique bereft of market institutions. The devastating slaughter of livestock during the civil war greatly undermined the traditional practice of saving in cattle and paying dowries (lobolo) in cattle.
In the Philippines case, government repression of ancestral domain claims and selling off of prime forest and mineral resources to private corporations impoverished and weakened the local peoples and their institutions. More indirectly, the policies of economic liberalization in Mexico have undermined the rationale for subsistence agriculture and the economic viability of community forestry in the Oaxacan highlands. In India, farmers with land, water and access to credit are taking advantage of reduced regulations and free trade, but the poor and their institutions are largely excluded from these opportunities.
When repression of local institutions gives way to more tolerant and enabling policy environments, experience shows that many of these institutions are highly resilient18. The remarkably peaceful resettling of refugees after the civil war in Mozambique, for instance, is largely attributed to the role of traditional authorities in settling land claims and providing land access to newcomers. Now, for the first time, their legitimacy and capacity is being recognized in the National Land Law of 1997 and subsequent land reforms. In the Central African Republic, the once life-long mandate of customary village chief has been changed to ten years. In the Philippines, the indigenous institutions of the Cordillera - under military occupation during the 1970s and 1980s, were revitalized during the 1990s to implement new legislation recognizing their ancestral territorial claims.
Traditional institutions also appear able to adjust to changes in economic conditions in order to represent the best interests of their communities and maintain overall social order. For instance, in Oaxaca, Mexico, faced with the unstoppable out-migration of its people to the United States, local authorities are loosening traditional property rights to allow migrants to retain ownership of their land in exchange for financial contributions and other obligations. The male-dominated local governance structures - in India, Mexico and the Philippines, are adjusting to pressures from above and below to allow women and youth greater participation. Provided with appropriate training, local institutions have also proved willing and able to expand their traditional roles to become full partners in local development planning and implementation.
Non-governmental organizations can play a positive role in bridging the gap between traditional local institutions and policies or programs promoted by government and international donors. When dealing with complex resource and development issues involving multiple stakeholders, NGOs have proved useful in facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue and collaborative processes for managing conflict and finding lasting solutions (e.g. PANCORDI, Helvetas, Lutheran World Federation). This is particularly true when local communities mistrust government because of past abuses, or the perceived political partisanship of government bureaucrats. It is also the case that many international donors prefer to channel funds through NGOs, rather than government agencies, to get around political favors and improve program efficiency.
"The NGOs could, in a coherent and systematic way, establish partnerships and participate in the country's economic and social development. The role of NGOs would be to act as intermediaries between local institutions and international NGOs, donor agencies and government entities, and in problem cases when local associations do not know whom they should turn to." INDER Report, Mozambique
Another important role of NGOs is to provide training to different types of local institutions in the skills needed to take on new roles and responsibilities. This is particularly true in countries with strong decentralization policies and increasing devolution of authority to local levels. To complement local knowledge of resources, local institutions will need training in the modern tools of resource mapping, planning and sustainable management, for understanding how to identify and market both traditional commodities and environmental services, and in financial management, among other skills. There is also the more difficult challenge of working with traditional institutions biased against certain groups to become more inclusive and democratic in terms of "who benefits" and "who makes decisions".
"To capitalise on this local strength, identified here as social capital, according to our perception, work at community level should rest on the foundations of solidarity that keep the community social order functioning at local/rural level, thus avoiding social conflicts on a greater scale than the dynamics of society itself….. contributing to the transformation of this social order from within its own walls, gradually expanding the space covered by these same walls so as to make the interior go beyond into the outside world, pick up speed, run through the world that surrounds it, reaching the state, step by step, and participating in national life" (Baptista Lundin; 1999: 13).
The central idea here is that work at community level should rest on an understanding of the local social order, and then, from inside, transform values, build capacities and expand horizons.
Resting on foundations: Great caution is warranted about introducing parallel or competing institutions that may undermine traditions of solidarity that play a major role in maintaining the social order. For example, in the case of the traditional credit and savings arrangements in Dodoma, Tanzania, projects that aimed to introduce more modern systems failed, and carried the risk of increasing the vulnerability of the poor by weakening social norms of reciprocity and wealth redistribution. This has also been the outcome of numerous development projects in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, land titling, and health, among others, that failed to adequately consider their impacts on local institutions.
Contributing to the transformation: This is the opportunity to work with local institutions to explore, through a transparent process, the various interests in transforming the existing social order to better meet the needs and desires of different groups within society. NGOs can sometimes play a facilitative role, or change agents within the local institutions themselves. Often it is best to find common ground for action first, moving on to harder transitions later. An important area of transformation "from within" is on fundamental questions of representation and legitimacy. In implementing the National Land Law in Mozambique, the debate continues on: Who should represent local communities and on which grounds should such representation be considered legitimate?
Expanding the space: Communities and their institutions have an interest in increasing access to new technologies, markets, services and educational opportunities to improve livelihoods, social conditions and "connectedness" with the State. This requires open and prolonged dialogue about change options, and the costs and benefits for different groups within the community. NGOs can facilitate collaboration with governments and other outside institutions to expand economic opportunities and reduce local poverty.
The research for this paper, together with other studies on local institutions and rural development or natural resource management, demonstrate the richness of local institutional environments; in particular, the informal and less visible institutions, practices and arrange-ments that characterize rural socioeconomic and cultural interactions. The more resilient and organized local institutions are providing essential goods and services to the rural poor and vulnerable groups, particularly in the absense of well-functioning markets and safety nets. The paper suggests that both homogeneous or "bonding" institutions and heterogeneous or "bridging" institutions play distinct, necessary and complementary roles in crisis survival, asset-sharing, and providing new economic opportunities. The main policy conclusion is to urge policymakers concerned with rural poverty and food security to: 1) allocate additional resources and time to understanding and working with local institutions, and 2) provide a supportive legislative and regulatory framework in which local institutions can thrive and assume greater responsibilities.
The research findings suggest the need for a flexible and context-specific approach to partnering with local institutions. Therefore, this paper does not pretend to offer generic, prescriptive policy advice. Rather, an essential first step is to undergo an investigative process on livelihood-local institution linkages, before embarking on an action strategy. For the specific types of local institutions profiled in the SDAR/FAO pilot projects and case studies, the findings and recommendations given below may be useful as a starting point for creating a constructive working environment with these institutions.
Local informal institutions for mutual assistance are found throughout the world, particularly where formal institutions and safety nets are missing. Recommendations for working with these institutions include:
Case studies from India, Mexico, Africa and the Philippines provide guidance for local governments, NGOs and international donors on working collaboratively with traditional authorities:
For countries where international migration is an important source of income for many households and communities, policies are required that encourage migrants, living outside their countries of origin, to organize and remain institutionally linked with their sending communities, for example:
Micro-financing or other anti-poverty credit initiatives are likely to be more successful when they are based on an understanding of traditional savings and credit arrangements:
The research findings presented in this paper show the wide range of local institutions that are found in rural societies throughout the world. Informal institutions at village-level often substitute for missing formal institutions and safety nets, and tend to persist even during periods of government repression, negligence or co-optation. When village-government relations improve, sometimes with the intervention of NGOs, experience shows that the more resilient local institutions can be revitalized and strengthened to take on new roles and responsibilities, particularly in natural resource management and rural development planning.
The first task for "working with local institutions", whether at the policy or field level, is to identify and investigate the complex array of existing local institutions in a given locality, and the social norms and traditions they embody. How to carry out such an investigative process is clearly explained in the SDAR/FAO "Guidelines" publication (Guidelines for Understanding Linkages between Household Livelihood Strategies and Local Institutions, 2002).
This type of understanding will avoid the pitfall of undermining (inadvertently, perhaps) existing institutions - by introducing competing institutions that may be attractive in the short-run, especially from the point of view of projects under pressure "to deliver", but lack the social foundations for long-term sustainability. Such an investigation will also reveal the social values and norms that dictate the functioning of many local institutions - values that may be inconsistent with the "equity" goals of a particular policy, project or program. Consequently, partnering with these institutions may only be possible if the village authorities demonstrate flexibility and the willingness to reform, albeit slowly and within certain cultural limitations.
After undergoing an investigative process, and identifying the local institutions and authorities that would lend legitimacy, knowledge and sustainability to a given development initiative, the next stage may well be in the area of strengthening or capacity building. Capacity building may be needed in "process" areas - transparency, democracy, and accountability, for example, or in "technical" areas such as financial administration, natural resource planning and management, and information sciences. NGOs that are familiar with a particular locality, and enjoy the respect of local authorities, can play a very constructive role in identifying specific capacity-building needs and in facilitating training.
Finally, the evidence would suggest that working with local institutions is a long investment that requires a commitment commensurate with the challenge. As suggested above (Baptista Lundin, 1999: 13), the challenge is to capitalize on local strengths, facilitate a transformation "from within", and strengthen capacities of local institutions and their partners to work collaboratively and effectively toward common goals.
1Dr. Marsh worked with the Rural Institutions and Participation Service of FAO, Rome from 1997-2000. She can be reached by Email: rmarsh@nature.berkeley.edu.
2For instance, advocates of devolvement of power and resources to local levels tend to assume that "community-based" institutions are "democratic" and "inclusive", which is often not the case. Leach, Mearn and Scoones propose an "environmental entitlements" framework that accounts for community and ecological heterogeneity (1997).
3Rural Development Division, Rural Institutions and Participation Service (SDAR), FAO, 1997 - 1999. Research program coordinators: Dr. Kirsten Appendini and Dr. Robin Marsh.
4Principal investigators were: Dr. Vasant Gandhi, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Dr. Bart Pijnenburg, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, and Dr. Raul Garcia, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias (CRIM ), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Cuernavaca.
5In the 1997 article Uphoff distinguishes between institutions that provide value to society that transcends the interests of direct stakeholders, and organisations that serve a more limited purpose and membership, however he refers to a continuum whereby organisations can become more institutionalised and institutions more organised. In our research we do not make this formal distinction, including local organisations under the broader concept of local institutions, although the institutional profiles certainly delve into these qualitative differences.
6D. Narayan, "Social Capital: Social Exclusion and Social Cohesion", a presentation to SDAR/FAO, May 1999.
7See the DFID website: www.livelihoods.org for Guidance Sheets on the SLA.
8Three to four villages/communities selected in each country, meeting the following criteria: 1) encompass different levels of social cohesion; 2) are integrated into both labour and output markets; 3) encompass different types of land tenure and management; 4) for which baseline (pre-reforem) data exist on socio-economic conditions of households (mid 1980s to early 1990s).
9Dairy cooperatives and the gram panchayat are explored in more detail in the next section.
10The community appraisal report for Piparia village reports this exchange: "Farmers say labourers never work for more than 7 hours per day and often not even this, they do not work sincerely. On the other side labourers are saying that farmers are exploiting them and taking hard work from them giving little rest and paying only Rs25. If they work hard and become ill who will be responsible? Farmers would not pay for medicines and on the next day he would not allow them to work, as he is sick. So they will loose their daily wages, lunch and tea." p. 10
11Trans-boundary migration associations are another key institution linked to household livelihoods, and are covered in the next section of the paper.
12Prepared by Dr. Anirudh Krishna, currently at Duke University, North Carolina.
13Kurien and Krishna (1999) , Uphoff, Esman & Uphoff (1999)
14".....It is interesting to note that communities experiencing [near absence of socio-economic infrastructure], such as Banga, Netia and Djavula, are not in situations of alarming social disorder such as those that can be observed in urban areas, with robberies, murders, child prostitution, domestic and communal violence, and the individual and domestic misery of almost absolute poverty. While it is true that this relative social harmony is due to the isolation of the community from the cultural phenomena of urban areas, it is also fundamental to understand that this harmony is a product of the relatively effective and efficient operation of the institutions of socio-political power, economic institutions, educational institutions (the initiation rites), and the justice and religious institutions that exist there." (Lundin 1999: 35)
15National Institute of Statistics, 1997, Recenseamento Geral de População e Habitaçåo, Indicadores sócio-económicos, Mozambique. Annex 5.
16Adapted from Jochem Zoetelief, "Finance From Below: Savings Arrangements and Credit Mechanisms in Dodoma Rural District, Tanzania," M.Sc. thesis, Department of Social Science, Wageningen Agricultural University, 1999.
17Many of our key findings concur with the findings of the World Bank's Social Capital Initiative and Local Institutions Study described earlier, and the work of rural sociologist Deepa Narayan on poverty and social capital.
18Traditional societies are also replete with local institutions that do not adjust well to changing economic conditions and democratic pressures, particularly institutions steeped in religious, racial or tribal separatism.
19"Social Capital and Development Outcomes in Burkina Faso, LLI Study, Working Paper No. 7, Social Development Department, WB, September 1999. "The LLI Study: Program Description and Prototype Questionnaires," LLI Working Paper No. 2, WB, 1998. D. Narayan and L. Pritchett, "Cents and Sociability - Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper No. 1796, WB, 1997.
20SCI Working Paper Series, No. 1 - 13, Social Development Department, WB, 1996 - 2000. Krishna and E. Shrader, "Social Capital Assessment Tool," paper prepared for the conference on "Social Capital and Poverty Reduction", WB, June 1999.
21Main contributions of the SCAT methodology (taken from Krishna and Shrader 1999):
1) Community profile which integrates participatory qualitative methods with a community survey instrument to assess various dimensions of community-level social capital;
2) Household survey which includes a 39-item battery on structural social capital and a 21-item battery on cognitive social capital;
3) Organizational profile designed to delineate the relationships and networks that exist among formal and informal institutions, integrating semi-structured interview data with a scoring system for assessing organizational capacity and sustainability.
22N. Webster, "Introduction", in N. Webster (ed.), "In Search of Alternatives: Poverty, the Poor and Local Organisations," prepared for the Centre for Development Research Workshop on Local Organisations and Rural Poverty Alleviation (LORPA), Tune, Denmark, 1998.
23Livelihoods Connect: Policy, Institutions and Processes Dimension of Sustainable Livelihoods, www.livelihoods.org.
24Manor, J. 'decentralisation and sustainable livelihoods'; Newell, P. 'governance'; Hobley, M. 'organisational change and sustainable livelihoods' Goldman, I. 'micro to macro: policies and institutions for empowering the rural poor'; Kydd, J. 'sustainable livelihoods and new institutional economics'; Hussein, K. 'farmers' organisations and agricultural technology: institutions that give farmers a voice; and Ashley, S. 'livestock service delivery'. Bingen, J. Institutions and sustainable livelihoods; Thomson, A. Sustainable livelihood approaches at the policy level.
25See the IIED website for descriptions of their current collaborative research projects and lists of their publications. www.iied.org.
Baland, Jean-Marie and Jean-Philippe Platteau (1996) Halting Degradation of Natural Resources: Is there a Role for Rural Communities. Rome: FAO.
Collier, Paul (1998) Social Capital and Poverty. Washington, D.C.:World Bank.
DFID (1998) Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: What contribution can we make? ed. by Diana Carney. London: DFID.
Esman, Milton and Norman Uphoff (1984) Local Organizations: Intermediaries in Rural Development. Ithaca, N.Y.:Cornell University Press.
FAO/Rural Institutions and Participation Service (2001) Household Livelihoods - Local Institutions Working Paper Series. Country final reports, village reports, institutional profiles and other papers prepared for the study "Rural Household Income Strategies for Poverty Alleviation and Interactions with the Local Institutional Environment". Rome:SDAR/FAO.
Grootaert, Christianna (1998) Social Capital: The Missing Link? Social Capital Initiative WP Series #3. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Korten, David C. (1990) Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and the Global Agenda. West Hartford, Conn:Kumarian Press.
Krishna, Anirudh and Norman Uphoff (1999) Mapping and Measuring Social Capital: A Conceptual and Empirical Study of Collective Action for Conserving and Developing Watersheds in Rajasthan, India. Social Capital Initiative WP Series #13. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Krishna, Anirudh and Elizabeth Shrader (1999) Cross-cultural Measures of Social Capital: A Tool and Results from India and Panama. Social Capital Initiative WP Series #21. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Leach, M., Robin Mearns and Ian Scoones (1997) Environmental Entitlements: A Framework for Understanding the Institutional Dynamics of Environmental Change. IDS Discussion Papers - 359, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, England.
Lundin, Irae Baptista (1999) As Estruturas Tradicionais nas Politicas e Programas de Descentralizacao e na Realidade Rural em Mocambique. Manuscript prepared for HH-LI FAO study, translated shorter version as : HH-LI WP Series #13. Rome: SDAR/FAO.
Marsh, Robin and K. Appendini (1998) "Rural Household Livelihood Strategies and Interactions with the Local Institutional Environment: Research Problem, Design and Policy Implications," presented at the AFSRE 15th Int'l Symposium: Rural Livelihoods, Empowerment and the Environment: Going Beyond the Farm Boundary. Pretoria, South Africa: AFSRE Proceedings.
Messer, Norman (1999) Mapping Traditional Structures in Decentralisation Policies. HH-LI WP Series #12. Rome: SDAR/FAO.
Messer, Norman, Philip Townsley and Robin Marsh (2002) Guidelines for Understanding Linkages between Household Livelihood Strategies and Local Institutions. Rome. SDAR/FAO.
Narayan, Deepa and Lance Pritchett (1998) "Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania" Economic Development and Cultural Change (forth-coming)
Narayan, Deepa et al (2000) Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
Selener, Daniel, Jacqueline Chenier and Raul Zelaya (1997) De Campesino a Campesino: Experiencias Prácticas de Extensión Rural Participativa. Quito, Ecuador: Instituto Internacional de Reconstruccion Rural.
Uphoff, Norman, Milton Esman and Anirudh Krishna (1997) Reasons for Hope: Instructive Experiences in Rural Development. West Hartford, Conn:Kumanrian Press.
Uphoff, Norman Milton Esman and Anirudh Krishna (1998) Reasons for Success: Learning from Instructive Experiences in Rural Development. West Hartford, Conn:Kumarian Press.
Woolcock, Michael and Deepa Narayan (2000) "Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research and Policy" World Bank Research Observer 15(2)
In addition to a wealth of academic literature on local institutions and social capital, there have been a number of recent policy-oriented research efforts sharing similar objectives to the SDAR/FAO program, and with which collaborative information exchanges have been established. These programs are briefly described below.
The Social Development Department of the World Bank with the Poverty Group has carried out cross-national comparative research on local level institutions and social capital in Indonesia, Bolivia and Burkina Faso. A major contribution of the research was to develop a "framework for data collection and analysis" which could be employed to determine the relationships between local institutions, social capital, poverty and economic development.
For analytical purposes, the LLI classified institutions by affiliation and function, origin, type of organization, and degree of importance to the household, using membership in associations for a proxy measure of social capital. The field research focused on the more formal local organizations and associations to allow for quantitative measurement and comparative analysis. Positive correlations were found between membership in associations and household welfare.
In 1996, the World Bank's Social Development Department initiated the Social Capital Initiative to "operationalize the concept of social capital and to demonstrate how and how much it affects development outcomes"(I.Serageldin). Specific objectives were:
The eleven studies that constitute the empirical centre of the SCI examine the role that social capital can play in the provision of goods and services, rural development efforts, enterprise development, and the reconstruction or revitalization of social capital after conflict or political transition. The SCI also commissioned concept papers, the development of a "tool" to measure social capital (SCAT, the Social Capital Assessment Tool)21 , micro- and macroeconomic literature reviews, and an annotated bibliography.
The LORPA research program of the Danish Centre for Development Research had the overall objective, "to analyze and assess the role and capacity of different types of local organisations to bring about poverty reduction" (Webster 1998: 7). Eight country studies were undertaken to assess a series of research questions, including: how different forms of state-local relations affect and shape the conditions for (success) of a rural development strategy with a strong pro-poor dimension; the role of identity and identity formation (ethnicity, gender, religion, occupation) as a basis for collective action amongst the rural poor; and, the role of national and international institutional actors in the generation/denial/control of 'political space' for local organisations through their advocacy of specific policies and use of particular development discourses.
At the methodological level, LORPA has developed a number of inter-disciplinary field work strategies including different types of mapping exercises for exploring the relationships between local organisations, organising practices, and poverty.
The Department for International Development (DFID) of the U.K. is sponsoring far-reaching normative and development work in the area of sustainable livelihoods, with many partners around the globe. A Policy, Institutions and Processes (PIP) sub-group was established as a forum for the interchange of ideas on: "the social and institutional context within which individuals and families construct and adapt their livelihoods." Research on one or another dimension of PIP is being carried out by the institutional members of the Sustainable Livelihoods Resource Group, including Oxford Policy Management, Natural Resources Institute, Institute of Development Studies (Sussex), and Overseas Development Institute.
The paper by Mary Hobley, "Unpacking the PIP Box" is a synthesis of the key issues brought out in seven papers commissioned by the PIP sub-group, as well as two papers commissioned by FAO for its Inter-Agency Forum on Sustainable Livelihoods (Siena 2000)24 In addition, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has a long history of innovative policy-oriented collaborative research on local institutions and rural development, particularly in the area of community-based natural resource management26.
The research team in Mozambique organized a workshop in July 1999 to present the methodology and main conclusions of the SDAR/FAO pilot project to the academic community, local government representatives, the National Institute for Rural Development (INDER), and various international organizations. In the second part of the workshop, the participants were divided into smaller groups to discuss the main "policy implications" of the research findings, at local, regional and national levels. Their conclusions, presented in plenary, are summarized below. A complete Proceedings of the Policy Seminar is available in English from SDAR/FAO, and in Portuguese from Eduardo Mondlane University, Facultade de Agronomia.
Capacity-building of local institutions for:
Promotion of dialogue at grass roots level, through:
* Tsima is a work rotation system on family farms.
Participation of Rural Poor in Dairy Cooperatives: A Case Study from Gujarat (India)
Gram Panchayats in Malawada and Malan, Gujarat: Democracy and Local Governance
Traditional Authorities in Mozambique
Mutual assistance institutions in Mozambique
Churches and rural development in Mozambique
Migrant associations in two Oaxacan rural communities
Livelihood Strategies and Savings and Credit Arrangements in Dodoma, Tanzania
Participatory Watershed Development in Rajasthan, India
Revitalizing Traditional Institutions for Peace and Natural Resource Management in the Cordillera, Philippines
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