1. Introduction and background
The study is based mainly on gender analysis by using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques in some of the selected sites of the project. Moreover, the task of the consultant consisted of delivering training to the members of the mobile team, the project JTs and rangers, conducting workshop for the project officials and developing a gender specific case study report of a leasehold forestry group and doing an assessment of the project appraisal from a gender perspective.
Under the rational of creating a framework for transferring a resource base to the poorest households in the community who are most dependent on the forest resources, the Hills Leasehold Forestry and Forage Development Project was started with the dual objectives of raising the income of the families who are below the poverty line and contributing to the improvement of ecological conditions of the hill areas.
The total project cost has been estimated at appraisal at US$ 20.41 million. The project is jointly funded by a loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD: about 63% of the total project cost), a grant from the Government of Netherlands (US$2.53 million) and the contribution of His Majesty's Government (about US$ 2.7 million: 13% of the project's cost).
The project has adopted the strategy to lease blocks of degraded forest land to groups of specifically targeted poor households. The project has adopted the criteria set by the Small Farmers Development Project (SFDP) to select the target farmers. Accordingly its target group are farmers' families with less than 0.5 hectare (10 ropanis) of private land and/or an annual per capita income of less than NRs.2500 (US$ 50). Priority has been given to the female headed households and ethnic groups like the Chepangs and the Tamangs.
Development of degraded Forest lands, on-farm fodder development, fuel wood trees on private land, livestock development, terrace improvement, off-farm income generating activities, supply of inputs, strengthening of technical support, training, applied research, stove programme and bridges and trails are the components of the project as have been envisaged at the time of appraisal.
The project is at present in its pilot phase (project year one to three) and covers four hill contiguous districts in the central region, namely.
The project is at present in its pilot phase (project year one to three) and covers four hill contiguous districts in the central region, namely, Kavre Palanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Makawanpur and Ramechchap. The project period has been tentatively proposed for eight years.
The Department of Forest is responsible for identifying blocks of land to be leased, processing the lease arrangement, assisting farmers to formulate their management plans for the leased blocks of land (together with the livestock staff) and providing technical support for forest development. The Department of Livestock Services is responsible for advising farmers on the incorporation of forage development into their management plans and on-farm forage production possibilities to meet animal nutritional requirements and for providing ongoing technical support on animal health, livestock husbandry and forage development. ADBN through Small Farmers Development Project is responsible for identification of the target groups families, group formation, provision of credit and on-going support to project families. NARC is responsible for carrying out the applied research programme required under the project and providing important inputs such as grass and legume seed, rootstock and improved breeding stock.
The inter disciplinary project activities with the innovative approach is being assisted by the technical assistance (TA) team. This technical assistance unit has been established within the Department of Forest. The areas of this kind of assistance include, among others, the lease process, adaptive research, extension, training, input supply, monitoring and evaluation.
The project is at present fully running towards achieving the targets set by it. 170 sites have been identified for 1160 households. The project area coverage has achieved at 942.55 hectares of land. 158 operational plans have been prepared and 146 leases have so far been approved by the MFSC. 62 sites have been handed over to the groups. Quite a significant number of training on technical matters have been conducted for the farmers and field staff. Seedlings and seed distribution is being done according to the need of the groups depending upon the availability. The project has developed extension materials.
Baseline studies and applied research are being conducted. NGOs are currently being involved at the implementation level in all districts.
The consultants overall mandate was to assist the project to start drawing up gender sensitive action strategies and to train field level project staff in acquiring the necessary skills needed to use PRA tools.
Activities:
The activities undertaken by the consultant to meet the objectives within the short term duration can be listed as follows:
a. Study of the secondary materials related to the project,
b. Assessment of the Project Appraisal (1990)
c. Field visit to three different types of groups,
-one having only male executives, new group in Handikhola village of Makawanpur district
-one having only female executives, old group in Gupteshwori village of Ramechchap district
-one having both females and males as executives, new group in Sirishghari village, Kavre district
d. Delivering training on Participatory Rural Appraisal and Gender Analysis to the project staff, and
e. Developing a gender specific case study (training material) of one leasehold forestry group for the use in training on gender analysis/leasehold forestry development project.
