The pilot WIN project was an operational research project implemented by FAO from 2000-2003. WIN was specifically designed to test a multi-disciplinary approach for empowering women in irrigation management, and addressing nutrition and health concerns associated with irrigation schemes. The project directly supported sustainable livelihoods through building the capacity of women and men farmers, diversifying their production systems, improving their access to water resources, and promoting a variety of agriculturally-based small enterprises. It built on the methods and lessons learned in previous projects and actively sought to create synergistic partnerships among various stakeholders.
WIN was not initially conceived of as a livelihoods diversification and enterprise development (LDED)-oriented project. The project document tied WIN operationally to pre-existing projects-the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) in Cambodia; On-Farm Water Management (OFWM) in Nepal; and the Small-scale Irrigation and Water Users Project (SIWUP) in Zambia-and some of these projects experienced significant problems with their design and implementation. Furthermore, in some cases they were unwilling to partner with WIN. However, the emergence of income generating activities (IGAs) was foreseen to a degree in the project document. Project Objective 2 notes that WIN should "Assist poor households in increasing and diversifying agricultural production for auto-consumption and increased farm income, introducing time-saving and income-generating technologies."
WIN’s LDED activities emerged through necessity and experimentation by the national teams and local groups. Some were adapted from NGO partners and previous projects, while others emerged from the constraints experienced at a national or local level, and were specific to local conditions.
The IGAs initiated under WIN, including agricultural diversification, market-oriented vegetable production, fish farming, value-added processing, and others, have been promoted by many organizations. WIN added a participatory process to the mix, which led to the emergence of some IGAs, particularly in Nepal and Zambia. In both countries, local groups identified specific activities as a means to diversify their livelihoods, production systems and sources of income. It is too early to confidently assess the longer-term sustainability of these, as most groups have had only one to two years of experience in managing their enterprises.
The WIN experience taught us valuable lessons, in terms of what did and didn’t work. This paper is intended to document and assess WIN’s experience in LDED which applies to other livelihoods diversification initiatives, particularly where the rural poor are vulnerable to stresses, such as chronic food insecurity, HIV-AIDS, migration, household indebtedness, recovery from conflict, and status as an ethnic minority. All the WIN project materials and documentation from the three countries were reviewed in the development of this paper.
