In addition PRF III continues to support the Livelihood-linked Nutrition (LN) pilot program1 commenced during PRF II in priority districts within Huaphan Province (Hiem, Xamtay, and Xiengkhor Districts) and Savannakhet Province (Sepon and Nong Districts). The LN program aims to develop and test innovative livelihood-focused community driven activities, enabling rural households to improve their livelihoods, well-being and nutrition through group based activities. During PRF III the LN program has supported capacity development for village self-help groups (SHGs), predominantly women, to plan and implement nutrition-sensitive livelihood activities and to enhance their financial literary. The small livestock and home gardens supported under the SGH revolving loans are designed to increase dietary diversity and food intake of pregnant and lactating mothers and children below the age of two. Other SHG lending supports income generating activities, food security and health emergencies.
In villages where LN activities are supported, communities will select and train village activists to become functional specialists in specific fields of livelihood (agriculture, marketing, etc) and other rural development tasks. They can act as guides and role models for other individuals. At a later stage, they can build capacity of newer groups, inside and outside the village. In the long-run, the training and capacity building of village activists on a large scale will help to substitute a large number of paid extension workers.
The LN Activists will be used as leaders to provide trainings to other farmers and participate in the monitoring of the livelihood and nutrition activities.
The Village Self Help Group Management Committee (VSMC) with the support of project facilitators shall promote a cadre of volunteers in the areas of agriculture, livestock, education health and nutrition, marketing etc. for the purpose of capacity building of the community in respective fields.
The duties of the volunteers are given below.
- They will receive trainings on skills and knowledge organized by the project;
- They will serve the community needs charging very nominal fees as decided by the VSMC;
- They will be provided with some equipment and some tools by the VSMC or project to deliver such services required by the community;
- They will organize required trainings and education sessions in the village based on their work plan with the support of project and line departments.
The project shall not promote any such volunteers if the line ministry or other development agency already promoted and available in the village, but rather rely on the existing one(s).
The project will work closely with line departments and other resource organizations in building the capacity of these volunteers in providing necessary services to the community in implementation of the activities for their additional incomes.
Based on the Government’s Graduate Deployment Program, the project also includes provisions for including “Young Graduates” (high school and above) from project areas as village coordinators. They will be selected following the WB recruitment guideline through a competitive process.
If they come from the same village activities are conducted, the Young Graduates are community resource persons2 to support the LN activities implementation. Ideally, they will be based at the Kum ban level with frequent visit to the PRF district offices to benefit from guidance and support and provide regular reporting of their activities. For each Kum ban, there will be one Young Graduate (YG) covering the livelihood activities and the linked nutrition activities.
Each Young Graduate will cover around 4 villages. He/she is expected to work with and provide close support for villages through Self-help Groups (SHGs), mobilization, prioritization, SHG establishment and strengthening and grant implementation by the SHGs. The YG will report to the LN District Manager for or her/his designate.
All village coordinators and Kum ban facilitators will work very closely for the implementation of the PRF activities in the villages LN activities are implemented. As the Young Graduates, the village coordinator has higher level of education than the KBF, they will help them in the understanding and implementation of PRF processes and procedures, including monitoring and reporting (as some KBF are illiterate) while the KBF will use his knowledge of the local situation, community trust and authority (usually older than the village coordinator) to work with local communities. Therefore, they will complement each other.
Livelihood Linked Nutrition in Progress
Livelihood linked Nutrition activities
In 2018, the LN team focused on following up the impacts of SHGs work through 23 VNC and 915 SHGs that already in place, including the activities and inactive groups, nutritional activities done by members. The nutrition status of SHG families has been improved. At least once a month, VNC members are still gathering for exchange information and cooking for their kids. The majority of ingredients are from their productions.
SHG Assessments
World Bank Consultant, Mr. Debaraj Behera conducted assessment according to action plan from AM from previous mission in Oct 2017. The SHG Assessment aimed to define and learn the good lessons learned from operating IGA by SHG members in target district, Xepone from 25-29/03/2018. More than 136 members of SHG attended in the meeting with the consultant to provide information on SHG saving, running their IGA. The Assessment Report will be followed from the Consultant and will be used for next coming MTR in June 2018.
In May 6th-12th 2018, PRF organized to field visit for representatives from line ministries, central offices and National Assembly which are members of PRF Management Board. The Representatives visited for 5 villages of 3 LN target districts. The representatives had positive impression with the results from PRF’s assistances, in particular results from SHG incomes and behavior changes in applying production techniques. Representatives recommended increasing financial and technical support to IGA and upgrading potential SHG to advance production group with formal status that would allow to access to better financial supports.
SHG Saving
The saving has annually increased including saving size by 13.7% and 2.5% respectively from Dec 2017 (US$189,902) which is good sign. As of May 2018, the accumulated saving amount reached US$ 217,144 as 9.68 times increased in comparison with annual saving amount (annual saving amount was only US$22,300) The saving amount was used for 3 main purposes: 75% were for emergency lending to members including buying rice, transportation to hospital, medicine and education materials, 15% were for livelihood activity loans to members and the last 10% was for reserved money. The application of saving money for lending in some village is needed to be investigated.
SHG Lending
Through the implementation of LN activities in 2018 lending and repayment are in progress. The total project seed grant is US$ 1,216,061. The first repayment reached 66.03% and increased by 12% in comparison with December 2017. Approximately 130 SHG members do not take second round of loan and are still operating Livelihood Activities by their own capital. As of May 2018.
1 Formally referred to as the Nutrition Enhancing Livelihood Development component of PRF III.
2 Community resource persons are those who are selected from the community having langiage and communication skills better, and show skills on dissemination and mobilization.