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Use
of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches
The
CORALI project highlights the need to move away from current
approaches to encouraging “alternative livelihoods”
to a more comprehensive approach described as Sustainable
Livelihood Enhancement and Diversification (SLED). Based
on best practices, IMM have identified the following elements
that will be important in the process of developing the SLED
approach for coral reef dependent communities in South Asia
under this intervention:
- Based
on local partnerships
- Initiating
a long-term process
- Good
coordination with wider EU-ICRAN project
- Focusing
on the development & testing of the approach
- Building
linkages with other on-going initiatives & programmes
- Drawing
on regional experience (IUCN Sri Lanka, Gulf of Mannar,
Bangladesh Coastal Community Development, NGO sector)
- Drawing
on local partners’ experience
- Transparent
& open communication with partners
- Distilling
best practice
- The
importance of drawing on the rich experience available in
South Asia, in the field of livelihoods development, is
also considered as central to the project work.
Key
lessons from the CORALI project to date have emerged:.
- The
importance of understanding current livelihood strategies
as a starting point for working towards livelihood development
and change.
- The
importance of linking work on livelihoods with effective
environmental management measures, including enforcement.
- A
long-term commitment to working with stakeholder
communities is essential – given the long timeframes
often required in order to achieve sustainable results.
- To
fulfill this long-term commitment there is a need to develop
linkages and partnerships with institutions and initiatives
that have a long-term presence in the communities.
- The
CORALI project will be focused above all on the development
and testing of an approach and set of methods for working
on livelihood enhancement and diversification and, to have
lasting positive impacts, these will need to be fed into
longer-term, on-going initiatives.
This
approach was initially developed by IMM under the DFID funded
research project - Sustainable
Coastal Livelihoods . The Sustainable Coastal Livelihoods
(SCL) project aims to identify and promote policy
processes which support sustainable livelihoods for
the poor in coastal communities of South Asia. It provides
an understanding of the factors which contribute to, or constrain,
sustainable livelihoods. It identifies options for improving
the policy processes and structures to create a more supportive
environment for the poor. It builds on the experiences gained
from previous research into participatory and integrated policy
processes and assess their application to the sustainable
livelihoods approach.
The
issues covered by the SCL project are as follows:
- Factors
supporting and constraining the achievement of, sustainable
livelihoods of poor coastal people in the Western Bay of
Bengal, and the influence of policy processes on achieving
those livelihoods, identified.
- The
role of policy structures and processes in the livelihoods
of the poor in selected coastal communities in Andhra Pradesh
identified.
- Measures
for improving the policy structures and processes to support
poor coastal communities in their efforts to achieve sustainable
livelihoods, identified and tested in Andhra Pradesh.
- Guidelines
for improving policy structures and processes needed to
facilitate and support the achievement of sustainable coastal
livelihoods for the poor developed and their application
to the Western Bay of Bengal region developed and promoted
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