The Development of Sustainable Agricultural Livelihoods in the Eastern Hazarajat
Afghanistan

Purpose

To contribute to the development of capacity, opportunities and mechanisms to enable the rural population of Eastern Hazarajat to
achieve sustainable improvements in their livelihoods.

This will be achieved through three components which will:
(1) Develop capacity for community-level action to improve agricultural livelihoods and resources management;
(2) Improve food security, income generation and employment opportunities and resource utilisation through community-based action;
(3) Promote and support planning, information dissemination and replication of lessons for improving agricultural livelihoods and natural resource management, focussed initially at the provincial and district levels.

Livelihoods Systems Analysis Consultancy - information on livelihoods in the initial area of project impact, and the situation of farming systems in supporting these livelihoods. Barry Pound, May 2004. PDF

Background and use of SL

The project aims to strengthen the self-reliance of Hazarajat communities, and to enable them to identify and resolve problems in a sustainable manner. Farmer-Based Organizations (FBOs) are the key institutions at the community level. The project focuses on identifying the processes involved in community development, particularly those that assist communities analyse their problems, their strengths and weaknesses, and plays a facilitating role in finding solutions. Appropriate interventions will be identified by specific communities through a participatory process.

The essential development principles employed in the project design are:

• Community management of the resource base: The Project will test processes through which FBOs can more effectively gain control of and manage their resource base in the agriculture, rangeland and forest eco-systems.

• Participation and equity: Participatory approaches provide a means of empowering marginalised people and to develop a community’s capacity to analyse its own environment.

• Working in partnership with local GOs and NGOs: The Project will serve as a vehicle for coordinated action among local GOs and NGOs and the private sector in support of the communities’ development plans and for the integration of these plans into a village and district planning process.

• Institutional training: Training is a key to many of the activities. FBOs will need to be assisted to further develop their management and business capacity which requires the participation of all FBO members and considerable training.

• Focus on critical environmental areas: The Project will give priority to threatened or degraded resource areas that significantly affect the livelihood of rural communities. The primary targets will be the watershed ecosystems.

• Sustainable management of upland areas and their products: Sustainable management of critical upland watersheds is as much a social problem as it is a technical problem. Both elements will need to be addressed.

• The major operational modality of the Project is an ‘action research’ approach.