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Use
of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches
This pilot project, working initially in five communities
in Bangladesh, uses Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
as an entry point from which to develop a village analysis
of development priorities and community-led mobilization for
development. Through this process the project aims to encourage
poor people to articulate their experiences of poverty, disempowerment
and social exclusion; to help them build their own analsysis
of power structures through which their situation is reproduced;
and enable them to identify agendas for action including by
negotiating with more powerful local actors.
A
large map is prepared using PRA methods to generate discussion
on sanitation, and a commitment sought from the community
to establish a latrine in every household within a period
of a few weeks. Through the CLTS process, which involves community
collaboration and builds solidarity, an analysis is developed
which initiates other forms of collective action.
The participatory well-being analysis aims to provide a better
sense of the livelihood strategies of various socio-economic
groups within the community, and captures class differentiation
and the economic and social relationships that exist between
the various groups. In some communities, this analysis highlighted
the practice of the sale of advance labour – a response
to seasonal vulnerablility – as an important factor
in maintaining dependency relationships. Groups of poor women
then made efforts to save rice for the low season, and used
this buffer to negotiate successfully for higher wages.
In
other communities, this process of analysis has led to broadening
livelihood strategies by group-based income generation work;
to work on community involvement in education; and to collective
action to build a bridge over a river to connect the community
to local markets, economic and educational opportunities.
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