| 
Use
of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches
Three Immediate Objectives
-
Helping communities to empower themselves for collectively
addressing their problems and needs, through organization,
management, access to information and improved linkages.
- Enhancing
socio-economic status of coastal fishing communities through
facilitating savings and promotion of alternative income
generation enterprises, improving access to extension and
social services and building capacity to cope with natural
disasters.
- Facilitating
sustainable conservation and management of coastal marine
and estuarine fisheries resources and habitats through strengthening
participatory stakeholder/community based approaches, and
promotion of alternative income generating opportunities.
Target
Participants
The primary target participants of the project are all the
dwellers of artisan marine and estuarine communities in all
Upazilas of Cox’s Bazar with special emphasis on poorest
fishers (disadvantaged, unorganized and exploited segments)
and women. It works for and with around 300,000 people of
117 villages, where 70% people are fishing communities. The
secondary target group is the personnel of development agencies
of GoB and NGOs deployed in the project areas
The
project strategy is not restricted in suggested menus rather
it is driven by the community people and their needs, concerns
and aspirations. Overall strategy will be considered as some
generic steps given below.
- Developing
and capacitating partnership (both GOs and NGOs)
-
Mobilization of coastal fishing Communities
-
Building managerial capacity of community based institutions
-
Facilitating self managed community organization
-
Community based management of biodiversity including coastal
fisheries
-
Access to resources, information, extension and social services
-
Capacitating the communities to cope with disaster
-
Supporting applied research to generate knowledge and technologies
Guiding
Principles of Strategies
-
Encourage beneficiaries to identify and prioritize their
activities
-
All issues, reports and decisions discussed and agreed by
communities.
-
VOs and VDCs have to employ resources prior to any activity
-
Aiming at building institutions and capacity of communities
-
Promoting women’s development and their access to
equal opportunities
For
reducing pressure on fisheries and increased income through
village economies diversification, establishment of experimental
Rural Enterprise Development Service (REDS) – a semi-autonomous
unit of three person team – is a special institution
for facilitating additional income generating opportunities
(AIGOs) at the village level through identification of techno-socio-ecological-economically
viable enterprises, business planning, linkage between expertise
service providers/business enterprises, financial institutions
and producers VOs, market promotion, access to raw materials,
develop appropriate mechanism for venture management, providing
micro-capital grants (MCGs) etc.
|
