1.General                   

2. Project Profile (project summary)

This project will serve all 754 families of all 9 wards of Thanamaula, and Bhangara VDCs in Parbat district. All 248 OG HH & 506 POG HH will be benefited from this project. Overall goal of the project is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder rural families through agriculture-livestock based value chain enterprise development. The project envisions a sustainable social technical development availing production inputs, and linking them to appropriate market so they can fetch fair price of their products, capital formation and economic empowerment in collaboration with local government and other stakeholders. 

Out of total 754 families, 248 families (9 SHGs) will participate as original groups and 506 families (27SHG) will be as POG. The original families will be provided original inputs and will participate in capacity building training/ activities. These 9 original SHG will serve as model groups and will form, mentor and pass on to additional 27 SHGs.  Pass on groups and male members of the community will also receive little training from project. The original groups guide them & the practice of co learning will be promoted.  The original groups (OG) and POGs will be facilitated to form Social Entrepreneurs Women Cooperative (SEWC).These institutions with strengthened social capital will be empowered to liaison with other agencies to cater for the ongoing development needs (including marketing of village produces)

Youth in Thana maula and Bhangara VDC will be capacitated by providing Heifer's Cornerstone training and support on sports and reading materials which will encourage them to understand the project activities and will offer volunteering opportunity in projects and events.

The project will make available goats breeding bucks of high genetic potentiality, as detailed in table 6 below. 376 goats from Heifer's  and 120 goats from VDCs & 36 breeding bucks from Heifer's. Technical strengthening for project supported families and support for other village flock of goats along with other project interventions is expected to enhance productivity by 50%.                                      

The  project participants will be trained in farm enterprise analysis and planning ,backed up by credit flow from the SHG fund/ SEW cooperative, technical trainings for farm enterprises and supply of inputs and services will improve income level of  the project families.                           

The project will be planned and implemented in partnership with local government and stakeholders. The village Development Committee (VDC) and the project participants themselves will share the cost of the project. District project Advisory committee and project management committee (PMC) mechanisms will ensure regular monitoring, feedback and cater for the needs of resource leveraging.

3. Project Rationale/ Project area description:

This project will be implemented in Thana maula, and Bhangara VDCs located on the southern part of  Parbat district. Ethnically, population of these VDCs are 10% janajati, 50% Brahmin/chhetri, 40% Dalits and disabled.  Indigenous Community, Janajati and Dalit community are the indigenous groups who have their own culture and customs, hence they are isolated from other communities with little exposure to the outside world. Despite there are availability of 7 public primary schools, 1 lower secondary schools, 1 secondary schools, 1 higher secondary schools and 2  sub health post in Thana maula, and Bhangara VDCs. There is high degree of discrimination on the basis of gender, cast and class due to the low level of awareness. Gender discrimination causing less opportunity to the daughters on education, class & cast discriminate causing the less opportunity to access & control over the common property and resource linkages. The area has potential for agricultural and livestock rising due to availability of enough fodder, nearby community forest and facility of irrigation and fertile cultivable land.

Livestock and agricultural farming is the main source of livelihood. On an average people are rearing 3-4 goats traditionally but these VDCs have high potential of goat farming. However, due to poor livestock management, health practices and limited access to market and fair price, farmers have not been able to benefit much. Due to the availability of seasonal transport the small holders will be able to the sell their products (animal products and agro products) to the nearly market effectively controlling the youth and male migration for employment.

4. Project objectives:

4.1 Heifer’s Theory of Change

The project will employ Heifer’s Theory of change (TOC) to achieve maximum impact in the project communities.   Interventions for physical aspects such as increased income, access to adequate nutritious food and environmental improvement are coupled with strong social capital and women’s empowerment to have a multiplier effect and result in sustainable improvement in the socio-economic status and well-being of the participants.

 5. Project goal, objectives and activities

Overall goal of this project is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder's rural families in Thana maula, and Bhangara VDC through agri-livestock based value chain enterprise development.

 Objective 1:

Strengthen social capital by organizing rural families into self-help groups and then facilitate them into farmer institutions like social entrepreneurs cooperative.

 Output and Activities

SHGs of targeted families are formed and motivated in self-development initiatives and social entrepreneurs cooperative registered

Facilitation for formation and operation of SHGs (mainly involving woman as the family representative)

Facilitate formation of Mentoring teams and Pass on Groups

Project management committee (PMC) formation and mobilization

Capacity building of village youth (cornerstones training, sports activities, entrepreneurial skill training etc)

Facilitate youth volunteering in trainings, campaigns, plantation etc.

Provide trainings on: Heifer cornerstones, SHG management, Pre-cooperative,

Participatory self-review and planning (PSRP)

Exposure visits

Mobilize District Cooperative Union in facilitation for formation of primary cooperative

Objective 2:

Increase productivity of goat farming by 50% through adoption of improved animal management technologies.

Output and activities

2.1 Goats and breeding bucks of quality genetic merits are placed for increased productivity

Goat placement

Placement of breeding buck (Khari & Jamunapari breed)

Fodder/forage placement

Farmers engaged are imparted with skills of improved goat farming practices for increasing productivity and production resulting in increased animal off take /annum.

Community Animal Health Worker (CAHW) training/ capacity enhancement and mobilization

 Support CAHW for establishment of vet medicine enterprise

Trainings: Improved animal management, fodder forage development and nursery management

De-worming and vaccination campaigns

Shed improvement

Castration (goat) campaigns and breeds improvement through selection

Drenching and vaccination campaigns

Analysis of Animal production, productivity record at household level and feedback sharing with farmers

Practice community managed livestock insurance

Objective 3:

Sustained family income, nutrition and food security through integration of production with marketing channels

Output and activities

3.1 Increased awareness of market-led production 

Farm enterprise analysis and planning

Exposure to market information (market, price, cost etc)

Promotion of group savings and its mobilization                                                                       

Monsoon vegetable production to supply vegetable in off season in main vegetable markets of district

Mobilization of Agriculture Worker

Interaction workshop for market promotion of goat and other agri-products

3.2 Food consumption and nutrition improved in terms of quantity, quality and diversity of ingredients

Provide trainings on: Kitchen garden, Bee keeping, local poultry production, Reproductive health and awareness in HIV AIDS, Family Nutrition

Plantation of fruit sapling

Construction of toilets and promote personal hygiene practices

Establishment of homestead gardens

Objective 4:

Facilitate in creating enabling environment for holistic development of the Village Development Committee (VDC) by engaging local government and related stakeholders (including local political parties)

4.1 Good coordination achieved among local government agencies and other related stakeholders resulting effective project implementation, increased access to services of various service providing agencies and resource leveraging for holistic development

Heifer Cornerstones training for local stakeholders

Conduct project inception meeting at VDC level and formation of Project Implementation and Monitoring Committee (PIMC) and Project Management Committee (PMC)

Engage PIMC and PMC in regular planning, monitoring and implementation

District level coordination and consultation meeting, and formation of District level Project Advisory Committee (DPAC)

Semiannual DPAC meeting (including project monitoring by smaller teams and report presentation)

DPAC field visit, reflection and action planning

Project evaluation by line agencies and stakeholders

5. Project targets:

 Project supports/resources placement table:

  7. Passing on the gifts (PoG) model:

 Following people-to-people transformation and Heifer’s VBHCD model, each original group (OG) will form a number of pass on groups (POG) all at the same time. To facilitate the process, each OG will first form Mentor Teams (MT), and each MT will be responsible to form and mentor one POG group following standard criteria.

 In case of goats, every family will pass on the gift of first female offspring of the goat in 1:1 ratio. If the first offspring is male, it can be exchanged with other members or sold and the proceeds be used to purchase a female kid for passing on the gift. The group will buy breeding bucks and pass on to another group. The family who nurtures the breeding male will charge a reasonable fee for its breeding service subject to approval from the group. The project participants will complete the first generation of gift pass-on during the project, and further pass on will continue with the support of PMC (Project Management Committee) until the last pass on group is benefitted. Once the SEW cooperative is formed out of these groups, the pass-on would be then facilitated by the cooperative. For non-livestock supports a ‘Passing on the Gifts Fund' will be maintained where the participants will deposit the equivalent amount paid in small installments.

 Once the pass on commitments are achieved, with approval from HPI/N the pass on resources (goats and PoG fund) may be capitalized in the SEW cooperative formed in the VDC. The performance of the cooperative, its future plan and the opportunity in the community are some of the factors that will be considered.

 Order of receiving pass on gift from OG to P1 and to next pass on groups would be decided by pass on groups themselves through PMC.

 8. Project Implementation/management approaches:

 Social Capital development & women empowerment

Value Based Holistic Community Development (VBHCD) Model will be followed for building social capital and women empowerment. The Model emphasizes formation of non-exclusive groups, strengthening them, translating cornerstones into their daily life, providing physical inputs and required trainings for their social and economic transformation, and building social capital. Following people-to-people transformation, project participants will pass on their knowledge and physical inputs they receive to other members involved in the project.

 A regular Participatory Self Review and Planning (PSRP) will be done by all self-help groups (every four months) to review the progresses, achievements and the areas for improvement vis a vis their goals and 12 Cornerstones. The members give feedbacks to each other, interpret results and discuss on ways to solve the problems. The members reflect on their activity and set new goals for implementation for the next period.

 PSRP enables active participation of self-help group members, strengthens their capability of analyzing and solving problems, fosters accountability in members, highlight their achievements and enable realistic planning. Likewise, PSRP will be done by NGO partners on a semiannual basis for reviewing the project progresses and achievements, their own strength/weaknesses and support to the project, areas for improvement, and finally develops action plan.  HPIN intends to build and strengthen the social capital in all of its project communities. These groups are networked through Project Management Committee (PMC) and later into Cooperative. Heifer’s Cornerstones and other basic social mobilization training package, exposure visits, fueled up by periodic PSRP, and its processes helps SHGs to institutionalize with a set of norms, system and procedure. SHGs start saving credit activities, and are able to avail credits to members in need. The SHGs will be facilitated to be creative Members realize the benefit of being together through SHG and continue to develop stronger bond among them. Through group approach they become capable to identify their local needs, plan the solution and tap resources from different sources to implement the plan.

 All the SHGs are formed of women members from each participating family – one woman represents one family. In HPIN’s experience, participation of women members in the project activities helps transfer the learned knowledge and projects inputs/benefits in a better way to the whole family, and at the same time women get exposure and capacitates themselves to participate in the local development.

 Exposure visits will be conducted to enhance group capacity by sharing the learning’s and broadening perspectives. The full participation of every member should be ensured so that they gain confidence, understanding and are capable enough to control decisions in their lives.

 Production and productivity enhancement

This project intends to enhance goats’ production and productivity and places particular emphasis on strengthening technical aspects of breeding, feeding, housing and health. Besides mobilizing a Veterinary Technician, this project will train and mentor four CAHW/CAVEs to serve and strengthen the livestock health and management aspects among the project community. CAHW/CAVEs will be selected preferably from the project community/local area and will be provided appropriate training, basic equipment/toolkits and a seed fund to set up an enterprise locally so as to serve the community better. They will be provided service as well as avail high quality production inputs for goat, vegetable and other farm activities.

 Value chain promotion:

This project intends to instigate local community initiatives into the production and marketing sectors of a value chain specifically focusing on goat meat. This project will start discussion on establishing goat marketing system and help maximize profit share of the producer farmers.

 Enterprise development and Cooperatives:

 Farm input-supply, production, processing and market network businesses will be developed following entrepreneurship principles. Each of the project beneficiary family will be motivated/ supported to develop a business plan which will guide their actions for earning household income. All the SHGs will be facilitated to unite into Cooperatives formed on social entrepreneurship principles. Cooperative will be developed to serve as Business Hubs and will be the principal actor in ensuring input and service supply to producers as well as collection of goats from SHGs/farmers and marketing them in coordination with the District Cooperative Union. The cooperative will be a member of the parbat district union. Eventually, the hub will also further strengthen the acquisition system. This will ensure the sustainability of all results achieved and continuation of scaling up the impact.

 Males and youth involvement:

The Cornerstones are the driving force that instills enthusiasm in project participants and make it possible for them to reach their goals. Male and youth of the project beneficiary families will be involved into the project activities that will help make them aware on project and its expectations, and tap their support/coordination and expertise.  Cornerstones training will be provided to males and youths, gender justice training to males, and a package of youth mobilization and youth club support for youths. Youths will be engaged in different project activities who will get chance to learn and benefit from the project as well as support the project activities. Males and youths could be the active change agents in their communities including enterprises and value chain management and thus their participation in the project is inevitable.

 PMC:

PMC is an informal body to bridge among Heifer, NGO and SHGs. Its core members consist of representatives from all SHGs (on rotational basis), project coordinator, program officer, community facilitator, and CAHW/CAVEs. Other invitees or advisory can be member of it as or when needed. PMC makes decisions on following project implementation aspects on behalf of the respective groups:

CAHW/CAVEs selection based on recommendations from different groups

POG fund: mobilization of limited POG fund among different groups

Ensure that POG funds for vegetable seeds/communal farming are handed over to original groups, their proper utilization and pass on

Ensure that training hall and snacks is properly managed by groups

Animal purchase: involve and ensure that quality animals are purchased in time

Management of Community Insurance system

Project implementation plan (PIP) preparation/revision/endorsement, cash flow plan

PMC meets at an interval of 3 months.

 Project Implementation and Management Committee (PIMC) will be formed during the inception meeting held at VDC level in chairmanship of the VDC secretary. The PIMC will meet every quarter review implementation plan and progress and visit project site for monitoring. PMIC will aim for coordination with line agencies and stakeholders for bring in their knowledge and expertise, coordination/support and resources, and also to avoid duplication of activities in the same area.

 District Project Advisory Committee (DPAC)

District level coordination consultation meeting will be held in participation of all relevant district level stakeholders in chairmanship of Local Development Officer (LDO). District Project Advisory Committee (DPAC) will be formed. A small team from DPAC will visit field and present report for discussion and feedback once in six months. The committee will be key for collaboration effort at district level for the success of the project.

9. Project Partner Profile:

Social Welfare Resource Development Centre Nepal was established in Parbat district in 2053 B.S. The main objective of this organization is to remove discrimination, social evils from the society as well as to encourage those groups of people who are behind in every developmental work such as so called lower caste, women and children prevalent in our society. It has been supporting the people specially women and children by building network in the V.D.C, supporting in income generating activities through vegetable production and livestock production, education for their child, value based trainings etc. This organization has so far conducted Public awareness activities, commitment of people related to safe motherhood, caste discrimination issues, problems/issues related to disabled, women and children in family, society, school, Health Organization and so on. It also helps by giving pressure to respective authorities at the district level to invest money for the program for women, lower caste people and disabled in terms of planning in VDC and DDC. 

10. Monitoring & evaluation