Rural Livelihoods
For the last 10 years, IPM training programmes in Asia have been pursuing multiple objectives with considerable success. Farmer empowerment, the conservation of biodiversity, food security, community education, the protection of human health and policy reform have all been explicit part of these programmes. These multiple objectives have arisen from a growing recognition - among governments, NGOs, donors and farmers themselves - of the interdependence of different aspects of development, and the need to put people at the center of the development process.
In recent years this approach to rural development has been given the
name 'sustainable rural livelihoods'.
New analytical tools have been developed and cases have been documented.
The Field Alliance is making use of these ideas, which complement the
experience and expertise which has been gained during many years of
planning and implementing programmes that make use of ecological concepts
and participatory methods to bring about a wide range of measurable
benefits.
Documents On-line
IPM as
an entry point for sustainable livelihoods. A short concept
paper by Andrew Bartlett. [pdf file, 3
pages, 155 KB].
The
Empowerment... of Farmer Life Schools. The report
of a project in Cambodia in which IPM farmer trainers
facilitated Human Ecosystem Analysis (HESA).
Written by Nguon Sokuthea, Srer Khmer, 2002 [doc
file, 1.5 Mb]
Picturing
Impact: Participatory Evaluation of Community IPM in
Three West Java Villages. A study carried out by
farmers who took photographs to examine the impact of
IPM on poverty in their villages. [doc files, 69 pages, 2.0 Mb]
Useful Websites
Livelihoods
Connect. This site, which has been developed by
DFID and IDS, has a large collection of documents and a
guide to organisations involved in sustainable
livelihoods.
The
site of the UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit
provides access to numerous strategy papers, field guides
and workshop reports.
The
Overseas Development Institute has published
briefing papers on sustainable livelihoods, although they
are not collected in one place on the website. Use
the search tool to get a list of 'livelihoods' documents.
