A.
Pro-Poor Grant Projects
As
part of New ERA's initiatives to alleviate rural poverty, it has
provided financial and
technical support to the poorest of the poor people in Kaski and
Sankhuwasabha districts to help them lessen their hardship. During
2006/07, New ERA provided a grant support of Rs 200,000 as Income
Generation Activity (IGA) for the poor in these two districts. New ERA
aims to make these funds revolving, self-supporting and sustainable in
the future. In order to make this happen, it has worked through
intermediary organizations to mobilize and manage the funds.
New
ERA has worked in both these districts (Kaski and Sankhuwasabha) in the
past. It conducted a Participatory Action Research Project on Adaptive
Collaborative Management approach to community forestry there. This
research was led by the Center for International Community Forestry
Research (CIFOR). This study was implemented in two phases. The first
phase was implemented from 2000 to 2002, and the second phase was done
from 2004 to 2007.
1. Goat Raising by Poorest of the
Poor Households of Bamdibhir CFUG, Kaski District
New
ERA provided financial and technical suppor
t to the poorest of the poor
users of Deurali-Bagedanda CFUG of Kaski district to raise goats as an income generating activity. The total amount allocated for this purpose
was Rs. 80,000. The District Chapter
Federation of Community Forest
Users, Nepal (FECOFUN) has assumed the overall responsibility of
mobilizing and executing the fund.
Of the
total 143 users of Bamdibhir CFUG, 23 households are involved in goat
raising. The district chapter facilitated the distribution of a young
she-goat to each of the 23 poorest of the poor households during
November 2006. Of the total number of goats distributed, 19 gave birth
to kids. The understanding was that anybody whose goat gave birth would
present the first kid to another poor family in the neighborhood.
A
report received from the FECOFUN District Chapter, Kaski reveals that
all the 19 poorest goat-keeping households
have been handing over newly born kids to the poorest families in their
neighborhood. New ERA staff made a field visit to the project site and
interacted with some of the 19 successful goat raising households in
December 2007. All of them expressed happiness at the support received
from New ERA. This is in fact a great contribution to poor rural
households. They are now able to earn a little extra income from the
goat rearing enterprise.