Pro Poor Social Inclusion

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LFP developed a Pro poor and Social Inclusion (PPSI) Strategy to ensure the programme addresses issues of social exclusion as well as economic poverty. The strategy promoted a number of changes in the activities and working modalities of LFP and its partners. These included strengthening the capacity of staff and partners to respond to the changes required, revising the tools and methodologies used to work with Forest User Groups (FUGs), poor and excluded people and other stakeholders, and allocating more effort and resources to directly benefit poor and excluded community forest users.

The Pro poor and Social Inclusion perspective has become a key determining factor in all central and district level activities, including the planning and allocation of resources (See initiative paper Pro Poor Social Inclusion and PPSI best practice paper). A PPSI Guidebook to implementing the strategy equips front-line workers, such as animators, facilitators and forest guards, with tools and approaches to identify the barriers to inclusion and to address the issues of social exclusion effectively.

Pro-poor provisions developed in Forest User Groups include:

• Provision of subsidies or a waiver of entry fees for the poor; 
• Reservations for poor, women and Dalits on Executive Committees and in key decision-making positions; 
• Provision of subsidies in prices of forest products; 
• Provision of more forest products to the poor as required;   
• Allocation of grants and low interest loans for income generating activities;
• Allocation of land to be used for meeting basic needs and generating income;
• Provision of skill-enhancement training for livelihood improvement.

Animation and Social Mobilisation
A social mobilisation programme, guided by the strategy, enables LFP to reach and provide benefits to poor and excluded communities, groups and individuals. It focuses on training and mobilising local people to work directly with the user groups and communities in order to strengthen their capacity for resource management, livelihoods improvement and social inclusion.

Since its inception, more than 1800 Community Facilitators have been developed and mobilised for the purpose. These local change agents provide pre-formation and post-formation support to user groups, which includes:

• Capacity building of groups for improved internal governance and sustainable and productive forest management; 
• Identifying and empowering the poor and most excluded households and individuals to participate effectively and to benefit from activities and facilities; 
• Influencing user groups, particularly the elite members, to develop and implement more equitable and inclusive policies and processes that respond to the needs, interests and capabilities of the poor and excluded;
• Facilitating the establishment and functioning of small enterprises and income generation activities for the livelihood improvement of the poor; 
• Facilitating user groups to establish links with other service providers and to access resources for community development.

The social mobilization task is a great one, requiring long-term commitment. In order to equip social mobilisers with the skills needed to work effectively, they are trained in collaboration with NGO partners, and LFP has developed an Animation Handbook. Additionally they receive mentoring and on-site coaching to enhance the effectiveness of their work to benefit poor and excluded groups and individuals.  See initiative paper Social Mobilisation through local Community Facilitators and Animation and Social mobilization best practice paper.

Inclusive targeting
LFP's ‘inclusive targeting’ approach means balancing the focus of activities specifically on poor and excluded groups with other activities that are of benefit to the whole community. This is particularly the case in relation to many of the forest management activities that necessitate the understanding and participation of the whole community. Whilst working with the whole community, LFP ensures that a greater proportion of benefits from interventions reaches poor and excluded members. Similarly, where specific focus is on poor and excluded households, it ensures that all members of the community are aware of why this focus is important, and how the identification of targeted households took place. This process is carefully managed so as not to increase tensions within communities, and is part of a longer-term strategy of raising awareness about the needs of poor and excluded households.

Though poverty and social exclusion is often correlated, this is not always so. Often there are three distinct groups within the broader category of poor and excluded. These are poor and socially disadvantaged groups (e.g. poor Dalits or poor women-headed households), poor but socially advantaged groups (e.g. poor high caste households) and non-poor but socially disadvantaged groups (e.g. non-poor women, Dalits and Janajati). All these groups require assistance in various ways but the priority for resource allocation and the types of interventions for each group may differ. Where all these groups exist, resources are allocated through a prioritisation process in which poor and socially disadvantaged groups receive the first priority followed by the poor only and then the third group. (For detail see the PPSI Strategy.)

LFP has standardised its tools and methods for identifying the poorest and the most excluded groups and individuals.  Two key tools are described below:

• The FUG Capacity Assessment is used to categorise forest user groups in terms of their resources, governance attributes and efforts to reduce poverty and improve the livelihood status of members. This is useful as a basis for identifying and prioritising support and designing focused interventions to diversify livelihood opportunities.
• Participatory Well-being Assessment is used to identify the economically poor and most vulnerable groups within the community who require urgent livelihood support. The assessment helps ensure more equitable and effective allocation of effort and resources without creating tensions within communities.

Livelihoods and Social Inclusion Monitoring
LFP has been involved in piloting the Livelihoods and Social Inclusion (LSI) monitoring framework developed by DFID (UK government). LFP monitors the impact of its pro-poor and social inclusion initiatives under the three domains of change, i.e. assets and access to services; rules of the game; and voice, influence and agency. The LSI monitoring framework is aligned to the monitoring system of LFP and its partners. Guidelines have been developed for monitoring and documentation against the three domains of changes and to ensure budget disaggregation.

Achievements/impacts

• In 2004 UNDP Human Development Report recognised LFP’s social mobilisation programme as an example of best practice in Nepal. 
• Poor people’s representation on FUG committees has increased from 31 to 53%, women’s from 21 to 37%. Key position holders have increased to 42% for poor people, 8% for Dalits, 242% for women. 
• Provisions for poor and excluded people are legally ensured within all 2,826 newly updated constitutions and operational plans. 
• 7,688 sub-groups and networks of poor and socially excluded people have been established as forums for planning, advocating rights and practicing having voice and influence. 
• Increased access has been given to the poorest and most excluded households to forest products and a range of resources such as finance, land and skills development. 
• A shift in expenditure of group funds has been made towards community projects that benefit the poorest members. 
• 152,000 households benefit from direct services from LFP supported groups – covering 64% of identified poor households.

Key issues and challenges

• Increasing allocation and expenditure of budget up to 50% specifically for activities for poor and excluded members, proportionate to context. 
• Sustainability of support to institutionalise PPSI initiatives in Forest User Groups after LFP’s gradual withdrawal.
• In depth survey and identification of excluded households from membership and associated benefits and membership duplication - particularly in the hills. 
• In Terai inclusion of distant (southern) communities who are far from forest resources has emerged as a key operational issue, which needs to be tackled strategically with implementation of the district forest sector plans.  
• Promoting coordination and strong collaboration with local government (DDC/VDC) and strengthening District Forest Coordination Committee (DFCC), village Forest Coordination Committee (VFCC) and establishment of Village Forest Development Fund (VFDF) for sustainability of achievements and impacts remain challenges for the program where it concerns inclusive planning, coordination and monitoring.   
• Promoting strong inter-sectoral linkages with relevant sectoral ministries and district line agencies for coordinating services and resource mobilization remains a challenge. 
• Influencing other sectoral line agencies and their programs to be inclusion-sensitive is also key to ensuring wider impact of LFP's work.  
• Institutionalization of Gender Poverty and Social Inclusion (GPSI) monitoring indicators within the Ministry (MOFSC) and Department of Forests' monitoring systems.