In recent years, CARE has piloted a number of new NTFP processing and marketing initiatives, but most of these activities were based on farms, thus not reaching poor and marginalized families who have little or no agricultural land. The latter groups make up the target population of many of CARE’s programs in Nepal, including the Forestry Partnership Project that was generously supported by the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation. Launched in 1997 and supported by Weyerhaeuser from late 2000 through mid-2002, the literacy component of FPP allowed 20,022 women in eight districts to complete non-formal education (NFE) courses, gaining skills and knowledge that had been denied them as children. Of the literacy graduates, 44 percent are from the Dalit or “untouchable” caste and are women whose opportunities are profoundly limited by a society that places little value on women and the lower castes. The program aimed to increase the confidence and self-esteem of the literacy students, thereby strengthening their participation in family and community decision-making.

Of the many lessons learned from FPP’s literacy program, CARE has realized that women not only need a basic education; they also need to be able to increase their income by playing a larger role in community forest management, including the harvesting and sale of NTFPs . CARE therefore started a pilot initiative, Improving Livelihoods through NTFP Management, to assist graduates in improving their capacity to develop and manage NTFP businesses, and thus to improve their income.

Following their participation in FPP’s literacy program, many graduates joined community forest users’ groups to improve their livelihoods. These women are having a clear impact on forestry use in their communities. They now participate openly in community forest users’ groups or belong to newly created women’s groups. Illegal and unsustainable use of forest products has dropped dramatically, while conservation activities and utilization of forest products have risen. Men are slowly gaining acceptance of women’s ability to contribute positively to local forestry management. Of the more than 1,500 forest groups formed in the eight districts where FPP operated, 192 groups are located in Banke, Bardiya and Kailali and they collectively manage a total of 11,553 hectares of community forest land. Through SAGUN, CARE continues to work with these groups, and has identified at least 50 as having the potential to manage and benefit from NTFP processing and marketing ventures.

Therefore, through this new pilot initiative, CARE will help empower the literacy program graduates in these 50 groups (approximately 2,800 people), primarily women, Dalits, and the landless poor, to manage NTFP production. To do so, CARE will work through local partners and service providers (local non-governmental organizations [NGOs], NTFP cooperatives, and forest group networks), who will benefit from training and capacity-building provided by CARE. With support from Weyerhaeuser, CARE will be able to implement the pilot over an 18-month period and lay the groundwork for a potential expansion of NTFP activities using lessons learned from the pilot phase.

The Improving Livelihoods pilot project supports the goal of CARE Nepal’s long-range strategic plan (1999-2004) to “enable poor and vulnerable people to create and benefit from opportunities that improve their lives and ensure greater gender and caste equity, with lasting impact.” It also supports the Government of Nepal’s current Five-Year Plan (2003-2007), which focuses on poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment. Consequently, the project will be useful in influencing or supporting national level policy planning and program formulation.

Planned Outcomes and Activities:
By the end of the 18-month pilot, the project will achieve four primary outcomes designed to increase the economic security of graduates from the NFE classes and build local NTFP production capacity. The outcome and related activities are detailed below:

Outcome 1: Increased participation of poor, female and Dalit graduates in managing NTFPs in community forests.

Related Activities:
· Plan and conduct a situation analysis of NTFP in the three districts, including an assessment of the current status, needs and capacity of the target forest groups and their NFE graduates.
· Identify poor, female and Dalit members of the forest groups to manage NTFP activities.

Outcome 2: Increased knowledge and skills of equitable and sustainable NTFP management among NFE graduates in the forest user groups.

Related Activities:
· Collect and adapt training manuals in NTFP management, harvesting, processing and marketing and prepare appropriate curricula for the participants.
· Train forest user group members, local partners and service providers in NTFP management harvesting, processing and market analysis.
· Support the establishment of an NTFP nursery for seedling production.
· Promote the establishment of demonstration plots and facilitate action research on value-added production of selected NTFP items (e.g., using fibrous plants to make clothes or hats for sale).
· Organize study tours for participants and local partners.
· Provide support for acquiring small tools and equipment needed for processing NTFPs.
· Develop linkages with NTFP enterprises for marketing of NTFP products.

Outcome 3: Increased capacity of local partners, service providers and project staff for offering quality services to NTFP management groups.

Related Activities:
· Identify local partners and service providers in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
· Identify and hire community extension agents (to be carried out by the local partners).
· Assess capacity of local partners in NTFP management, harvesting, processing and marketing.
· Provide necessary training/technical assistance to local partners and other relevant stakeholders for providing quality services to NTFP management groups.

Outcome 4: Key lessons learned about NTFP management are documented and disseminated for scaling up of similar activities in the project districts and in other CARE projects.

Related Activities:
· Document lessons learned through case studies and regular monitoring.
· Disseminate lessons learned through workshops and reports.
· Organize field monitoring visits of policy makers in the project sites in order to influence national policy related to NTFP management.

Following the conclusion of the 18-month pilot, CARE plans to conduct a needs assessment of the NTFP groups in order to design an appropriate follow-on phase for scaling up the project.

Project Strategies
The following strategies and approaches will guide the project’s implementation :
Learning from/building on successes and failures: In recent years, CARE Nepal has focused on expanding and generating greater economic impact at the local level. Some of CARE’s strategies include: carrying out feasibility studies for production, supply and demand, and management; processing and marketing commodities; developing business plans; creating linkages between producers, middle-men and markets; promoting savings and credit groups with a focus on women and the poor; and building local capacity. These strategies will also be used during the project’s implementation.

Partnering and local capacity building: The overall project approach will be participatory, focusing on identifying, prioritizing, and acting upon the needs of the literacy program graduates. The graduates will be at the center of all activities linked to the improvement of their economic and livelihood security. Capacity building of local organizations (NGOs, community groups, service providers, private sector) through partnership with the SAGUN project will also help maintain the proposed project’s sustainability.

Focusing on gender and diversity: Gender and diversity concerns will be an integral part of project planning. The needs of poor, women and Dalits will be solicited, and the project’s impact on their workloads will be monitored.

Promoting appropriate technology: The project will introduce environmentally sound practices that can support the economic and livelihood security of the NTFP group members and that will eventually contribute to sustainable NTFP management. This approach will help to protect the biodiversity of Nepal’s forests for generations to come.

Contributing to national policies and programs: The following areas have been tentatively identified as having potential for influencing or supporting national policy planning and program formulation:
developing mechanisms for sharing, learning and influencing economic development programs; supporting public awareness on sustainable NTFP management through media campaigns (radio, television, newspapers, etc); and joining already formed or supporting the creation of new fora at the national level to facilitate and promote policy dialogue on sustainable NTFP management. Information, lessons learned and best practices emerging from the project will be fed into this forum that will help to formulate favorable national policies, strategies and programs for sustainable NTFP management.

Project Implementation:
The project will be implemented primarily by CARE’s local partners in conjunction with well-established forest user groups. Through SAGUN, CARE will support the efforts of the local partners to coordinate with district-level authorities and other agencies working in the project area to avoid potential duplication of activities/resources, generate greater program synergy and impact, and also draw upon their technical assistance when required. As the forest groups gain skills and resources, they will gradually assume responsibility of the project without requiring continued assistance from CARE.

District-level coordination: At the outset of the project, CARE staff (through SAGUN) will participate in a district-level coordination committee meeting that will include representatives from relevant district agencies , local NGOs, federations/associations, private sector service providers, community forest user groups, etc. This meeting will help establish the criteria and process for selecting local partners; prioritize project activities in the districts; and identify the highest-priority areas within the districts.

Working with local partners: The project will be implemented through SAGUN’s Forestry and Buffer Zone Development Component in partnership with local NGOs, community based organizations (forest user groups and their networks) and the relevant district-level authorities. The project will also adopt the approaches practiced by SAGUN for selection and capacity building of the local partners. The local partners will be closely supported and supervised by SAGUN’s staff. CARE personnel will assess the managerial and technical capacity of the local partners and provide any needed technical assistance and capacity building support. SAGUN’s staff will also maintain close coordination with district-level authorities and other agencies present in the district on project matters. They will be encouraged to support local partners in the planning processes, as well as by monitoring field activities. Through field visits and meetings, CARE staff will also maintain direct contact with the forest user groups to ensure that the poor, women and Dalit graduates are benefiting from project activities.

Capacity building and role of local partners:
The project team will focus on capacity building of partner staff and members of NTFP cooperatives and forest user group federations to implement and monitor project activities in a manner that is transparent and accountable. Training will be conducted in areas such as NTFP management and marketing, group management and facilitation, and public auditing, including financial management and monitoring. The local partners will assist forest user groups to identify and prioritize the types of NTFPs that they will process and sell. As part of this process, the project will seek to use local skills and resources to maximize the benefits from the NTFP activities.