Key Focus:
The JIWAN program proposes is to focus on: sustainable natural resources management in a watershed area, awareness raising and education activities, civil society strengthening, policy discourses leading to conducive policies for Churia conservation. An important element of this program is the introduction of and experimentation of the concept of co-management of natural resources for equitable costs and benefit sharing for sustainable management of Jaladh watershed.

"Jiwan" mean "life" in Nepali . This program will be implemented in the areas that are part of the river system of Jaladh River in Dhanusa district, in the southeastern part of Nepal. The program area will cover nine Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the upper catchments, middle catchments and lower catchments areas and will include approximately 62,500 people living in these VDCs.

Jaladh is one of the many rivers that originate in the fragile Churia range of hills and flows down through the Bhabar and Terai areas. Bhabar is the stretch of land lying along the foothills of the Churia and the Terai is the plain and fertile land bordering with India in the south. An ecological balance in these regions is critical to the livelihoods of the people living there and in other parts of the country as well. The rivers like Jaladh originating in the Churia hills and flowing through all of these regions offers a crucial point to start conservation and to bring related issues to the attention of all concerned at different levels.

The criteria leading to the selection of the Jaladh sub watershed for program implementation include: poor socioeconomic conditions of the people living in the VDCs around Jaladh river, the extent of soil erosion and deforestation that is taking place in the upper catchments of the river, weak community organization for effective natural resources management, limited or no presence of other development programs for conservation and sustainable management, opportunities to bring synergy with the ongoing SAGUN Program in the middle and lower catchments areas of Jaladh, potentiality for introducing the concepts of "co-management" of watersheds [paving the way for introducing 'payment for environmental services' (PES) in the future,] and the priority accorded by the His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMGN) for Churia conservation in its policies.

Three Danish NGOs-CARE Danmark, Danish Forestry Extension (DFE) and the Foreningen af FolkehøjskolerIDanmark (Danish Folk High Schools Association -FFD) have formed an alliance to design and implement the JIWAN Program. All the three members bring in particular expertise to the alliance. CARE has extensive programmatic experiences in poverty alleviation through natural resources management, civil society strengthening, and good governance in different parts of the world, including extensive experience in Nepal. DFE's expertise includes forestry extension activities, natural resource management, environmental conservation, commercial forestry and awareness raising in issues of environment conservation. FFD has gained long experiences in running folk high schools in Danmark and supporting other countries in establishing similar institutes and life school centers for open learning.

Program Objectives:
The overall development objective of the program is "to contribute towards sustainable livelihoods of the people of the Jaladh watershed area through establishing synergetic linkages between upstream and downstream stakeholders for sustainable management of watershed resources".

In order to achieve the development objective, the following intermediate objectives have been envisioned:

• Immediate Objective #1: The social and practical skills and knowledge of the people and local institutions in the Jaladh watershed area are strengthened for equitable, effective and sustainable co-management of watershed resources.
• Immediate Objective #2: Land use systems (forests, agriculture and water use) are improved and diversified in order to increase production and marketing of products, as well as increase equitable cost and benefit sharing of natural resources.
• Immediate Objective #3: Local, district and national policies (planning, resource allocation and legislation conducive to Churia conservation and co-management of natural resources) are influenced by the people and institutions in the Jaladh watershed area.

To achieve the program objectives and outputs, the key activities will include: increasing sustainable natural resource production by improving agriculture and forestry technologies, strengthening institutional capacity of local partner organizations and community based organizations, increasing the awareness of upstream and downstream linkages in a watershed and facilitating mechanisms for co-management of natural resources, facilitating communication on these issues through a multi-stakeholders' forum, facilitating policy discussion on issues of Churia conservation and livelihoods of the people, facilitating cross learning within and outside the country. The Open Village Schools and Life School Centre, forums for non-formal functional and practical learning and dialogues, will be at the centre of all of these activities.

The program will be implemented in close collaboration among the Alliance Partners and in partnership with local NGOs, higher level civil society organizations such as the Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal (FECOFUN), the National Federation of Water Users Association in Nepal (NIFWUAN), and the Terai Private Forestry Development Association (TPFDA), as well as other community based organizations.

The program will be implemented in three phases. The Inception Phase will comprise a 12 months period and will mainly focus on: refining the working modality between Alliance Partners; developing and testing the concept and modalities for the Open Village Schools/Life School Centre; adapting functional literacy materials; training local Facilitators; conducting studies related to economic opportunities and Churia conservation and management related policy analysis; compiling baseline information and developing a detailed monitoring and evaluation plan. Phase I will last for 24 months and will focus on: capacity building of target groups through non formal education and awareness raising activities as well as technical capacity building in land, forest and watershed management techniques; capacity building of civil society organizations for advocacy; instituting linkages between upstream and downstream users through multi stakeholders forums; facilitating linkages of households to market non timber forest products (NTFPs) and high value crops (HVCs); documenting lessons learnt for wider dissemination and program refinement in other pockets of the Churia. During the final quarter of Phase I, a final review will be conducted and the design of Phase II will be done based on lessons learnt and opportunities for greater program sustainability and impact.

At the operational level, the Program Management Team (PMT) will carry out the regular planning, implementation and monitoring in partnership with local partners and in consultation with relevant stakeholders. A national level Program Coordination Committee (PCC) meeting once a year, will provide strategic directions to the program, and review the program plans and progress. An inception review at the end of the inception phase and a final review towards the end of year three of the program will take place to assess the progress and impact of the program, as well as design Phase II of the program. At the district level the program will join the District Forest Coordination Committee (DFCC) for better coordination, planning and policy advocacy work.