Overall
objective of the Program:
The overall objective of the proposed SAGUN
extension program is 'to ensure that natural resources in
selected areas of Nepal are managed in a democratic and
sustainable way; that the performance of selected civil
society groups and other institutions is improved to meet
the principles of good governance; that the benefits from
natural resources are dispersed in accountable and transparent
ways and that the benefits and other earned revenues are
equitably distributed to the local communities both directly
and through sustainable livelihoods improvement initiatives;
so that the biodiversity is conserved and the democratic
process for conflict resolution and peace building is supported'.
The SAGUN program
was developed to build on the successful establishment of
Natural Resource Management (NRM) groups in order to increase
their ability to manage the precious forest and water resources
that support people’s livelihoods.
In Nepal’s rural areas,
over 80% of people directly depend upon these natural resources.
The negative impact of insurgency on development and weak
local governance has highlighted the need for grassroots
groups to strengthen the management of natural resources
in order to increase productivity and sustainability. NRM
groups are a significant force in mobilizing natural, human
and financial resources. With the support of SAGUN Program,
they can develop capacities to better manage their local
resources as per government guidelines and distribute the
costs and benefits inclusively, to ensure equitable access
to, and benefit from, these assets amongst those who depend
on them most, namely women, Dalits, marginalized ethnic
groups and other disadvantaged groups.
Strengthened Actions for Governance
in Utilization of Natural Resources (SAGUN) Program has
been implemented since November 2002. Funded by USAID, the
program has a total budget of US $7.97 million including
of US $ 6.30 million grant from USAID. The initial phase
of the program completed in December 2006 with three months
‘No Cost Extension’ phase. Initially the Program
had three components viz. Forestry and Buffer Zone Component;
Irrigation Component and Partnership for Hydropower Component.
In September 2005, Policy Advocacy Campaign was added to
the Program.
From January 2007, Irrigation,
Hydropower and Policy Advocacy Campaign components have
been phased out and only Forestry and Buffer Zone Component
has been continued with new programmatic and geographic
focus. SAGUN Extension Program (SEP) has begun from January
2007 for a period of 21 months until September 2008 with
a total budget of US $ 1.875 million including US $ 1.5
million grant from USAID. The SEP builds on the best practices
and lessons learned form the initial phase of SAGUN Program
and apply them in the expanded new areas such as Gorkha,
Lamjung, Buffer Zone area of Langtang National Park and
Kanchenjunga Conservation Area.
The key focus areas of the
SEP include: Strengthened governance; improved livelihoods;
biodiversity conservation; and, policy advocacy. During
the Program period, SEP targets to reach 1,300 Natural Resource
Management Groups (NRM) groups and 225,000 direct beneficiaries
including women, poor, traditionally marginalized and ethnic
minority groups such as Dalits and marginalized Janajatis.
To achieve the overall objective,
the program strategy comprises focus on local NRM groups,
minimization of root causes of conflict, livelihood improvement
planning, institutionalization of LRPs, landscape level
biodiversity threat reduction, and new thrust in policy
advocacy.
Key Achievements (2002-2006):
Weak institutional
and technical capacity of the natural resource management
groups was the major gap which led to implementation of
the SAGUN Program. SAGUN implemented a number of activities
related to strengthening technical and governance capacity
including Rights Based Approach (RBA) and advocacy to the
target audience. Key achievements of the SAGUN Program during
the above period include:
| • |
SAGUN
Program reached a total of 827 CFUGs and Buffer Zone
CFUGs, 14 Water Users Associations and 53 target groups
from the hydropower project affected communities, benefiting
a total of 211,426 households. |
| • |
A
total of 412 or 46% of the groups have conducted Public
Hearing and Public Auditing (PHPA) to ensure that the
activities of the executive committees are transparent
and duty bearers are more accountable to the ordinary
users. |
| • |
Participatory
Well-being Ranking (PWBR) in 779 or 94% of the user
groups which has led to implementation of a number of
pro-poor activities by the UGs. A total of 571 or 72%
of the UGs have practiced equitable benefit sharing
from community forest management. |
| • |
Representation
of women, Dalit and poor in the executive committees
has increased. About 44% of women, 9.2% Dalits and 27.3%
poor have been represented in the executive committees
of the UGs. |
| • |
UG
members including women and Dalits have organized and
advocated for their access to rights in the community
forestry management. |
| • |
A
total of 31,573 users, executive committee members and
general members of Water User Associations (WUAs) including
7,750 females and 2,653 Dalits enhanced their knowledge
and skills on good governance practice & leadership
skills. Similarly, a total of 34,128 users, executives
and members of WUAs including 15,999 females and 2,406
Dalits participated and acquired knowledge on program
management, M&E practice, record-keeping and got
awareness on managerial functions of WUAs. |
| • |
Similarly,
a total of 20,258 users, executives and members of WUAs
including 5,957 females and 1,486 Dalits participated
in technical capacity building trainings such as Irrigation
Service Fee administration, use of parcellary map, schedule
demonstration, canal operation plan preparation and
other technical capacity enhancement trainings. |
| • |
About
60% of the target groups from the hydropower project
affected communities have significantly improved their
good governance status. |
| • |
One
national level federation of CSOs namely; Federation
of Hydropower Project Affected Community (FEHOPAC) formed,
registered, and functioning. |
| • |
The capacity of the target groups has been increased
to make them accountable to poor, to be able to influence
the service providers and willing to support hydropower
project construction sites. |
| • |
Participatory planning and monitoring process has been
initiated to strengthen governance. |
| • |
Understanding
developed to allocate hydropower royalty to Project
affected VDCs and its utilization for environmental
management. Pro-poor program, has contributed to win-win
partnership and sustainable hydropower development. |
| • |
In
April 2006, at least 700,000 forest users in 24 districts
were motivated to participate in the People’s
Movement – II (Jana Andolan-II) mainly because
of perceived threats to community forestry poised by
autocratic rule. |
| • |
Under
Policy Advocacy campaign component the program has been
involved in: |
| |
* |
Promotion
of pro-poor NRM policy and activities through advocacy. |
| |
* |
Peace building and conflict
transformation, leading to the reduction of NRM conflicts. |
| |
* |
Participation in political
processes, and in strengthening democracy and governance. |
| |
* |
Community mobilization
and information sharing about the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement and upcoming CA. |
| |
* |
Capacity-building of community-based
organizations. |
| |
* |
Improving service delivery
by holding LGAs accountable and increasing the capacity
of local human resources (local resource persons or
LRPs). |
Achievements
during SAGUN Program (Extended phase – from Jan. 2007
to Sept. 2008):
SAGUN Program
(Extended phase) has been implemented for about 13 months
since Jan. 2007. Some of the achievements of the Program
include as follows:
• |
The Program
has been successful to reach a total of 869 Users Groups,
benefiting a population of 199,250 persons including
82,774 women, 17,618 Dalits; 68,358 marginalized Janajatis
and 2,792 ultra poor. |
• |
Users groups have actively
managed a total of 12,050 ha of community forests extracting
a total of 25,565 metric tons of biomass including timber,
poles, fuelwood, thatch/fodder grass and other non-timber
forest products on a sustained yield basis. |
• |
A total of 410 or 48%
of the UGs have conducted Public Hearing and Public
Auditing (PHPA) to ensure transparency and accountability
of the executive committee members to the general users.
Thus PHPA has proved as an effective tool to recover
misused funds by the executive committee members. So
far a total of NRs. 160,271 has been recovered. |
• |
Representation of women,
Dalits and marginalized ethnic communities is crucial
for influencing the decisions made by the executive
committees on their favor. In this regard, SAGUN Program
extended phase has been facilitating to bring the deprived
sections of the community in the decision making bodies.
As a result, the representation of women, Dalit, marginalized
Janajatis and poor has increased to 40%, 11%, 43% and
23% respectively |
• |
Livelihood improvement
of the poor households in the community has been one
of the key focus areas in the SAGUN Program extended
phase. A total of 146 Livelihood Improvement Plans were
prepared benefiting a total of 161 households from 29
UGs. |
• |
Resource rich groups have
been allocating group funds for livelihood improvement
activities of the poor households in the UGs. Users
Groups allocated a total of NRs. 597,500 or 46% of the
total fund. The trend of allocating such fund is increasing.
However, the program is facilitating to harness external
resources to those groups which do not have enough internal
resources. It is noteworthy that one of the UGs from
Kailali district has been successful to draw NRs. 50,000
from the Village Development Committee. |
• |
Governance Literacy Classes
(GLCs) for women are playing important role in empowering
women to claim and exercise their rights and to enhance
their active and meaningful participation in the decision
making process in the community. A total of 52 such
GLCs were run by the SAGUN Program in which 1,436 persons
(1,408 women) participated in the training; among them
1,327 (95%) graduated. |
• |
Participants of the GLCs
raised and advocated a number of issues such as land
rights of land tillers, representation of women in executive
committees, equal rights to education for boys and girls;
caste based discriminations, unhealthy practices in
the community such as eating carcass, abolition of early
child marriage and equal wages for women for similar
works etc. |
• |
The outcomes of the GLCs
include representation of women, Dalits and Janajatis
(marginalized ethnic groups)in key positions of the
executive committees, timely availability of the text
books in government schools, citizenship certificates
received by poor women, commitment to pay equal wages
for equal work, stopping carcass eating, enrollment
of school aged children in the schools and so on. So
far, 1058 (28%) women, 243 (6.3%) Dalits and 1706 (44.4%)
Janajatis and 560 (14.6%) poor have managed to be in
the key positions of their executive committees. |
• |
Protected Areas, their
buffer zones and community managed forests are constantly
facing threats for bio-diversity conservation including
over-exploitation of forest products and the illegal
trade in wild animal products and plants, over grazing,
deforestation, encroachment of forest area, forest fires,
and unsustainable harvesting of timber and non-timber
forest products. Initiation of active management of
forest areas, formation and mobilization of Anti-Poaching
Unit (APU), Participatory bio-diversity monitoring,
community-based livestock insurance schemes, education
and awareness of herders in biodiversity conservation,
Watch tower construction, scare crow (dummy) installation,
construction of bio-fencing and promotion of eco-tourism
for better income opportunities or the local inhabitants
are the important means SAGUN Program extended phase
has adopted to reduce these threats. So far out of 38,728,893
hectares of forest areas of the six program districts
116,918 hectares of community forest areas have been
managed to reduce threats for bio-diversity conservation.
|
• |
In the first year of the
Program, 222 advocacy campaigns were conducted at local
level (217), regional level (4) and national level (1).
Local level advocacy campaigns were conducted by the
participants of the Governance Literacy Classes; and
CFUGs themselves with the leadership of FECOFUN. The
advocacy campaigns included demonstrations, policy dialogue,
mass rally, signature campaign, door to door visit,
and counseling, lobbying with political parties, public
hearing, and delegations. |
• |
SAGUN Program managed
to contribute to revise CF Operational Guidelines from
governance perspectives. Similarly, on the invitation
of the National Planning Commission, it also contributed
in the preparation of Interim Forestry Plan and managed
to incorporate new strategies of forest management from
governance and pro-poor programming perspectives. As
part of policy advocacy initiatives, revision of 7000
Forest Operational Plans have been have been newly targeted
in the Plan instead of the initial 3000 FOPs |
In addition to the activities stipulated
in the Annual Work Plan, a number of non-targeted activities
have been conducted by the SAGUN Program recently:
Participation
in USAID Share Fair
The SAGUN team successfully participated
in the USAID Share Fair in Rabibhawan. The SAGUN Program
stall was observed by many visitors including US Ambassador
Mr. James Moriarty; Regional Contracting Officer of USAID,
and other distinguished persons. They were very much enthusiastic
about the SAGUN program and were impressed from its publications
on PHPA and PWBR. The Share Fair was a very appropriate
occasion to share some of the outstanding works of SAGUN
Program to the audiences.
Sharing
of SAGUN Program Learning at RECOFTC, Bangkok
On request of RECOFTC Bangkok, the SAGUN
Program managed to participate and successfully shared its
key experiential learning on equitable benefit sharing in
Community Forestry at the CF Forum organized by RECOFTC
on 21–22 March 2007. The key learnings were jointly
prepared by CoP and RMDM and it was highly appreciated by
the participants. Recently the key learnings were published
by RECOFTC in its Synthesis of discussion at the Second
Community Forestry Forum.
Replication
of SAGUN Program Tools
As reported by the ‘Strengthening and
Empowering Civil Society for Participatory Forest Management
in East Africa’ (EMPAFORM) some PRA tools developed
by SAGUN Program like Participatory Well-being Ranking (PWBR),
Good Governance Capacity Assessment Tool (GG-CAT) are successfully
replicated in some Community Forest User Groups of East
Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). EMPAFORM is a program
aimed at strengthening civil society to demand and participate
effectively in Forest Management in East Africa. Last year
visitors from EMPAFORM, and forest officials from Kenya,
Uganda and Vietnam managed to visit SAGUN program in Banke
district.
Support to institutionalize
LRPs
During SAGUN
Program more than 200 Local Resource Persons were supported
to build up their technical and advocacy capacity in order
to support CFUGs for their equitable and sustainable CF
management. These LRPs have been found to be pivotal to
the effectiveness of all interventions in governance and
policy advocacy at the UG level. However, recognition of
their skills and services by the government organizations
like District Forest Offices has been a critical issue for
a long time. In order to resolve this issue, SAGUN Program
joined a LRP’s skill test committee comprised of COFSUN,
CTEVT, DoF CFD and other bilateral and donor organizations
like LFP to certify LRP’s skills and capacity by a
recognized institution like CTEVT. It is noteworthy to mention
here that so far a total of 4 LRPs have already passed the
skill test and have been recognized by the Department of
Forests. Such tests will be continued in the coming days
too.
CF can
function as ‘safety net’ for the vulnerable
people
A heavy flood hit Banke, Bardia and Kailali
districts in August 2007. Many people were affected by the
flood and some of them displaced from their villages and
some houses were washed away. Flood victims were desperately
looking for help for their life. But there were very few
to help them. Surprisingly, some of CFUGs in these three
districts worked as the ‘safety nets’ to rescue
and provide immediate relief to some of the flood victims
in the area. Balapur CFUG of Bardia district and immediately
mobilized Rs. 3,588.00 from their fund to purchase and distribute
bitten rice with Bheli (a kind of sweets) to 36 flood victim
households, Sita Mahila CFUG Babanpuruwa Kamdi mobilized
Rs, 40,000 to provide food and safe drinking water to more
than 80 flood affected families for two days. Similarly
Mahila Upkar and Siddhi Binayak CFUG members of Banke district
were actively involved with the SAGUN program field staff
in the rescue operation in Banke and Barida districts. Thus
CFUGs has proved that Community Forestry is not only for
trees and wildlife conservation, it is also a reliable ‘safety
nets’ for the poor people during the disaster.
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