#theme:livelihoods

Bangladesh is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, where more than 3.5 million coastal peoples’ livelihoods depend directly or indirectly on fishing and related activities under extremely difficult conditions. Economic hardship is likely to be aggravated by climate change and its various effects. This study examines the probable linkage of the changing regimes in sea surface temperature, tropical cyclones and related climatic hazards with the declining livelihoods of the coastal fishers. The paper is organised into two sections: the first documents the sea surface temperature and tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal based on analysis of available climatic data between 1985 and 2009; and the second documents fishers’ own experience and perceptions of the changing climate based on analysis of survey data from ten coastal areas of Bangladesh.

Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) has provided support to Ethiopia since 1984, and established its office in the country in 2006. The NPA development programme comprises eight partner organizations working with two thematic areas: Violence against women; and Land and natural resource management. Since the programme is fairly recent and has not been externally evaluated until now, since NPA is in the process of developing a new country strategy, and because of the changing conditions for civil society activity in Ethiopia because of new legislation, NPA has commissioned this evaluation. The evaluation team find the two programme areas to be highly relevant in all dimensions: they respond to urgent needs in Ethiopia; the way that partners work allows them to be change agents in these areas in spite of the restrictive legal context in Ethiopia; and the programme therefore allows NPA’s strategic objectives to be realized.

Despite economic growth, and a reduction in poverty, malnutrition is still rampant in South-Asia. This indicates that non-economic factors are important, and we use a nation-wide survey from Nepal to identify factors that may explain why small children are stunted. In contrast to designated studies of child nutrition we do not have information on individual food intake, but we demonstrate that analysis of large sample surveys is a good supplement to designated studies, with the main benefit being that findings are nationally representative. We find that pulses are critical for child growth, and that boys are more often malnourished, maybe because they are expected to take other food than breast milk. Furthermore we find that girls are more likely malnourished if they have many older brothers, and we find that female empowerment improves child nutrition.

The purpose of the midterm review was to assess the programme performance against its target and to suggest potential corrective measures for the rest of the programme period. The evaluation team finds that the design of the programme remains relevant despite changing contexts. Implementation is going well and progress is satisfactory. Although the number of farmers reached directly by the programme might appear relatively low (10,000), the programme has had a broader impact through assisting the work of other government projects, NGOs and farmer-to-farmer communication. Exact quantification of impact is, therefore, not possible. The interest in IPM among stakeholders is high and increasing. Institutionalisation of IPM is moving forward according to the logframe. The programme has shown remarkable success even in the time of unrest. In light of the challenges faced by the new government of Nepal the review team recommends continued support beyond the second phase of the IPM programme.

The goal of this project was to enhance livelihood sustainability through participatory planning and management of coastal fisheries resource utilization and conservation. Its main purpose was to strengthen the capacity of communities and local authorities to conduct sustainable fisheries management within the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. An overall assessment by the evaluation team was that the RaCCCoM project was successfully implemented, despite the few drawbacks, such as the slow disbursement of project funds and low uptake of capacity building initiatives due to low literacy levels which may have delayed implementation of some of the activities and slowed down progress such that extra effort was required to achieve desirable results in the stipulated project time. However, there was little evidence of complete ownership of the project activities by communities, such that functioning of most activities of the project to a considerable degree depends on the RaCCCoM project support.

Midterm evaluation. The main purpose of the evaluation is to get a solid foundation of whether the organisations are on track to achieve the program plans, and if the objectives are likely to be met. The objectives spelled out in the ToR focuses on the partnership relations and three key aspects of the work: sustainability, effectiveness and ownership. The evaluation confirmed that the program generally is on track. The strength of the program partly lies with CRWRC and its partners themselves, and partly in the program’s community approach. CRWRC has a strong commitment to its work. There is a strong team spirit, and a clear leadership philosophy. The values adopted by the organisation are also re­flected in their work. The Community Organising (CO) process generally serve the purpose of facili­tating for development activities and results in the communities.

This report provides a concise picture of the Centre for Social Protection’s approach, key areas of work and accomplishments over the last six years. It aims to inform current and potential partners and stakeholders about who CSP are and how they work. The Centre for Social Protection (CSP) is a global hub for research, policy analysis, and capacity building in social protection. CSP envisions a world in which every person is protected against shocks and adverse personal circumstances, and in which vulnerable people can enhance their livelihoods and wellbeing. To work towards this vision, CSP influences debates and strengthens capacities to build social protection policies and programmes that protect vulnerable people, are sustainable and promote social justice.

Mongolia’s reindeer herders and their taiga homeland are today facing unprecedented challenges from unregulated mining, forest logging, loss of access to natural resources, tourism, and climate change. The Dukha herders and their ancestors have lived for centuries in this fragile transition region on the edge of the steppes, practising an ancient and unique form of reindeer husbandry and helping to conserve the region’s unique biodiversity. Yet this system of reindeer husbandry, with its close relationship between man and reindeer, is under threat. This publication addresses the current state of reindeer husbandry of northern Mongolia and presents recommendations from the Mongolian reindeer herders for improving the sustainability of reindeer herding and the management of pastures and their homeland.