Public Private Community Alliance for sustainable natural products-based enterprises and local economic development, Phase I

With the recent political change, Nepal became Federal Democratic Republic and recently accomplished election of the local government bodies after 20 years. With the devolution of power, local government bodies are mandated to develop local development plans and consolidate efforts of every organization to achieve the development goal of people. Being a very new entity and limited expertise, the local political bodies are looking for a model of bringing various actors and stakeholders together who could contribute to develop plans, implement the development activities and achieve the desired goal. This type of common platform of the government, private sector and local communities will be helpful to bring new knowledge and ideas, develop and execute plan in a coordinated way and create synergy of the work reducing duplication.

In this context, building on the experience and lessons learned, ANSAB designed a Public-Private-Community-Alliance (PPCA) program in order to demonstrate and implement a socially and environmentally responsible local economic development model in the face of change. PPCA is being piloted in Jiri Municipality in partnership with the local communities and the municipality. PPCA is a novel approach building on the good results and best practices from the organized programs implemented in rural parts of the country with the aim to build prosperous communities through farm-forest based enterprises. ANSAB is thankful to Aveda Corporation, USA for providing financial support to implement this program.

ALLIANCE, ITS GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

This new alliance will bring together local governments, Nepali farm and forest producers, community organizations, cooperatives and associations, domestic and international enterprises, service providers (including quality assurance and certification organizations), and government, donor and NGO programs at central, provincial, local levels assisting the agriculture and forestry sector.

As a new pilot project, ANSAB will facilitate the development of an alliance at local level considering the farms and forests in and around Jiri area in Dolakha district and make it operational to deliver the services, which is expected to replicate in other areas.

Jiri municipality, Jiri Technical School (JTS), Everest Gateway Pvt. Ltd., Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), cooperatives, and lead firms, namely Himalayan Biotrade Pvt. Ltd. (HBTL) and Ashapuri Organic Pvt. Ltd. (AOPL) are the prospective alliance members. The alliance will also have a district level activity, especially a mechanism for sharing information, both technical and market related, and coordination of organic farming and certification services. At national level, an advisory body comprised of the relevant government ministries, representatives of national enterprises, international companies, associations, development partners, communication partners and ANSAB as a coordinating agency will be formed.

Based on the present and future learning from Dolakha, we will explore opportunities to extend certain enterprise and market system development support and technical advice to communities in Bajhang in collaboration with HBTL.

ALLIANCE GOAL

Link Nepali farm and forest producers, domestic and international enterprises, consumers, service providers (including quality assurance and certification organizations) and government, development partner and NGO programs assisting the agriculture and forestry sector in order to:

• demonstrate a sustainable natural products-based enterprises and local economic development model that is environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially just.

The system and practices developed in this model is expected to achieve the following results: a) conservation of watershed, ecosystem and biodiversity for environmental sustainability; b) increased productivity and production of farm and forest, development of enterprises, value chain, market system for economic viability; and c) increased steady incomes and employment for farm and forest producers including women and marginalized through revenue diversification (especially in remote rural areas).

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. Promote locally organized and controlled farm and forest enterprises (production, consolidation, value addition) ensuring sustainable use of natural resources and equitable benefit sharing;
2. Enable communities for conservation of forests and watershed for continued access to water and other ecosystem services;
3. Gain better market position for locally produced (and certified organic) farm and forest products in domestic and international markets;
4. Improve and maintain quality and consistency of Nepali farm and forest products, including exploration of quality assurance, certification program, labeling and design coordination with buyers;
5. Educating buyers on how to support natural and organic products industry to achieve sustainable long-term supplies of quality products;
6. Enhance capacity of lead firms to establish strong backward and forward linkages and consolidation of supplies to make attractive to buyers;
7. Lobby for an enabling policy environment for the promotion of locally produced natural and organic products and free and fair trade practices; and
8. Monitor performance and track impacts of the program activities.

The alliance members have complementary skills and resources, blending field expertise, established network, working relationships, track record with community forest user groups and famers groups development, planning, policy advocacy, and enterprise development and marketing. Some of the alliance members have been working together for over a decade. The new alliance members include Jiri Municipality, provincial government agencies and farm producers of Jiri, which have been formed recently.

The alliance members will work together contributing ideas and direction to the project design, activity planning and the implementation. With its solid track record in coordinating the Nepali partners and delivering community-based enterprise expertise and farm and forest management services to farmers, ANSAB will coordinate the overall alliance activities during the project period by holding meetings, facilitating field activities, providing business development services to local enterprises.

PROJECT AREA, BENEFICIARIES AND APPROACH

First local alliance will be formed for Jiri municipality of Dolakha. Based on the learning from Dolakha, some enterprise and market system development support and technical advice will be extended to communities of Jaya Prithvi municipality in Bajhang. The direct beneficiary of the project are farmers and the NTFP (including lokta bark) collectors, processors and traders. Local governments, local technical schools, cooperatives, forest user groups, local NGOs and the national government agencies will also be benefitted through the project activities indirectly.

The alliance will not just be following the conventional development thinking but take a more practical approach that we learned over the years. For example, the Alliance will:

• Promote locally appropriate family farming methods and crops that will provide both proper food and nutrition to families and excess to be marketed and sold locally and nationally;
• Discuss and plan locally on how to anticipate and execute long and short term programs that take into account local and national climate change challenges;
• Promote and enable local knowledge to be respected and integrated into programs and planning;
• Give special consideration to involve and benefit women and children in the program planning and implementation.