Social Protection, Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction

Disadvantaged groups need support and guidance on improving their quality of life. We take pride in making the most up-to-date and appropriate advice, from micro-finance to rural democracy, accessible to the poorest and most excluded groups in society. Our work has ranged from projects with the rural communities of Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan and Ecuador to assisting the national ministries of transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe with pension and benefits reform.

Understanding poverty is not simple. How poor people in developing countries make a living is complex. They use a variety of strategies based on the assets (social as well as physical) available to them. The strategies themselves are then influenced by external factors such as social norms, the ‘rules of the game’ and policies. Livelihoods approaches have provided a way to understand these complexities, and develop more holistic approaches to reducing poverty.

It is now understood that economic growth alone is not sufficient to lift the poorest and most vulnerable households out of poverty. Social protection is an essential investment, not only to protect households from transient poverty due to ‘shocks’ such as drought, but also to promote the livelihoods of the chronically poor. Well-targeted social protection contributes to economic growth, and makes that growth more pro-poor by providing a spring-board out of poverty and into productive livelihoods.

HTSPE works to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable people in society are supported in their attempts to move out of poverty and that mechanisms are in place to protect those who are most at risk. Our approach makes use of differentiated livelihoods analysis to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society, such as women, the elderly and minority groups, are the focus of this support.

We have adopted a broad definition of social protection to move beyond purely economic risks and to include social risks such as gender inequality and social discrimination. In addition, we recognise that social protection is not only carried out formally by the state, but is also provided by other organisations such as religious groups, and is carried out informally through social and household support networks.

The scope of our work in livelihoods and social protection has included:

agriculture, livestock and fisheries;
business services to promote livelihoods diversification and non-farm incomes;
food security, including social safety nets such as school feeding programmes;
natural resources management, including forestry;
property rights, especially land;
markets, including value chains;
trade, including international agricultural trade;
urban and industrialised populations – including social security systems and minimum welfare-at-work standards; and
governance – ensuring that public services operate to the benefit of those in need, at every level of government and society.

Global: Livelihoods Resource Centre

Designed to complement DFID systems this three-year HTSPE-managed programme provides a menu of technical and support services that enable DFID teams to manage their work programmes more effectively. A range of tailor-made services are provided through the LRC web portal and an e-bulletin facilitates knowledge-sharing within DFID and the wider development community. The LRC also responds to direct requests from DFID for expertise or to undertake specific assignments, research or other support activities. LRC themes comprise:

agriculture, livestock and fisheries;
natural resources, including forestry;
non-farm income and employment; markets and value chains;
trade;
business services;
technology, knowledge and innovation;
property rights, especially land;
food security and vulnerability; and
governance.

During the first two years of the programme HTSPE has managed LRC contracts totalling in excess of £2 million.

See more details in the links below.

Kyrgyz Republic: Sustainable Livelihoods for Livestock Producing Communities

This process project created economic coping strategies and income-generating activities, which can be exploited on a sustainable basis by livestock-producing communities in selected pilot areas. This contributed to the goal of promoting sustainable livelihoods for rural citizens in Kyrgyzstan. HTSPE worked towards post-project sustainability and a not-for-profit organisation, the “Rural Development Centre” comprising Krygyz team members, was established as an entity to provide similar services in the long term. The key outputs of the project cover:

creation of mechanisms for the development and support of sustainable income generation which were tested and disseminated in pilot communities;
improved access to services for small scale rural producers;
capacity building of national staff to support livelihood and community development initiatives;
capacity building of community groups and organisations, and improved motivation of local government, to respond to development needs of rural communities; and
dissemination.

Afghanistan: Social Protection Feasibility Study

In Afghanistan, years of civil conflict and hardship have led to a weakened social infrastructure that can no longer provide the traditional safety nets and many socio–cultural traditions offer no protection to the most vulnerable especially in urban areas. The result is ever-increasing marginalisation of certain vulnerable groups. One particularly visible group is the street children, elderly and women beggars, homeless and drug-addicted.

A number of factors relating to the dismantlement of community support networks increasingly make vulnerability in urban centres a prominent issue. Factors such as the collapse of public services, shortage of housing, insecure employment opportunities, frequent movement of households and ever-increasing levels of hard drug consumption have led to a higher number of vulnerable groups in urban areas.

HTSPE worked with the government of Afghanistan and the EC in the following areas:

in co-ordination with other actors involved in the sector, assessed the targeting of vulnerable groups, with an analysis of the specific support;
assessed the feasibility of providing emergency support to the people living/wandering/begging with regular patrolling especially during winter months;
identification of the best international agencies to act as implementing partners for the various actions;
investigated the educational needs of certain vulnerable groups;
assessed the institutional and operational capacity of government actors and NGOs within the sector; and
researched the best links with the EC programme for mental health.

Uganda: Agricultural Livelihoods Recovery Programme

The aim of this EC-funded project was to identify interventions that would contribute to the recovery of the agricultural livelihoods of returned Displaced Persons in the war-affected northern districts of Uganda. This project analysed the necessary building blocks that would allow returnee farmers and receiving communities to restart production, market their output and initiate the economic revitalisation of return areas.

The project then suggested possible investment elements as part of a comprehensive recovery programme. These included:

Assistance with land clearing as returnees would be going back to abandoned and overgrown plots. To avoid the risk of misuse/capture of land clearing services, schemes involving the provision of vouchers for labour or mechanised land clearance were investigated.
Forestry/tree planting. Returnees put increased stress on the natural resource base and the mission considered subsidies and technical advice for commercial planters; individual and community initiatives and land tenure issues.
Encouraging private sector operators to return to the areas. The returnees need consumables and links to output markets to enable economic recovery. Incentive schemes were considered to encourage private sector firms to tackle the inherent risks in re-establishing their services.
Rural outreach of micro-financial services, both at the level of the rural poor and for higher market segments such as traders and small agri-businesses.
Access to agricultural education including local capacity for technical training of returned youths and potential adaptability problems.
Review of planned interventions to build capacity at local government level and identification of any specific gaps linked to agriculture.
Explore complementarity with established extension services as well as using existing channels for delivery of new services or messages.

Pakistan: Design of the Punjab Poor Districts Development Programme

The aim of this DFID-funded programme was to tackle rural poverty in Punjab by increasing livelihood opportunities for the rural poor. The means of achieving this included:

increasing the opportunities for income generation, employment and self-employment
increased and secure access to land; and
addressing social exclusion whilst reducing risk and vulnerability.

HTSPE was responsible for finalising the programme design, technical appraisals, logical framework and developing terms of reference for the whole programme. A detailed implementation plan for the first two years was produced along with an outline plan for the remaining duration.

The logical framework built on the draft strategy of GoPunjab and the design and implementation plan covered technical, institutional, social development, governance, economic, environmental and financial issues. Risk assessments and mitigation strategies were developed, as was a communication strategy for the whole programme. Detailed budgets were devised and an impact evalution methodology completed the work on the Design Phase of this important programme.

To view more detail or additional projects please click on the links below:

Livelihoods Resource Centre
Monitoring and Evaluation of Livelihood Programmes
Integrated Development of the River Paute Basin
Framework Contract Lot 1 – Rural Development
Policy and Knowledge Facility
Coalitions for Change (C4C)
Monitoring and Review of the State Partnership Programme for Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan
Development and Implementation of Social Protection Systems
Sector Policy Support Programme in Social Protection and Public Finance Management
Framework Contract BENEF Lot 9 – Culture, Education, Employment and Social
Policy Development Facility