 |
|
| A cobbler active in ICA supported income generation work |
ICA Nepal currently runs integrated community development projects in Jhapa, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Rupandehi, Kapilbastu, Parbat, Baitadi, Doti and Dadeldhura. Majority of the programme participants are women and deprived communities. ICA Nepal works jointly with a number of national and international organisations. ICA Nepal's activities are based on the philosophy of ICA International, i.e., life-long learning, participation and sustainable development. ICA Nepal also aligns its activities to achieve the Millennium Development Goals set by UNDP. Our development projects are also based on the 'ICA approach of community development' and 'the Village Earth Model' which emphasises on the role of internal and external activators for community mobilisation which in turn helps in generating appropriate technology for sustainable development.
The major working areas of ICA Nepal in the field of community development are as follows:
A. Poverty Eradication
B. Promoting Literacy and Quality Education
C. Protecting Forest and Environment
D. Health and HIV/AIDS
E. Civil Society Development
A. Poverty Eradication:
Achieving MDGs through Holistic Human Development Activities
ICA Nepal's activities are geared towards achieving MDGs. It aims to realize the global goals at local context.
With the financial support of Poverty Alleviation Fund/World Bank/Government of Nepal, ICA Nepal has been implementing intensive human development activities at Jogbuda, Dadeldhura district in Far Western Nepal. About 600 families are involved in this project. They are empowered through intensive training, cooperative formation and practicing income generation activities. So far 1200 goats are distributed for them and dozens of new enterprises are established with the support of this project. The target group of this project are very poor people among them majority are Raute people, which is still considered as most indigenous community of Nepal.
Establishing Human Development Centre
ICA Nepal established integrated human ecology and development centre in Rupandehi district, West Nepal. The centre is located in Devdaha VDC, near Butwal Municipality about 300 km West of Kathmandu, the capital city. It is plain (Terai) and mainly inhabited by farmers. The centre will have a training centre. With its own efforts and resources, ICA Nepal along with the local community is developing the village as a model village. The main aim of this work is to contextualize MDGs and achieve them at local level by using locally accepted approaches. ICA plans to construct a learning centre in Devdaha VDC in near future. Similar approach is also applied in Dadeldhura district. In future, ICA aims to develop learning centre to promote model village concept in Devdaha, Amargadi (Dadeldhura) and Mahespur (Jhapa).
Income generation through Microfinance:
ICA Nepal has introduced Financial Services Association (FSA) as a viable and sustainable means of micro finance. Savings and Credit programmes have been demonstrated as an effective way to widen ownership and distribution of resources, and of empowering women in particular. ICA Nepal encourages them to save, meet regularly and support each other. They then become eligible for loans that can be used for starting Income Generating Activities (IGAs) with which to support themselves and their families. IGAs started so far have included goat and chicken rearing, starting grocery shops, improving existing businesses, tailoring, knitting etc. In certain projects, these women (and sometimes men also) are given skills training.
After two / three years, ICA Nepal aims to hand over the responsibility for the revolving loan funds it puts into operation, over to a group of loan users. The SCO is then registered as a co-operative. ICA Nepal continues to support the new co-operative for several months after this step.
One way to raise people's standard of living above subsistence is to provide them with skills training so that they may begin new IGAs using savings or micro-loans. For interested men and women, ICA Nepal organises training appropriate to the local environment / people's situation. Examples have included bee keeping, kitchen gardening, and knitting, food processing, environmentally sound construction items, sustainable agriculture etc.
Empowering Deprived Women for Poverty Eradication
By mobilising its own resources, ICA Nepal has started 'leadership development and income generation programme' for deprived women and children in Kathmandu. Similar activities are also going on in ICA run project area. The women participate in sewing and knitting, doll making, paper craft making, food processing etc. ICA Nepal is facilitating them to sell their products in the local market as well as abroad. The income generated through this programme is spent on empowering women community as well as launching human development activities in Nepal. For details, please contact to Debaka Shrestha of ICA Nepal.
Engaging Youth in Community Development
ICA Nepal has been focusing on participation of youth in national development. It conducts Youths as Facilitative Leadership Development training frequently involving and encouraging youths to take leadership role in their community.
Promoting Sustainable Agriculture
ICA Nepal is promoting sustainable agriculture in Nepal. ICA Nepal has organised several training on sustainable agriculture and has developed model farms. The group has trained hundreds of local farmers and has encouraged them to practice it.
B. Promoting Literacy and Quality Education
Adult literacy classes form the core part of several of ICA Nepal's integrated community development projects. With literacy comes empowerment, access to opportunities, increased decision-making power and the ability to stand up for rights. Hence ICA Nepal has arranged training for literacy facilitators in its project areas. These male and female facilitators are currently teaching groups of women to read and write in their home villages.
Literacy classes run for six to nine months, six evenings a week. In these classes the participants are also encouraged to discuss personal / village concerns including environmental problems, health problems and women's rights issues.
ICA Nepal is also supporting Department of Education to carry out 'Community Schools Support Programme' in Mustang, Rupandehi and Kapilbastu districts. ICA is facilitating a number of public schools for better result through community involvement. In 2006, Government of Nepal recognized ICA Nepal as leading NGO for its work in the field of education.
C. Protecting Forest and Environment
Nepal's rapidly growing population puts great pressure on natural resources and the environment. Through Eco-clubs and sustainable agricultural programmes, children and adults respectively are encouraged to think about, and give suggestions for ways to use their environment in a sustainable way. Trees have been planted, and nurseries and kitchen gardens started.
With the support of Global Forest Coalition (GFC), ICA Nepal is carrying out activities on promoting rights of indigenous communities on the use of forest resources. It will organize orientation and training and develop case studies and will conduct national level workshop on indigenous communities and their relationship to forest.
Through training and facilitation, ICA has motivated thousands of people towards protecting environment.
See GFC News Final.pdf
D. Health and HIV/AIDS
Raising health awareness is a feature of many programmes in an ICA Nepal managed integrated developmental project, including construction work and safe drinking water programmes. In addition, ICA Nepal organises health camps for school children dispensing free advice and medicines.
Street drama is used by local drama groups to raise awareness of environmental, health and social problems.
With the support of USAID/MSH, ICA Nepal is facilitating National Health Training Centre and its district and local level units/affiliates towards developing healthy districts and communities. Series of workshops on leadership and management are organized to enhance knowledge and skill of local people towards promoting health.
With the aim of improving health conditions in rural areas, toilets, improved cook- stoves and soak-pits are built in many of ICA Nepal's projects. These models are designed to be easily imitated by community groups / individuals in further homes as needed.
Drinking water programmes focus on providing safe water to rural areas, with the aim of reducing the level of water caused health problems. ICA from Nepal and Japan mobilised community people to construct drinking water system in Khanigaun (Parbat), Changu Narayan and Chaling VDCs (Bhaktapur).
HIV/AIDS: Decentralised Transformative Approaches
ICA Nepal carried out one-year programme on developing innovative leadership on HIV/AIDS with the support of Ministry of Health and UNDP, Nepal. The goal of this work was to develop the capacity of leaders at the District Level to mobilise the social and political forces to create a deep community-led transformation of norms and practices. The programme had the following objectives to HIV/AIDS:
- develop a pool of national facilitators
- a series of transformation leadership seminars
- implement practice of commitment at the local level
- develop district plan on HIV/AIDS to two districts
- organise leadership programme for a media campaign concerning results and
- scaling the results up, down and out.
The Seminars were based on the transformative frameworks of emotional intelligence, Ken Wilber's Model, Four level of imagination, Dynamic Planning which incorporates the processes of Technology of Participation, Appreciative Inquiry and Discovery Process for Personal Leadership Development. UNDP had launched this programme in 6 countries including Nepal aiming to develop transformative leadership capable enough to deal the issues of HIV/AIDS.
ICA Nepal also facilitates districts to develop HIV/AIDS planning. Recently, ICA Nepal facilitated such plans in Bhaktapur, Morang and Sunsari districts. The plans are now under implementation. ICA also organized teachers training on HIV/AIDS which was attended by more than 200 teachers from five districts of Nepal.
E. Civil Society Development
 |
|
| CSI Diamond for Nepal |
ICA Nepal is dedicated to support and improve Nepalese civil society by providing them quality training and enlarging their opportunities. It also supports local level NGOs in achieving their objectives.
ICA Nepal is the pioneering organization regarding developing Civil Society Index for Nepal. With the collaboration of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, ICA Nepal has developed ‘Civil Society Index (CSI)’ which was carried out by CIVICUS in 62 countries throughout the world. The CSI determines the status of civil society in Nepal. Based on the report of the work, ICA Nepal is also planning to implement activities, which help in strengthening civil society in Nepal.
Conflict Management and Peacebuilding
ICA also emphasizes its activities on managing conflict and peacebuilding in the country. It works through civil society organizations in the local area. It believes that strong civil societies are required for the sustainable conflict management and peacebuilding in the country. Since the country has passed through a decade of bloodshed and war, we aim for sustainable peace in the country. We have applied ICA approach in reconciling warring groups at local level and have also carried out community development activities at post-conflict situation. ICA also conducts training on conflict management and peacebuilding regularly.
ICA-CIVICUS book on CSI
Interview with Tatwa P. Timsina (taken from CIVICUS Monthly Bulletin)
Newspaper article re study of Civil Society by ICA Nepal