Sustainable Initiative for Resilience and Transformation (sirat)

Phase 2: implementation

In order to achieve the objectives of the project, introduce/foster participatory planning and development, the field teams will ensure broad base participation of all the stakeholders in the process of community organisation and empowerment. The communities will be mobilized and organized into broad based participatory Community Organizations (COs) in the villages where no such structure exists. On the other hand, where community structures are present, efforts will be made to mobilize these organizations to play an active role in responding to the needs of their communities. Efforts will be made to include all primary stakeholders and ensure fair representation of the villagers and households.

COs will be sensitized through awareness to ensure effective participation and representation at these forums of vulnerable individuals and families that mainly include women, children, women heads of household, physically challenged and very poor. It will be ensured that such groups are formed/re-organised on genuine principles of participation in order to facilitate and participate in the implementation of project interventions, be part of the development process within its own community and most importantly are instrumental in building and strengthening accountabilities. These COs will be linked up with district social welfare department and district disaster management authorities for their registration and to empower them for the retention of these community structures by involving the district government relevant institutions.
After formation of COs, a one day session will be given to the office bearer to orientate them on record keeping, CO management, financial management, charter of COs. In addition, three days CMST and LMST will be imparted to the office bearer of COs. The main content of these trainings will be communicational skills, leadership management skills, role of office bearers, ToRs of office bearers, presentation skills, record keeping, meeting conduction and linkages development. These trainings will be organized for the office bearers of 400 COs of the working area.


Sector: Food Security and Livelihoods

All the food security and livelihood activities will help in the rehabilitation of cultivated areas. As 25% of the area is still underutilized and is becoming barren, project has developed integrated approaches by providing inputs, supplies, capacity building and water sources that will enable communities to recover or rehabilitate at least 40% of the unutilized land.

The main objective of scholarship programme and trainings is to train individuals, especially the youth, in the age group 18-28 years in employable skills for a broad range of occupations in various industries and other economic sectors. It primarily trains them in very specific activities and provides a significant “hands on” experience in acquiring the necessary skills. These grants will help individuals to realize their own potential and provide opportunities for self-employment. This programme is proposed for local community to have technical trainings for example one-three month mobile repair electrician, IT, carpenter and motor driving course. The programme will not only generate jobs, but also increase the level of awareness among the community. Under the scholarship programme, grants will be given to 200 individuals after completing a detailed need assessment. These grants include funds for trainings and relevant tools kits which will help them to set up their own business in their localities.

There are many small shop keepers, cobblers, carpenters and small scale cottage businesses that were destroyed by the flood. 100 grants of 50,000 Rupees each will be given to rehabilitate the small infrastructure for setting up shops, water mills and general stores. These grants will not only provide direct support to beneficiaries, but will make a great impact on a large part of the society by revitalizing the market. These beneficiaries will be linked to market for procurement and will also given training on business management and financial record keeping. It will provide a chance for small entrepreneurs to not only establish businesses but also build their capacity for record keeping and management.

Vocational training will be conducted for small enterprise development and preference will be given to females. The females will be trained in knitting, sewing, dying and other skills and will be given grants. There will be 12 training events where 25 females in each event will be imparted with value addition techniques at household level. Overall 300 female will be trained.

Affected families will be supported though poultry packages particularly designed for females to support subsistence level of income generation at household level. 200 females will be given grants for 10 poultry laying bird’s package that includes eight female and two male birds. The breed for laying birds will be white leg horn and age would be a 16 week old bird. The procured birds will be vaccinated against all the major diseases. These birds are fed with commercially prepared feed so one bag of feed according to age of birds will be provided to maintain poultry immediately after delivery up to four weeks. For the proper management and utilization of poultry birds, poultry management trainings will be conducted that include feed management, proper handling and vaccination of the birds.

This training will be initiated for the female population to generate the income from local produce. It will provide the basic knowledge of home economics, management of local resources and marketing of their produce. Females will be trained to make butter, ghee and pickles as well as drying of vegetables and marketing/financial management skills for their products. There will be six training events; in five events 20 females and in one event 21 females will be imparted with value addition techniques at household level. Overall 121 females will be trained and each training event will be of two days including theoretical and practical sessions.

100 farmers will be given improved vegetable seeds for at least one acre of land which will provide the restoration of vegetable production in the area, generate income and create jobs. Project technical team will utilize the local resources as well as national resources to identify the disaster resilient inputs specifically related to drought and floods. Farmers will be trained for improved agriculture practices which will enhance their knowledge and help increase their production with best business management skill that includes marketing and financial management. There will be four training events; in each event 25 farmers trained.

In cereal crop production rice is the main crop of the project area. Rice serves in both ways as staple crop and also as income generating source. Majority of local farmers are directly involved in growing rice at commercial scale. 500 farmers will be given rice-seed package including improved seed varieties for higher yield along with fertilizers for optimum production for at least one acre of land. For the climate change adoptability for rice cultivation, farmers will be given awareness through comprehensive training on adjustment of time sowing and irrigation intervals.

Proposed project area is well known for its high quality produce of sunflower as this plant is more tolerant to salinity than any other crop. Almost every farmer in the area cultivates sunflowers as their major crop. Project will provide assistance to the most deprived farmers in the area through sunflower production grants that includes seed, fertilizers and tool kits.

100 farmers will be taken on exposure-visits to progressive farms in Punjab and national research institutes for awareness and adaptation of new technologies. This activity will develop the linkage of communities with the line departments and potential service providers for sustainability of livelihood interventions.

An artificial insemination kit along with trainings will be given to 50 livestock keepers. This will be done to improve fertility of the livestock (small and large). It plays a vital role to increase the production.

Business association is an exciting and innovative platform that is at the forefront of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) assistance and development and the empowerment of entrepreneurs. The aim of association is to enable individuals and communities to maximise their growth and profits through its diverse offerings that include networking, mentorship, training, collaboration, entrepreneurship development and support. These associations would be focusing on finding new opportunities in craft production, marketing strategy, training and guidance for its members to improve their skills. In the proposed project, business association would be developed for backward and forward linkages. It will provide a platform to interact with buyers and sellers directly and present their produce to a bigger market for profit maximization.

Farmers from the proposed area are mostly using the outdated traditional methods. The major causes of these archaic practices are farmers’ poor knowledge and unawareness of modern technology, inadequate farming inputs, poor post-harvest handling and marketing skills. Selected farmers will be provided with seed inputs, fertilizers, drip irrigation and green houses to grow offseason vegetables. Beneficiaries will be trained in modern techniques of farming which will enhance their skills and expertise. In addition to this, use of proper farming inputs will enable them to use these techniques and method to improve their produce and income. These vegetable farmers will work as a demonstration of improved techniques and help neighbouring farmers to adopt and replicate on their lands. There will be 10 offseason vegetable farms established.

Farmers will be provided with improved varieties of grapevines and date palms that will promote fruit production in the area. Community is mostly using the local and wild varieties of these orchard trees that is less productive and of inferior quality. The farmers have no resources to buy high quality fruit plants. Through this activity farmers will be provided with improved and certified varieties which will enhance their yield two times and also boost-up the economy of the farmers.

These trainings will give an opportunity to women to sustain some of their traditional skill and use it as an alternate means of livelihood which will generate income. Women in the area are already using some traditional embroidery at local level and the middle man influence is minimizing their profit. Through six vocational trainings, 150 will be trained for small enterprise development and preference will be given to females. Besides training, necessary tool kits will also be distributed.

Project will construct five check dams that will provide a source to catch and store run-off water. Rain water harvesting through check dams in the desert province of Pakistan will be imperative to ensure enough drinking water or water for irrigation. This method will be an efficient measure to tackle the problems of drought, dry wells and low levels of the water table. The identification for the construction of Check dams will be prioritized during the hazard vulnerability and capacity assessment in the inception stage of the project. However, through a participatory way, the local communities will be sensitized to identify the most priority places for the construction of check dams through community organization. The disaster risk management network at village level will help community organization to prioritize the five check dams and will incorporate the priorities into village level disaster risk management plan and also in village level development plan for their long term planning purpose.

Three gabion walls will be constructed as retaining walls made of stacked stone-filled gabions tied together with wire. During the hazard vulnerability capacity assessment (HVCA) exercise, the communities will identify the most hazardous places where the gabion wall construction is important and can be used to mitigate the impacts of flood water entering into populated area and also to protect the agricultural lands. The most important objective and use of gabions is to stabilize stream banks or slopes against erosion in the programme area. They will also be used to direct the force of a flow of flood water around a vulnerable structure mainly using for agriculture land.

The increasing demand of electricity and the growing concerns for our environment are some of several factors that forces IRP to enhance the use of alternative energy sources for these areas of district Chagai. Heat from the sun is free and unlimited, non-polluting, prevention from harmful gases and its long lasting impact will benefit 4,500 beneficiaries in the targeted areas. Six trainings for 150 community members will be selected from different villages mainly focusing on Sadar Dalbandin Union Council of the programme area for the skill development trainings and will be facilitated to train them at their door step for skill enhancement.

30 community participants will be provided exposure visits to main markets of wool in country. Wool processing, grading and marketing to main areas of the country will benefit them rather than to the middle man. Wool value chain from production till marketing; all of the procedures will be imparted in six livestock management trainings and along with exposure visits will enhance the capacity of a total 1,185 direct beneficiaries to get more income from available resources.

To enhance livestock production it is necessary that best management practices should be exercised and farmers should have proper knowledge about vaccination schedule to avoid any complication due to disease outbreak. Due to change of season, seasonal diseases attack animals, but having less knowledge of these contagious diseases farmers are unable to treat them at proper time due to which productivity of animals is affected and sometimes the animal dies. Thus, project will organize health camp and gather all concerned stakeholders for dissemination of information to the animal keeper. The health camp will also provide an opportunity to understand the importance and schedule of vaccination and de-worming that will ultimately reflect in better productivity of animals. There will be 15 camps which will provide animal health facilities to 1,500 farmers.

Chagai Balochistan is ideal for solar powered projects due to its readily available sunlight. The people in this area face most of their problems due to unavailability of water. Though water table is quite high, expensive water uplifting means make it impossible for common people to make use of them for commercial or even domestic purposes. This area of the province has been a victim of drought for quite a long time and that has affected its economic status to a great extent. The living standards in general are too low because of a lack of water. The need of irrigation channels will be identified during the hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment and community organizations will identify the most prioritized places for the construction of irrigation channels. The construction of irrigation channels will be linked with drought mitigation.

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   Irrigation of farm houses built by the communities for the communities with IRP’s collaboration
   
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   Supply of water for domestic use and drinking purpose
   
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   Supply of water for livestock
   

Project is promoting and piloting the use of solar and wind energy for water pumping in rural areas of Sindh as this will ensure an increase and sustain supply of water at lower financial, economic, environmental and social costs compared with use of fossil fuel powered pumping systems. Approximately 22 water supply schemes utilizing solar and wind will be installed and will supply clean potable water to approximately 12,000 people in the project area. Capacity of community will be built to a level to operate and maintain solar or wind powered water supply systems through trainings before, during and after installation of schemes.

In most of the targeted villages the potable water is not available within the vicinity or near to the villages. Community members especially women have to fetch water from long distances. This activity is designed to provide the clean and sufficient water by utilizing the canal water connected through lead hand pumps. The pumps entails the drilling of new boreholes/drawing water from any other source (ponds and canals) on such locations where potable water is easily available and connecting them with a hand pump through a lead pipe. The water fetched from the boreholes/any other source will be available to the communities within their vicinity. Length of the lead will depend upon the need which may vary case to case. A total of approximately 15 lead hand pumps will be installed under the project. Geophysical surveys will be carried out with sufficient numbers to determine appropriate sites for boreholes to fetch potable water. COs will be responsible for management and maintenance of these CPI schemes. The CO members will be trained during and after the installation of water schemes regarding its management and maintenance.

In order to improve the availability of safe drinking water, health and hygiene awareness and practices, Islamic Relief Pakistan will provide different services during the proposed project period. Islamic Relief Pakistan will construct 10 brick masonry drinking water-ponds in those locations where surface/run-off water is available and underground water is saline. Each pond will cover a population of 100 households (730 individuals). Each water reservoir will consist of dual filtration system at inlet and outlet. The inlet filter will reduce the turbidity from water and the outlet filter will help in reducing total dissolved solids (TDS). Total water storage capacity of each reservoir of 12,500 cft can store 93,507 gallons or 353,960 litres of water. In order to treat the reservoir water and enable longer storage, chlorination will be performed.

In the early recovery phase Islamic Relief Pakistan installed hand pumps, water filtration plants and slow sand filter water ponds under different programmes, but due to last rainfall, some of the facilities got damaged. Therefore under this activity the rehabilitation of such water supply schemes will be done through proper social and technical assessment. A total of approximately ten schemes will be rehabilitated during the project duration.

Karez is a traditional method of collecting water in underground channels that has been in use for centuries in desert areas of Balochistan. Very deep underground tunnels are dug and then they are connected with each other. The water is collected due to seepage because of the gravitational flow and then made into use by having an open end where they form a spring. This water is used for irrigation and other purposes. Since these karezes are too old, they have been damaged from inside at several places. Moreover, they need to be cleaned as well to make them in order once again so that they can be utilized fully where needed. Islamic Relief Pakistan intends to rehabilitate five karezes which can be helped by cleaning them and reconstructing them for drinking and irrigation purpose.

Balochistan is a gifted land in terms of the natural resources for energy. Two of these are the wind and unbound sunlight. The best solar belt in the world lies in different areas of Balochistan. It has huge stretch of land with infrequent rainfall making it quite suitable to put this natural gift to the productive use of the local population. Under this project, this energy would be collected through solar panels and would be used to uplift water and storing it for further use. This would particularly help ease the living conditions of women and children. Under this project 12 solar powered water pumps will be installed in different locations for provision of drinking and irrigation purpose.

This activity will determine the details of the hazards and pinpoint the most vulnerable areas in the community affected by specific hazards. This is a pre-requisite for the identification of appropriate hazard mitigation models that will be constructed on the basis of hazard mapping. The hazard maps will identify the most hazardous places in the villages where structural mitigation measures can be taken by involving the local communities. The assessment that was previously conducted prior to the proposal stage will be revalidated together with the community disaster risk management networks as a basis for the response and contingency planning of the communities. The results of the revalidated HVCA will likewise feed into the community based disaster risk management planning processes.

A starting point for reducing drought risk and promoting a culture of resilience lies in gaining knowledge about hazard occurrence, the potential effects of the hazard and the related vulnerabilities of potentially affected people and activities. The latter includes the physical, political, social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities to drought that most communities face and the ways in which hazards and vulnerabilities are changing in the short and long-term. Understanding the physical nature of the drought hazard and the corresponding impacts and underlying vulnerabilities and communicating these dangers in an effective manner, forms the basis for developing informed drought mitigation and preparedness measures. This will reduce the effect of the impact of drought while contributing to drought-resilient societies. A detailed risk identification and impact assessment will be carried out in the first stage of the project implementation and the findings of this assessment will be fed into disaster risk management plans of the villages to mitigate the effects of droughts in Chagai district of Balochistan and flood risk areas of district Thatta in Sindh province. The mitigation of these identified hazards/risks will be addressed through implementation of structural and non-structural mitigation measures.

The early warning systems will be focusing mainly on flood and flash flood hazards. A combination of user-friendly and indigenous warning systems will be adopted and practiced. The community based early warning messages will describe the physical installation of the systems, the identification and interpretation of these warning messages and the action to be taken once the message is received. The second part which is the identification of warning messages and its interpretation will be done together with the community DRM networks and DDMA. This would include the establishment of communication channels, distance and group (gender, ethnicity, race, class, cast and religion) sensitive channels, weather radio for the early warning message to fishermen and installation of hazard warning signage into most hazard prone areas. The identification of early warning mechanism specific to floods, flash floods, cyclone and drought would be done through a consultative processes with relevant stakeholders

A detailed disaster risk management planning (DRM) of the targeted villages will be done in the first six months of implementation of the project. The findings of HVCA and drought, floods risk and impact assessment will be incorporated into DRM plans to mitigate the effects of identified and prioritized hazards of the villages. The disaster risk management plans will be developed by the local communities by involving the local government and disaster management authorities at district level. The technical support for the development of DRM plans will be provided by the project team and these plans will be shared with the district government and DDMA.

This activity will be implemented by the local communities where, prior to the practical exercise, a workshop will be conducted for the executive body members of the community organization to train them in the development of disaster response and contingency plans. The project will provide further technical support during the formation of village level disaster response and contingency plans. During the trainings and development of plans, the district government will be invited to participate in the activity. The response and contingency plans will clearly mention the expected role to be played by the government through the DDMA as well as of the other line agencies. Through this process, a platform for the grassroots organization to lobby for their needs will be created and at the same time a realistic point of view will be presented to an otherwise often academic perspective of disaster risk reduction.

This activity aims to promote models of hazard mitigation which can be easily replicated by other communities using locally available resources. These hazard mitigation models serve a twin purpose; first as a demonstration model and the second to actually mitigate the hazards identified in the communities. This will be done using indigenous knowledge and maximizing the use of locally available materials found in the community and adjacent areas. These hazard mitigation models will include gabion walls, retaining walls, check dams, formation of emergency response teams, provision of emergency response equipment and establishment of early warning systems for the flood mitigation and the introduction of drought resistant crops, check dams and delay action dams. The structural mitigation models will be identified based on the hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment and on the recommendation of village level disaster risk management plan/village development plan and the prioritized mitigation models by communities in close collaboration with district government. The identification and design of these hazard mitigation models will be based primarily on the hazard mapping, maximizing use of locally available resources and designed to adapt with the increased magnitude of hazards brought about by climate change for the construction of structural mitigation models the local communities will be mobilized to put their share in the shape of local available resources like unskilled labour, local carriage and stone. The non-structural mitigation measures may include forestation, awareness about epidemic diseases, awareness raising for crop cultivation on low water, participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation trainings and more activities can be added once the findings of the hazard vulnerability and capacity assessment are available.

To enhance the local disaster management mechanisms and to respond to disasters within villages the community organization through its village level disaster risk management networks will be mobilized to identify the members from community to become the member of emergency response team at village level. The project will provide the selection criteria for community members/volunteers for becoming the member for emergency response team once the members are identified they will receive the first aid and light search and rescue trainings along with the equipment which can be used during training for the simulation purpose and can be stored later in the central location of the village (emergency operation centre). Simulation exercises will be conducted on the basis of a presumed scenario in which different groups like search and rescue, first aid and fire-fighting will perform their role in a coordinated manner and will demonstrate application of the skills acquired. This exercise shall boost their confidence that they can respond to a real emergency. These simulations will be organized engaging various stakeholders such as volunteers, students, community people and local authorities to practice the skill and knowledge imparted through trainings. Simulations will be organized in public places and schools where children, women and person with disability will also participate. At the end, simulation feedback sessions will be held to improve the overall operations. At the end of the project there will be functional and fully equipped Light Search and Rescue (LSAR) and First Aid (FA) teams operating 24 hours / 7 days, ready to respond to any emergency within their localities. There will be one male and one female LSAR and FA teams in each of the villages in respect to the cultural norms as physical contact between genders is not allowed. The female LSAR and FA teams will cater exclusively to the emergency needs of women. Each team will comprise 15 members. The LSAR and FA teams are part of the community DRM committee and are represented as part of the emergency response committee. It is the primary responsibility of the community organization and DRM committee to maintain and deploy these teams locally as the need arises. Coordination will be made with the district level disaster response teams of DDMA and other stakeholders like Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on local deployments to ensure standards of response as reflected in the standard operating procedures of DMAs. To maintain interest and activity of these teams, the village DRM network will involve these teams in disaster preparedness and mitigation activities of the projects.

The community organizations will be mobilized and sensitized through social mobilization to establish an ERF at each village level. The COs and DRM networks will be responsible for establishing and collecting funds from each household and managing the emergency revolving fund. The project will provide guidelines for the collection, record keeping and managing the funds, Furthermore the DRM networks will be encouraged to open the bank accounts for the saving of ERF and will be provided with books and registers for the record keeping.

Public policies relating to food security, rural livelihoods, safe drinking water, sanitation, health and hygiene and disaster risk reduction (DRR) are not being translated into actions. People from deprived areas like Thatta and Chagai cannot see development schemes and allocation of funds in the wake of these policies to address the pressing problems. Bureaucratic mechanisms and rigid hierarchies existing right from national to provincial and district level never share the details of the policies affecting the people. There is a great need to establish strong linkages among downtrodden people, public representatives and bureaucracy that can pave the way for increased information of the people and implementation of policies. Further mainstream media has not given priority to inform the people about the policies and responsibilities of the state institutions at various levels. In this connection a multi-faceted people’s centred advocacy will be initiated with the aim 1) to bridge gap between state institutions and people; 2) to create atmosphere of open sharing of information at local level and 3) to pave the way for implementation of policies. For achieving this, following activities will be undertaken:

In order to establish the advocacy campaigns on a strong footing, simple action research will be conducted on issues like safe drinking water, food security, sanitation, health and hygiene and DRR. It will be helpful to educate, mobilize and motivate the people to demand their basic social services from the government by negotiating on a rational basis. These forums and synergies will be sharpened, facilitated and strengthened by the action research. The research will try to address the following broader questions:

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  How are people affected by these problems?
  
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  What is the response of the local government to address these problems over the period of time?
  
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  If government has undertaken initiatives to tackle or resolve these issues/problems then how it has positively or negatively impacted the people?
  
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  Why government initiatives have not taken root in the communities?
  
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  What are policy and delivery gaps in the governmental initiatives?
  
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  To what extent the government has involved or consulted the community to design or execute the initiatives?
  
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  What measures were adopted by the local government in their policies to ensure the continuity and sustainability of these initiatives?
  
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  What alternative steps, strategies and approaches can be adopted by the government to ensure the effective delivery of services at community level?
  

Issue focused peoples assemblies will be organized in each district on a six monthly basis in which issues like food security, safe drinking water, sanitation, health and hygiene and DRR will be deliberated upon by concerned community, public representatives and officials of concerned line departments at district level. Summaries of relevant policy on each issue will be presented. Subsequently community representatives will be asked to talk about the situation on ground. Public representatives and officials will be provided an opportunity to share the annual planning and budgeting on each issue. If they cannot share any concrete information in this regard then they will be stressed upon to take up the issues of the district at higher levels for planning and budgeting. Community groups will be facilitated to pursue the government departments for development initiatives.

Issue specific dialogue pertaining to food security, safe drinking water, sanitation, health and hygiene and DRR will be convened in each quarter. A cross section of society comprising of community representatives, journalists, lawyers, public representatives and officials will be called on to speak out about the issues in the perspective of concerned policies and state of implementation. The gist of this dialogue will be produced in the shape of a press release to be published in local and national newspapers. In addition to this, the summary of the dialogue will be sent to respective departments at district, provincial and national level for their attention and action.

Annual seminars will be held at district and provincial levels on the outcome of people’s assemblies and policy dialogues for evolving consensus at wider level and advocating the solution of respective issues in an effective manner. Community and public representatives, media, academia, lawyers, business community and officials of respective departments at district and provincial levels will participate in these events. Important points of views coming from speakers will be documented in the report, which will be shared with respective authorities at district, provincial and national level. The press release will be disseminated to various newspapers as well.

Social mobilization team will prepare the community in their consistent mobilization activities on these issues. In the wake of aforementioned events, social mobilization teams will be asked to engage with community organizations to consistently pursue the state institutions at district, provincial and national level for sustainable solutions and development of the areas. They will also be encouraged to stress upon their respective public representatives to play their role in implementation of policies in letter and spirit for the development the areas.