Livelihood support to forest user groups in co-managed protected forest areas
  


Background and Rationale:

Arannayk Foundation (AF) and the Nishorgo Network supported by the IPAC project of the Forest Department have the common objective of establishing collaborative management system in the protected forest areas of Bangladesh. IPAC has been working in 17 PFAs. Its interventions include establishment of co-management councils and committees and capacity building of the stakeholders in the co-management system. IPAC also provides IGA (income generating activities) training and input support to the members of Village Conservation Forums (VCF) set up in the landscape villages. But, due to lack of capital, the VCF members can not adequately adopt alternative livelihood practices and value chain activities and are still relying mostly on the forests for the livelihood.

To help the VCFs in the co-managed PFAs to adopt value chain activities and alternative livelihood practices, AF plans to provide small grants, not exceeding Tk 1.0 million per Co-management Council (CMC), to a limited number (maximum 6) of CMCs on a competitive basis based on the proposals (business plans) submitted by them. IPAC staff shall train the CMC (Co-management Committee) members in proposal writing. The institutional capacity of the CMCs shall also be taken into consideration in evaluating the proposals. The CMCs shall have to use the grant as revolving fund in support of income generating activities of their members.

Objectives:

  • To promote alternative livelihood practices and value chain activities among the VCF members by providing them with technical and financial support for alternative income generating and value chain activities
  • To promote sustainability of the VCFs and biodiversity in the co-managed PFAs
  • To establish adequate linkages (of the VCFs) with service providers

Outputs:

  • A revolving fund is established by each grant recipient CMC to support income generating activities of their VCF members
  • Alternative income generating and value chain activities are identified and adopted the project participants
  • Income of the project participants increased
  • Financial management capacity of the community based organizations improved

Activities:

  • Establishment of policies and management systems for the revolving fund
  • Loan disbursement and recovery according to the policy adopted by the CMC in a democratic manner
  • Proper record keeping

Institutional arrangements:

Arannayk Foundation shall disburse the grant directly to the selected community-based organizations. IPAC shall organize necessary capacity building activities (training) for the CMCs concerned. The respective Co-management Councils, as well as IPAC staff, shall monitor the management and utilization of the fund. The CMCs shall submit progress report to the Arannayk Foundation on a quarterly basis.

Qualification requirements for the grant applicant /implementing entity:

  • The grant offer is open only for the CMCs of the co-managed protected forest areas.
  • The CMC should have an existing bank account

Project duration: 1 year

Project sites/scope: Open to the CMCs of all co-managed PFAs in Bangladesh

Budget limit: Not exceeding BDT 10,00,000 (Ten lac) per CMC

Guidelines for submission of project proposals:

To apply for this project, the applicant should submit the following documents:

  1. Organizational profile of the CMC
  2. Technical proposal
  3. Financial proposal

The organizational profile of the CMC should include a) the date of formation of the CMC, b) on-going activities, c) major achievements, d) operational procedures in planning, implementation and mentoring activities, e) number of forest user groups under the CMC and f) existing capital and fund raising activities.

The technical proposal should include a) process of prioritizing and selecting FUGs for livelihood fund support, b) potential IGAs, c) fund managament system, d) arrangements for technical backstopping to the FUGs, monitoring system and sustainability mechanism.

The financial proposal should include budget beark-up in the following line-items (sub-heads):

  • Revolving fund for IGA of FUGs
  • Overhead for CMC (not more than 10% of total budget)

Evaluation process/criteria:

The project proposals received by Arannayk Foundation are evaluated by an independent team of evaluators based on the following criteria:

  1. Quality of technical proposal (40 points)
  2. Organizational strength (40 points)
  3. Budget break-up (20 points)