Sustainable Livelihood:
Since 55% of the people still live on less than 1 dollar a day in East Africa , organising people and providing information and trainings won’t be enough to break the poverty cycle. Poverty has a major impact on children’s development. Not only does it influence their lives now, but also how they will grow up and their chances later in life.
It is for this reason that ICS Africa is rolling out a Sustainable Livelihood Programme, next to CRiSIP, and Child Protection to realize this Civic Driven Child Development.
Through the Sustainable Livelihood Program families are supported to find ways to secure sufficient resources to provide their children with quality education, healthcare, protection and leisure opportunities.
At the same time communities are supported to find ways to finance community social and infrastructural projects (like women group activities, class rooms, water storage tanks, roads, etc).
Important aspects in the programme are to:
- Build the capacity of people, to overcome shocks, such as ill health, unemployment or crop failure, without plunging families back in poverty and losing all progress that has been made so far.
- Create a practical understanding of poor people's livelihood strategies and the factors that influence child poverty.
With the wellfare and well-being of children in mind, the programme will promote those livelihood interventions that give children the largest chance to benefit.
This might mean prioritizing food security at family level (for example through promoting pubes and green vegetables) above family income (which might be used to pay for goods and services that do not directly benefit children, such as alcohol).
The program is undertaken in Western Kenya and Northern Tanzania. It is to be implemented over an initial period of five years.
For more information you can download the Sustainable Livelihood factsheet (pdf) or contact the Regional Advisor Livelihood: Peter Mbiyu peter.mbiyu@icsafrica.org - 020 444 5048/7129
Datum: 04-09-2009
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