Transcript The LIFT II Project

An Introduction to Household Economic
Strengthening
The LIFT II Project
• Funded by USAID Global Health Bureau’s Office of HIV/AIDS
• Five-year project, through July 2018
• Three core partners (FHI360, CARE and World Vision) and
numerous resource organizations
• Offers:
• Support for linkages between Nutrition Assessment,
Counseling and Support (NACS) and economic strengthening,
livelihoods, and food security ES/L/FS services
• Strengthened community services that provide ES/L/FS
support as a component of a continuum of care for families.
• Access to tools and resources
• M&E Support
• Program quality and implementation support
What is Household Economic Strengthening?
“A portfolio of interventions to reduce the economic
vulnerability of households and empower them to
provide for the essential needs of the children they care
for, rather than relying on external assistance.”
PEPFAR working definition, 2011
Training objectives
By the end of the training, you will be able to…
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Define key terms related to HES
Explain why HES activities will enhance existing programs for OVCs
Describe poor populations along the HES framework
Describe and estimate the HES needs of the households with whom they are working
Explain the need to assess HH needs and capabilities
Describe how HES activities interact with the market and vice versa
Conduct basic organizational and partnership capacity assessments
For each of 3 HES activities discussed, describe
 What they are
 How they can help households and individuals
 What types of HHs they are best suited to help
 Key program design factors [to discuss with partners], and
 Several pros and cons
 Access M&E tools and describe M&E objectives for HES activities
What are Livelihoods?
A livelihood is the combination of the resources used and
the activities undertaken in order to
ensure day-to-day and long-term survival.
Examples of livelihood activities people undertake to access food:
• working to earn income,
• sending children to eat with
• bartering owned assets for
neighbors,
food,
• receiving government food
• growing / raising food,
assistance, etc.
• Feeding programs
• Begging
• Boarding school
Important Concepts in Vulnerability
• Households often become poor after
experiencing a shock (e.g. sickness caused by
HIV)
• Vulnerability to shocks varies between
households, within households and over time
• Household livelihood strategies are shaped in
part by vulnerability
• Coping mechanisms and safety nets are
important to building resilience to shocks
Types of Coping Strategies
Minor Coping
Moderate Coping
• Selling protective
• Selling productive
assets
assets
• Seeking wage labor
• Borrowing at
• Migrating for work
exorbitant rates
• Borrowing
• Further reducing
• Reducing spending
spending and food
and food consumption
consumption
• Drawing on social
assets
Severe Coping
• Depending on charity;
• Breaking up
household
• Migrating under
distress
• Going without food
Why is HES Important?
• Enables households to meet their needs, decrease
reliance on moderate and severe coping strategies
• Health, nutrition and economic well-being are closely
linked.
• Positive health and nutrition outcomes usually can’t
be achieved while households lack access to income.
For LIFT, economic strengthening supports PEPFAR’s
primary objectives:
• HIV prevention
• Care, treatment and support
• Impact mitigation
Poverty
Characteristics
Poor Health
Poor nutrition  decreased
productivity & income
Weakened immune systems,
increased dietary needs
Poor living conditions  quality
diminishes with poor health;
spending reduced, assets sold
Susceptibility to environmental
ailments: respiratory disease,
water/ waste-born diseases;
crowding  spreading
Low education  minimal access
to needed services and activities
that generate income
Poor quality health care or
adherence to regimens compounds
health problems
High level of immediate needs 
low investment in long-term assets
and needs
High levels of household disease
and mortality
Who are Vulnerable Children?
“[Children] who, because of circumstances of birth or
immediate environment, [are] prone to abuse or
deprivation of basic needs, care and protection, and thus
disadvantaged relative to [their] peers.”
National Guidelines and Standards of Practice on Orphans and
Vulnerable Children, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social
Development. Nigeria, 2007.
Approaches to Household Economic Strengthening for
Vulnerable Children
ES
Activity
ES Activity
Adult
Caregiver
Child
Child
“Review of Impacts on ES Programs on Children” (2011)
BENEFITS
• Decrease or change in child
labor
• Enhanced care practices
• Improved diet
• Increased school attendance
• Increased demand for noneconomic services (health,
education, social capital
building, etc.)
• Financial literacy in young
• Social capital in girls
HARMS
• Increased child labor
• Gender-based violence
• Dropout of programs not
appropriate
• Low repayment of microloans
Poverty Tax
“Poverty Tax” causes the poorest to pay the most to meet their
basic & essential needs
Meeting the Needs of the Ultra Poor
The ultra poor…
Have simultaneous and complex
needs
Development interventions thus need to…
Be integrated to provide support for multiple
needs without impeding one another
Be coordinated
Are highly vulnerable to exigent
Be flexible, able to meet varying & immediate
shocks (weather, conflict, economic needs
decline, etc)
Cannot move out of poverty
overnight
Have been excluded thus far (to a
large extent) from successful
(transformational) development
interventions
Include long-term contingency planning
Be explicitly targeted at this group
Work at national / regional level, must identify
specific needs and vulnerability constraints
affecting local ultra-poor
Household Economic Strengthening Activities
Matching needs to HES Activities
Income
Income Growth
The LIFT Framework
Promotion
Income Stabilization
Risk Reduction
Protection
Loss Management
Destitute / Distress
LIVELIHOOD
PHASE
Provision
Time
Group Discussion: Households and ES
• Break into groups of 3
• Take a few minutes and write on a sticky note a
description of a HH you have worked with or that is
typical of the populations we work with
• Discuss each example and place on your copy of the
PPP spectrum. Can also use printed examples
provided.
• Then we will place on the large diagram and discuss
Current State of ES Programming
Challenges???
Current State of ES Programming
• A lot of poor practice
• Requires specialized skill sets and expertise (just as effective
health programs do)
• Traditionally, many ES activities have been implemented poorly,
with untrained staff and have had limited results
• Budgets have often been insufficient
• Some interventions that are no longer widely practiced
elsewhere (e.g. NGOs providing loans) are still widespread in ES
programming
• Limited learning from practices and experiences elsewhere
Common Problems in Economic Strengthening
No demand for products produced by target households or no jobs available.
Organization’s services end once the project’s funding runs out.
Organizations provide services that they have no experience or capacity
in (i.e.: microfinance, value change development)
IGAs and other activities not supported ‘in full’ from A-Z.
Projects do not know their performance and only measure what donors
require.
Same activities are provided to all target households, even though needs
and capabilities vary.
Households that improve their economic situation stop receiving services and
subsequently relapse.
How to “Do It Right”
Understand and assess household needs
and capabilities
Research and predict the effect of
activities on the market and vice versa
Select direct beneficiaries
Implement or partner?
Monitor, evaluate, adjust, repeat
How do we understand people’s needs and capabilities?
Understanding Beneficiaries
Vulnerability:
- high
- moderate
- low
Who is the target
population?
Challenges:
- human
- natural
- physical
- financial
- social
Interventions:
- social protection
- asset protection
- income growth
Action required:
- persevere
- organize
- build
Capabilities & Interests:
- Education
- Skills
- Employability
Household Livelihoods Assessments (HLA)
• Develop a holistic understanding of household and
community livelihoods and wellbeing (economic
conditions, health, food security, political and
environmental security, market conditions, etc.)
• Determine household and community needs and
designing interventions to meet them
• Examine intra-household dynamics and how poverty
affects VCs and other household members differently
• Understand local economic opportunities
• Establish a baseline or reference point from which to
identify and measure changes (positive and negative)
in the future.
A Good HLA will tell you…
 Livelihoods context including hazards, risks
and vulnerabilities
 Policy / regulating environment
 Opportunities and threats
 Differences in access to productive assets and
total food and cash income
 Between and with communities and households
 Seasonality of livelihood strategies and shocks
 Timing matters!
www.povertytools.org/povertypres/Selecting_Poverty_Tools/play
er.html
Market Analysis
Market vs. Marketplace?
A Good Market Analysis will tell you…
 The local supply and demand of goods, commodities,
services and skills
 The accessibility of inputs, including commodities,
capital or services, and sales outlets
 Poor households’ connections to marketplaces in
order to access goods and services, and to earn
income
 How the environment (political, regulatory, etc.)
shapes incentives and opportunities for households
and enterprises to participate in the market
Organizational Capacity and Partnerships
Organizational Capacity
Two parts
1.
2.
How well do you do what you do now?
What is your potential for engaging in new endeavors? (HES
Activities)
Partners
should value
each other for
reasons other
than financial
contributions.
Decisionmaking should
be an
equitable
process.
Mutual Respect
Healthy
partnerships
will design
programs to
ensure that all
organizations
meet
individual as
well as
collective
goals.
Mutual benefit
Partners share
the same
values and
aim to achieve
the same
objectives as
your
organization.
Even when
missions are
different, you
should be able
to agree upon
a shared set
of program
outcomes.
Shared goals and principles
Trust is an
important
part of any
relationship
and
transparency
of goals,
motivations
and processes
are essential
for building
trust and
maintaining
accountability
to each other,
beneficiaries,
donors and
communities
Transparency
Partnerships
Partnerships
 Do they have a good reputation implementing the HES activity
you are interesting in?
 Do they have reports that show positive results from past HES
projects?
 Do they have a standardized and documented approach to the
HES activity?
 Do they have experience working with VC and their households?
Do they have the expertise to tailor their approach to households
with different socio-economic characteristics?
 If they don’t have sufficient staff expertise currently, do they
have the necessary resources to recruit and oversee new staff or
consultants?
Monitoring & Evaluation
Broad M&E Objectives
Providing program planners and
implementers with information to
select HES activities
Identify appropriate target households for
participation and allocate resources
accordingly.
Knowing what and how
households and VC are doing
Allows program staff to see past numbers
and percentages to understand the role a
program has in helping human beings.
Giving managers insight into
whether HES activities are
meeting household needs
Helps them move toward achieving longterm livelihood and food security
objectives.
Providing ‘data for decisionmaking,’
Allows managers to base program decisions
and changes on accurate information
rather than on ‘hunches’.
Being accountable to stakeholders Includes beneficiary communities,
implementing partners and funding
agencies.
HES Examples
ES Benefits: Practical Examples
ES for OVC Caregivers in
Uganda: Caregivers who
joined savings groups with
literacy training increased
household assets and
improvements among
OVCs in # of meals eaten
and living conditions over
non-participants.
© Paul Rippey
ES Benefits: Practical Examples
Guaranteed labor program in
India: Children of a safety net
program offering guaranteed
work to the impoverished
were less likely to engage in
child labor, had greater school
attendance and improved
health outcomes.
© BBC
ES Benefits: Practical Examples
Savings Groups in Burundi:
Providing social messaging
through savings groups was
found to improve financial
decision making authority
for women, reduce
exposure to violence,
reduce acceptance of
violence, and increase
consumption of household
goods relative to luxury
goods.
© SAWSO
ES Benefits: Practical Examples
FONKOZE in Haiti: By
offering a continuum of
provision, protection and
promotion services,
FONKOZE provides
integrated programming to
move people along the
economic strengthening
pathway
http://www.fonkoze.org/ab
outfonkoze/whoweare/how
works.html
Jummai
Abdul
Modu
Bolakall
Savings and
loans (village)