SUPPORT TO NATIONAL PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NETS AND LONGER-TERM COMMUNITY RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE HOUSEHOLDS – FOUNDATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

WFP’s Support to National Productive Safety Nets and Longer-term Community Resilience project aims to provide technical support to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic to strengthen its capacity to improve food security and nutrition and support long-term community resilience for the poorest and most vulnerable, focusing on rural development, social protection, disaster risk mitigation and climate change adaptation.

«Our key objective is to create an enabling environment for economic empowerment of the poorest. The Ministry of Labour and Social Development and WFP have launched a joint project to provide targeted support to the most vulnerable Kyrgyz people. The national social protection system is performing a protection role through provision of monthly category-based social benefits. We believe that social protection can be further strengthened through productive safety nets. It means that vulnerable populations can be involved into income-generating activities, which have proved to be an

effective and cost-efficient tool of social support. Firstly, it enables the vulnerable to acquire life skills and improve employment opportunities through vocational training; secondly, it contributes to local economic development. New productive measures can be integrated into the national social protection scheme and expand social support to the vulnerable while contributing to poverty reduction»

Kudaibergen Bazarbaev, Minister of Labour and Social Development of the Kyrgyz Republic

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Component 1. Policy advice and technical support to develop national policies and strategies on food security and nutrition, social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption and enhance national capacities to manage food security and nutrition interventions and develop productive safety nets.

Component 2. Field-level piloting of productive safety net mechanisms, including creation or restoration of community-prioritized assets, such as irrigation infrastructure and riverbank reinforcement and income-generating activities in 27 pilot districts.

Rural development – WFP supports the creation or rehabilitation of key rural infrastructure and community-prioritized assets including irrigation networks, bridges and internal roads, which contribute to fostering local socio-economic development through enhanced agricultural production, strengthened community capacities and accelerated economic empowerment of the most vulnerable, particularly women.

KEY FOCUS AREAS

Disaster Risks Mitigation and Climate Change Adaptation ‒WFP provides support and advice to develop strategies aimed at building resilience of the most vulnerable populations to natural shocks and climate change. WFP supports the implementation of structural disaster mitigation measures and development of mitigation infrastructure at community level to boost coping capacities of the rural population. Such infrastructure measures include projects on riverbank reinforcement with gabions, construction or rehabilitation of mudflow canals and planting trees in landslide-prone areas. WFP also supports the introduction of the early warning tools and emergency preparedness. WFP regularly analyses the potential impact of natural disasters to provide evidence-based information to advise comprehensive programming.

THREE-PRONGED APPROACH FOR PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATIONWFP promotes the three-pronged approach in planning and implementing its field-level activities and actively engages all key stakeholders including the local authorities and communities in this exercise. The three-pronged approach utilizes new innovative instruments such as Integrated Context Analysis (ICA), Seasonal Livelihood Programming (SLP) and Community Based Participatory Planning (CBPP). ICA is conducted at national level

Enhancement of Social Protection – WFP provides policy advice and technical support to develop national strategies on social protection and strengthen the existing schemes of social support. The Ministry of Labour and Social Development of the Kyrgyz Republic and WFP also pilot new productive safety net mechanisms that aim to accelerate economic empowerment of vulnerable households. Productive safety net schemes focus on the mobilization of vulnerable communities to create a sustainable and resilient asset base through income-generating activities such as fishery, vegetable gardening, agro-forestry, fodder production, vocational training and infrastructure development.

Designing projects to enhance climate resilience through creationof productive assets

Integrated Context Analysis(ICA) at national level

Seasonal Livelihoods Analysis(SLP) at Sub-national level

Community Consultation atlocal level

GEOGRAPHY OF PILOT COMMUNITIESWFP and MLSD jointly develop criteria to identify pilot communities based on poverty and food-insecurity levels, food consumption levels and frequency of natural disasters. As a result, around 100 communities in 27 pilot districts in Talas, Naryn, Osh, Jalal-Abad, and Batken provinces have been identified. MLSD and WFP with the support from local authorities mobilize vulnerable populations in these communities with a variety of projects aimed at strengthening livelihoods, improving income base and building resilience. The key objective is to design a sustainable safety net instrument to support the Government and communities in improving food security and reducing poverty.

to identify priority areas of intervention and appropriate programme strategies to gauge levels of food insecurity and nutrition, risk of climate-induced shocks (floods, mudflows, drought), access to social services and markets, and subsequently identifies geographic areas of overlap between these. The SLPs, is a sub-national level consultative exercise involving government, NGOs, communities and development partners, conducted to provide a local level evidence-base for why, where, when, to whom, with what and by which partners projects should be focused. The community consultations are conducted at local level together with the community, government, and partners to assess needs and identify project priorities. The findings from the ICA and the SLP are paired to better understand the challenges for achieving long-term resilience and are discussed with the participants of community consultations who address them through long-term community action plans. The results provide a solid foundation for designing and implementing long-term resilience building programmes.

PRODUCTIVE MEASURES OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (PRODUCTIVE SAFETY NETS)The Ministry of Labour and Social Development and WFP have launched a new joint pilot project on Productive Measures of Social Development (PMSD) to institutionalize safety nets as a new productive tool of social protection. Productive measures of social protection focus on the mobilization of communities to create a sustainable and resilient asset base through infrastructure development (irrigation infrastructure, disaster mitigation infrastructure), income generation activities (fruit and vegetable gardening) and skills training.

The Productive Measures of Social Development (PMSD) pilot activity will reach about 20,000 people in 2016 in the two pilot districts of Kochkor and Bazar-Korgon. This innovative social protection project aims to enable vulnerable populations to acquire new skills and ensure sustainable incomes while contributing towards poverty reduction and the socio-economic development of the poorest communities.

TYPES OF PROJECT ACTIVITIESTo date, WFP and MLSD have supported over 400 projects in pilot communities aimed to improve agricultural infrastructure and enhance agricultural production, including vegetable and fruit gardening, reforestation and agro-forestry, vocational training, disaster mitigation and income generating activities. In particular, the following activities have been supported:• Improvement of rural and agricultural infrastructure – construction

and rehabilitation of roads, irrigation networks, drinking water systems and water reservoirs.

• Enhancement of agricultural production – training on improved agriculture, marketing, value chain development, food processing as well as projects on vegetable and fruit gardening, fodder production.

• Food and other agricultural produce processing – WFP provides targeted communities with processing equipment for fodder production, wool carding, and food processing.

• Vocational training – sewing courses, bakery and culinary courses, welding and electrician training, furniture production training and other skills training.

• Disaster mitigation projects – construction of gabion nets to reinforce riverbanks, construction and rehabilitation of mudflow canals and dams.

• Income-generating activities – development of fisheries, vegetable and fruit gardens, bee heaving and other activities.

Over 14,640 project participants, or over 90,000 beneficiaries, in 27 pilot districts have participated in these project activities and received immediate benefits of fortified food rations while contributing to rural development and social stability through creation of productive asset base.

WFP and MLSD are working together towards the institutionalization of this safety net scheme. For this, WFP, MLSD and 10 other Government institutions have also signed a decree to improve joint coordination and programming of sectoral activities to enhance the socio-economic conditions of the poor and vulnerable through state resources. This provides an opportunity for a coordinated approach towards poverty reduction and the socio-economic development of the poorest communities.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2015• Over 90,000 people directly benefited as projects improved their livelihoods and income opportunities• MLSD and WFP supported over 400 projects including infrastructure development (irrigation networks, mudflow canals), vocational training (skills courses on sewing, baker, and bee keeping) and disaster mitigation (gabion nets and dams).• Over 572km of irrigation networks rehabilitated enabling over 47,300 hectares of previously dilapidated cropland to be reused.

KEY FACTS AND FIGURES:For the Support to National Productive Safety Nets and Longer-term Community Resilience 2014-2017 it is expected that over 274,000 people in over 100 pilot communities in Naryn, Talas, Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken provinces will benefit during the project lifespan. Pilot districts are identified based on such criteria as poverty and food-insecurity levels, food consumption levels and frequency of natural disasters. Project budget for 2014-2017 is about US$24 million.

KEY PARTNERSHIPS:WFP closely partners with Government ministries and agencies including Ministry of Labour and Social Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Emergencies, State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry, local and international NGOs, UN agencies and other development partners to ensure that effective, multidimensional, and cost-effective support is provided to beneficiaries. Leveraging collaboration with these organizations is the key instrument to ensure that WFP-assisted rural development projects have a multiplying and positive impact on rural communities and economic growth

WFP in the Kyrgyz Republic:Bishkek, 720040150 Panfilov StreetPhone: +996 312 66 00 33wfp.bishkek@wfp.orgwww.wfp.orgwww.wfp.org/ru

Osh, 72350012 Michurin Street Phone: +996 3222 4 70 31wfp.osh@wfp.org