RAP Nepal

RAP SED Programme focuses on institutional development of target groups and beneficiaries for a sustainable enhancement of their livelihoods through an inclusive development approach. The programme has laid special emphasis on the socio-economic empowerment of women, poor, marginalized, and excluded groups. RBGs are mobilised in road building works and wages are directly paid to them based on work performance through LRUCs. The composition of groups and committees representing the target groups is depicted in the following table.

Table: State of social inclusion

Group/committee	No of Groups	Total member	Dalit		Disadvantage Janajati		Women
			No	%	No	%	No	%
Road Building Groups	750	14,389	2,590	18	4,172	29	6,475	45
Women representation in different committees (RBGs, LRUCs and LRCCs) in RAPII district road corridors is well above the target of 33% set during the programme design.

RBG Saving and credit
All RBGs have continued operating their saving and credit schemes. Total amount of group savings by February 2012 has exceeded NRs 100 million with an average lending turnover ratio of 2.94 within the group members. Each savings group has fixed its lending interest rate in a range of 12-24% per year and is being supported by the NGO Social Mobilisor in monitoring the effective use of funds. The range of group saving varies from one to the other both intra and inter RAPII district road corridors based on work deliveries and the amount of income earned by the groups. The group lending is made for both the productive and unproductive sectors, with more weighted on productive sector in general. The major area of investments is in agricultural related income generating activities, including livestock rearing with minimal amount of investments on off-farm related ones. The current system of peer monitoring adopted by RBGs since the beginning of programme is found to be very effective and has ensured the loans are used primarily for productive purposes and to enhance member’s livelihoods. However, a significant proportion of wage income with part of savings taken from group lending schemes are currently being lent out to meet member’s household needs rather than to enhance the livelihood potential. In spite of high spending trend, amount of group saving is swelling up and remaining idle because of limited scope of investments in the remote physical settings contexts. In view of this trend, RAP TA is exploring ways of identifying untapped investment opportunities through consultations with other development partners, co-operatives and user-groups working in RAP programme districts. In this regard, RAP TA and Helvetas Nepal have agreed to cooperate in implementing programmes in common programme districts together. Two programme districts - Achham and Dailekh are now identified for cooperation with Helvetas activities and have started implementing irrigation subprojects in joint collaboration with respective user’s committees. It is hoped this strategy will complement current project initiatives and in the long run provide some level of continuity after the end of RAPII project activities.
RBG employement and wage payment Total employment days created in road construction works has reached at 4.87 million up till February 2012. Taking RAP1 maintenance and supplementary infrastructure into account, the programme has created a total of 5.3 million of employment days of works in programme districts. Likewise up till the reporting period, RAP has paid NRs 1,446.8 million (54.94% of total programme costs) to RBG and SBG members engaged in RAPII road construction works.
IGA training and demonstrations Income-generating activity training to RBG members is mainly confined to vegetable farming and livestock rearing. Local Resource Persons (LRP), identified and trained with refresher training from the RAP programme, provide IGA training to interested RBG members. In addition, expert level services through outsourcing provisions are being provided to enhance skills of LRPs and support motivated RBG members on IGA initiatives. Through institutional linkages facilitated by the programme, the LRPs are taking initiatives to embark on agro-processing and value-added enterprises. LRPs are also known to offer their services and advisory support to the wider community in RAP districts. Up to February 2012, a total of 50,478 equivalent days of training provided to RBG members on various income generating activities by means of 5,748 ‘live’ demonstrations. The majority of participants received training on vegetable farming followed by livestock, ginger and fruits farming. Analysis of participation by gender shows an increasing trend in women participation with almost 46% women registering themselves for training, mainly with a view to better utilise the available land and livestock resource. This is partly attributed to RAPII effort in encouraging women participation and in part by peer-to-peer sharing of learning experiences and tangible benefits within the RBGs.
Other skill development training Apart from on-farm related income-generating training, RAP has provided skill development training to SPAFs and other needy people engaged in road construction. These training programmes are focused at imparting specific skills such as tailoring, electric wiring, mason, carpentry and food processing. Up to February 2012, a total of 248 RBG members received training on skill development. The duration of these training ranges from 7 days to 3 months. In order to assess the effectiveness of the training programme, RAP management has initiated a training impact study. The outcome of this study will guide the management on future course of action to improve and sustain capacity developed under RAPII.
IGA initiations by RBG households
RBG members who acquired skills and knowledge related to on-farm and off-farm enterprises through various training of RAPII have used these to initiate different income-generating activities. The outcomes of income-generating activities have started contributing enhancing sustainable livelihoods of the participating members in the immediate future. Total income through sales of surplus production from various IGAs has reached at NRs 43.2 million and is in increasing trend. The outcomes of different IGAs achieved so far are encouraging and provides a platform for achieving a sustained reduction of chronic poverty and social exclusion in the seven programme districts, provided that present initiatives are continued during the post construction phase of RAPII activities. To reduce the start-up risks experienced by the RBG members, the field based NGOs continue to monitor and provide advisory services to the nascent enterprises.