Start-up phase

Activities commence with identification of research needs of each of the IFAD loan projects. A start-up workshop will held in CIFOR headquarters in Bogor in September to discuss common understanding of the project objectives and expected outputs. Detailed country-wise consultations followed with a wide range of stakeholders to understand the more general social, economic and policy environment in which the IFAD projects were operating.

Partnership development phase

Discussions held with various potential partners and also with the IFAD loan projects regarding the scope of activities under each topic in three project countries. Consultations also held with several other organizations/institutions in the selected areas working on similar or related topics. Prioritization of research topics Emphasis on research partnership with organizations/individuals in and from the IFAD loan project area to build local capacity to be able to provide much needed research and knowledge inputs to development projects design and implementation in long run.

Identifying Income Strategies

Research team and local partners examine strategies for making poor people better off such as a) increasing forest production value; b) protecting the poor’s access to existing forest values from threats and expropriation by outsiders; c) redistributing existing values in favor of the poor; and d) looking for new, non-product sources of value.

Analyzing the role of local organizations and coalitions

The key innovation of this project will be to identify institutional mechanisms for local organizational and coalition strengthening that will enable the poor to better direct their own income generation opportunities. The research will try to understand the causal impact of social structural constraints and opportunities on local livelihoods.

Determining impacts

The team will examine the impacts of interventions in a) reaching the poor, especially women and marginalized indigenous groups or ethnic minorities; b) making a significant impact on incomes and food security of poor households; c) building long-term assets, particularly land, capital and human assets; and d) sustainability of the interventions, both socially and on the resource base.

Analyzing policy influences

This research will identify the national and/or local policies that are having major impacts on alternative income strategies and capacity of local communities for more influence over their livelihoods.

Synthesis

To generate output for more general use, CIFOR and partners would synthesize the results of the action research projects, together with reviews of existing documented experiences of IFAD in Asia, experiences of other agencies, and CIFOR’s global comparative and interdisciplinary work.

Dissemination and increasing partner capacity

CIFOR and partners will generate two major products intended to pull together the generalisable lessons of the research. First, a guide for IFAD project identifying key principles for developing income opportunities and empowered communities in forest areas. Second, more general lesson and outcomes compared across different regions for development agencies, government and practioners