Peer learning and experience sharing workshop on inclusive and climate smart value chain development

Background

Poverty reduction of mountain people to increased resilience and unlocking new livelihood opportunities, through the promotion of more equitable approaches is one of the key thrust areas of the Himalica and Adapt Himal programmes. In order to achieve this outcome, Himalica and AdaptHimal are working in collaboration with several partners in Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan. Capacity building of partner organizations and communities is one of the areas for developing pro poor value chains as an adaptation strategy to create additional and alternative livelihood options for mountain people.

Appropriate adaptation measures to tackle the changes affecting local communities are urgently required to safeguard the invaluable natural, cultural and traditional assets of mountain area. Mountain are rich in high value products and services and identifying such niche products and promoting these products would provide additional income to the mountain communities which will build their resilience to climate change. ICIMOD is therefore promoting pro poor value chain development approach for enhancing income and building resilience of mountain households.

A value chain includes the full range of activities involved in a product life cycle — from concept and design to sourced raw materials and intermediate inputs to marketing and distribution to the final consumer. Value chains connect mountain products and services to markets. The complex inter-relationships between market imperatives, opportunities and constraints at different levels of the chain, and the different interests and power relations between actors influence how value is distributed across these different levels. ICIMOD together with its implementing partners has been implementing number of pilot projects in the HKH region. The pilot projects are at different stage of development and understanding. Therefore, there is a need for greater learning and sharing amongst partners for developing coherent and consistent implementation practices and knowledge for effective facilitation of value chains.

ICIMOD believes that small producers often require very specific interventions to stimulate their participation and enhance their ‘terms of engagement’ with the broader market. Based on value chain analyses, leverage points are identified and strategies are improved in collaboration with different stakeholders to reduce poverty and increase incomes of under-served and marginalized actors in the mountain. The broad goal is to enable upstream stakeholders and their institutions to participate equitably in national, regional and global markets by ensuring sustainable resources management. Considering this, ICIMOD has adapted the value chain approach as a core approach for livelihood enhancement, and both Adapthimal and Himalica focus on value chain promotion to enhance income of mountain people. Therefore, four days regional workshop is proposed for key staff members of partner organizations who will be involved in value chain promotion in the pilot sites. This training would also incorporate regional learning and experience sharing between partners.

Key objective of the workshop:

The main objective of this workshop is to build capacity of implementing partners in the Value Chain Approach (VCA), with regional learning and experience sharing as well as identifying/developing strategies on value chain that each partner will be promoting in their pilot sites. This will be a key capacity building event for development and implementation of value chain activities at local level. The following will be specific objectives of this training:

• Explore relevance of the VC approach for pro-poor and inclusive growth in the context of changing climate to provision for additional income generation options in pilot sites of Himalica and AdaptHimal.
• Build the capacity, increase awareness, exchange ideas and examples regarding VCA concept, approaches and knowledge to be applied for a specific country, project, and institutional context
• Exploring opportunities and enrich approaches of partners towards application of VCA in pilot sites of Himalica and AdaptHimal.
• Refining criteria for customizing methods and tools for enhancing impact of value chain development initiative.
• Assess the potential impact of different VC options and design future plans.