Leasehold Forestry Livestock Project/ Rural Finance Service

Beneficiaries: 
33000households
Project District : 
Pancharthar, Tehrathum, Bhojpur, Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Sindhuli, Makawanpur, Chitwan, Dhading, Sindhupalchok, Kavrepalanchok, Dolakha, Ramechhap, Lamjung, Tanahun, Gorkha, Pyuthan, Salyan, Baitadi, Dadeldhura, Doti, Achham
Client: 
DOF/IFAD/LFLP
Type of project: 
Past_consultancy
Introduction: 

The Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme  (LFLP) is being implemented in 22 hilly and mountain districts namely Pancharthar, Tehrathum, Bhojpur, Khotang and Okhaldhunga from the Eastern Development regions; Sindhuli Makawanpur, Chitwan, Dhading, Sindhupalchok, Kabrepalanchok, Dolakha and Ramechhap form the Central Development Region;  Lamajung, Tanahun and Gorkha districts from Western Development Region; Pyuthan and Salyan from the Mid Western Development and Baitadi, Dadeldhura, Doti and Achham from the Far Western Development Region.  
LFLP is the continuation and extension of Hills Leasehold Forestry and Forage Development Program (HLFFDP) implemented in 10 districts since 1992 with the assistance of a programme of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). There are four components of LFLP; these are leasehold forestry development, livestock development, rural finance and program coordination and management. Among these Fri PAD took the agreement for the rural finance services in the 2761 leasehold forestry groups and finally forming 176 member based village finance association and finally after capacitate them these need to be registered as a saving and credit cooperative in the divisional cooperative offices of the corresponding districts.

 

Key achievements: 

  • 1095 groups started to double entry account keeping system and prepare annual financial statement;

  • Increase the saving rate due to proper accounting system and cooperative formation i.e. average Nrs 14 reached Nrs 51 per member per month after cooperative formation;

  • 169 GPs and 22 DBS became aware of the importance and basic procedure of book keeping and annual financial statement preparation however, they need much trainings and practices to be fully competent and handling the book keeping system independently;

  • 13855 leaseholders came to know the concept and principle of cooperatives and 3004 members involved in cooperatives with total sum of Nrs. 7478266.00 fund generation;

  • Almost all groups initiated to practise minuting saving collection and mobilization in monthly basis;

  • Farmers were getting loan at reasonable interest rate from the cooperatives (i.e average interest on loan before cooperative was 21% and it was reduced to an average of 18% in cooperatives); 

  • Farmers were getting interest on saving (average 9%);

Service Provided: 
  •  Assist Saving and Credit groups and Village Finance Associations (VFAs) in sub-project planning, designing and implementation; 

  • Develop/produce appropriate Saving & Credit group formation, saving credit facilitation , community development, training and other relevant guidelines pertaining to the project in coordination of District Forest Office (DFO) and the Social Mobilization Service provider and the District Livestock Service Office (DLSO);

  • Elucidate the project implementation procedures and process it to Saving and Credit groups and VFAs;

  • Develop supervision and monitoring indicators and conduct pilot studies on the safety of the deposits and the plan the fixed-term financial arrangements for the VFAs;

  • Provide training to the Group Promoters, Saving and Credit group members, VFAs members and the project team appointed to conduct the project;

  • Develop gender action plan and implement it in the districts together with local NGOs;

  • Design Saving and Credit activities, the financial institution promotion activities and develop the phasing out strategy; 

  • Conduct district/ regional/ national level planning/ review/ progress/ workshops/ seminars to share the experiences in coordination with DFOs and DLSOs as per required;

  • Monitoring and evaluation the rural  financial activities in the participating project districts;

  • Reporting the project activities to Program Coordinator of the LFLP program at Babarmahal.