Building resilience through skill development and provision of alternative livelihoods to women of Keti Bandar

 
Candle making

Candle making © MFF Pakistan

Objectives

Increased sustainable livelihood opportunities for 30 households in Keti Bandar town District Thatta

Background

Building resilience through skill development & provision of alternative livelihoods to women of Keti Bandar town, District Thatta, is a twelve month project initiated to develop women skills to address the socio-economic issues facing poor coastal households. Due to technological advancement the traditional jobs like preparing fishnets, drying and salting of fish are getting redundant and hence, decreasing the livelihood opportunities for women. The women lack alternative income generation opportunities which have made them economically and socially weak and vulnerable.

The project aims to enhance sustainable livelihood opportunities for women of Keti Bandar town, through strengthening their livelihood skills to support their income earnings. For this purpose a total of 30 women within age group of 16-30 year from 30 needy households will be selected for three priority skill enhancement training programs (sewing, candle making and product development and market linkages). Five selected women among thirty will get training in entrepreneurship. For sustainability of the project trained women will be provided an opportunity of exposure visits for better understanding of market demand. More than 150 women will benefit from the project under various activities.

The overall objective of the project is to build livelihood resilience of local communities, especially the women in Keti Bandar town.

In addition, the project will support capacity building of stakeholders in Eco-DRR and community research. The project will engage university students to conduct research on impacts of environment on women and their livelihoods. Success stories and a short documentary will also be developed and lessons learned from project will be documented. Stakeholders visit to project area will provide an opportunity to highlight issues of community of Keti Bandar.

Target beneficiaries

As the project has been designed to cater the needs of women, therefore the prime beneficiaries of the project would be 30 women selected from 30 poor households of the Keti Bandar town. The project will target poor households, widows, women headed households and those potential women who are interested to start their own small home based business/small enterprise and believe to set the trend that women could be good entrepreneurs and can earn a decent living, if provided appropriate opportunities.

The project will enhance skills of the women (semi-skilled and unskilled) in various trades to enable them earn better livelihoods. The trained women would be supported through tools, machines and materials so that they can start their work and be able to utilise their learnt skills for income generation. Proposed project would further support them in establishing linkages with potential markets and build their business and negotiating skills. Women groups will be mobilized to continue support to their fellow women for desired results.

Meeting

Outputs

  1. Existing skills upgraded and new employable skills imparted and being used by beneficiary women for income generation.
  2. Women entrepreneurship developed and linked with potential market (05 from Keti Bunder and 05 from Kaka Pir).
  3. Stakeholders’ exposure and capacity in Eco-DRR enhanced and project lessons documented and shared widely.

 

Accomplishments and challenges

Achievements

  1. 37 women/girls belonging to 37 HHS have been trained in the skills of tailoring, candles making and value added craft development.
  2. Trained women have been supported through provision of sewing machines (10), tools (11) and required material (37).
  3. Trained women artisans are using their earned skills to support their family incomes. Women with improve tailoring skills reported 100% increase in stitching rates compared to previous rates. Women in Keti Bandar town have learned skill of Applique work for the first time. 
  4. 5 women selected from three skills trained in enterprise development to serve as business facilitators for local artisans.
  5. 15 women artisans were given exposure visit to Karachi markets.
  6. Learned skills/products have been disseminated through social media for creating marketing linkages.
  7. Leadership skills and self-confidence of women improved through their financial empowerment and linkages.
  8. Knowledge of relevant stakeholders including coastal agencies, academia and media enhanced in Eco-DRR and social research.
  9. Success stories published in local magazines and video clip produced.

Sitching Trg.Dresses Stiched by Women

 

Contributions to cross-cutting themes

The project focused mainly on building climate resilience of coastal communities particularly women folk through provision of alternative livelihood opportunities and enterprise development. The project aims to empower women and enhance their self-confidence and productive role at household level.

Lessons Learned

  • Provision of machines, tools and material helped women in earning livelihood after training.
  • More capacity building trainings for youths such as basic computer operating, Chinese language and some mechanics work are needed to meet the future demand arising from CPEC project activities at Keti Bandar and its adjacent areas.
  • Women training in bakery products and fuel efficient stoves may be considered in future projects.
  • Women may also be engaged in household based carb fattening ponds.

Project Facts

Country

Location

Keti Bandar town, District Thatta

Topic

Duration

15th Apr 2016 to 14th Apr 2017

MFF Grant Amount

PKR 1,957,500

Co-financing Partner

Center for Environment and Development (CEAD)

Implementing Partner

Center for Environment and Development (CEAD)

Mr.Nasir Panhwar

Executive Director, CEAD

Center for Environment and Development (CEAD)

A-, 335/1, Phase-1, Sindh University Housing Society, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan

Tel: 0300-3079491

E-mail: napanhwar@gmail.com

Related Images

  • Candles
  • Applique work

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