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LEAD Advocacy
Network Project,
Gujarat State:
Livestock
production is the traditional and one of the important sources of
livelihood of farmers in
India. The
increasing contribution of livestock in poverty reduction is very
well recognized, especially in the semi-arid and arid regions of
India where crop husbandry has limited possibility. The Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Inter Cooperation (IC),
under the NRM sector mandate, have been taking up various livestock
– environment – development related activities in India. The
initiative working in this direction is the LEAD (Livestock
Environment and Development) Initiative. The work of the initiative
targets the protection and enhancement of natural resources as
affected by livestock production while alleviating poverty. The LEAD
India Platform has two major functions such as (1) advocacy based on
sound knowledge base and (2) communication for development. The
advocacy function of the LEAD India Platform is led by a network of
organizations called LAN (LEAD Advocacy Network).
The purpose of LAN is to enhance pro-poor livestock related
livelihoods by strengthening practices of sustainable natural
resources management and by promoting an enabling environment. LAN
is an inclusive process of networking to further the agenda of
strengthening pro-poor livestock related livelihoods. Over several
interactions in the course of the study and later, the study
partners decided to continue the process in terms of networking. LAN
actively promoted networking among civil society organizations and
other institutions to achieve the objectives on a larger scale. LAN
actively networked by way of workshops, meetings etc.
LAN is initiated by six NGO partners namely CEE (Gujarat),
Sampark (Madhya Pradesh), Seva Mandir (Rajasthan), Samuha
(Karnataka), WASSAN (Andhra Pradesh) and WOTR (Maharashtra) LAN has
actively promoted networking among civil society organizations and
other institutions to achieve the platform objectives on a larger
scale. The objective of this network is to study various livestock
issues in watershed areas and develop policy guidelines for
livestock development. The work of the initiative targets the
protection and enhancement of natural resources as affected by
livestock production, while alleviating poverty.
The project implemented various activities such as regional stake
holders workshops, state and national level policy round table
workshop, documentation of successful experiences on identified
hotspots, small pilot experimentations, capacity building (Grass
root & other key stakeholders, actors, including other relevant
orientation, technical training of related project staff).
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