Increasing Livelihood Opportunities
and Socio-economic Development of Tamenglong District Using Bamboo and
Cane Through Community-based Industrial Approaches.
Background
Endowed with abundant
natural resources and a low population, Manipur has much potential for
economic growth in a sustainable manner. Yet, incomes in the areas
remain low, and the quality of life remains largely unchanged, despite
the changes in the economic scenario of the country. Rural communities
in the State remain largely unaware of economic opportunities possible
using their local natural resources, and are not adequately organized
to take advantage of new opportunities for overall social-economic
development.
Bamboo and Cane which
are widespread in the State, offer numerous opportunities in this
regard, and there is much potential for expanding and diversifying
production and processing activities and through organized community
action. Existing traditional Bamboo and Cane products can be improved,
diversify and industrialized. Simultaneously, other mainstream micro
and small enterprise products such as matchsticks, pencils,
toothpicks, skewer sticks, blinds etc, as well as medium-scale
industrial panel products that rival wood products, with strong
backward community linkages and benefits, are possible. An increase in
bamboo products and market opportunities will also result in increases
in demand for raw bamboo and cane, besides the production of fresh
bamboo and cane shoots, and their processed products.
Based on the outcome
of a workshop held in year 2000, Tamenglong district has been chosen
for a pilot project on bamboo and cane-based development.
Objectives
General Objective:
Increase overall
economic, social and environmental benefits from bamboo and cane for
the district of Tamenglong, Manipur, India.
Specific Objectives :
1. Derive income and employment benefits for the people within
a composite livelihoods approach;
2. Implement and market-driven project approach, with
community-based industrial solutions that enable them to participate
in and maximize economic benefits from Bamboo industrial products, and
industrialized handicraft production;
3. Improve quality of life through provision of improved
bamboo-based earthquake resistant housing and other infrastructural
application.
4. Improve the enabling environment and logistic to realized
overall sustainable socioeconomic development using bamboo and cane.
5. Organized communities to improve legal status and increase
economic bargaining power on an equity-base where possible; and
6.
Establish an independent and sustainable professional
organization to develop the bamboo and cane sectors in Tamenglong over
the longer-term.
Project Design
The ground situation
in Tamenglong makes difficult the prior development of a "blueprint"
project, with the implementation steps well-prepared and everything
set out for direct implementation in a detailed project document. The
project will therefore be implemented as a "process" project, and
resource to "plan-as-you-go", and a detailed logical framework (logframe)
drawn up. Project detailing, scheduling, human and financial resource
management will be done in the MS Project 2000 software. If facilities
are made available by the Government of Manipur, the entire project
will put on to an a GIS platform. Detailed planning will be done on a
rolling-plan basis, with a Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWPB) being
drawn up which will be reviewed every six months by a Project
Management Team consisting of the Sponsors. The process project will
be implemented based on the AWPBs.
Overall, a strategic
framework will be drawn up for the state of Manipur in general, and
more specifically, for Tamenglong. The project strategy to be
implemented through the AWPBs will consist of a set of independently
implementable and complete projects and activities on bamboo and cane.
The overall approach will be market-driven with emphasis on
integrating livelihood and industrial development.
Project Strategy
This strategy will be
finalized at the initiation of the project, and will evolve over the
project duration keeping in mind the increasing understanding and
experience gained by all stakeholders.
1. Preparation
of the strategic action plan and community-oriented project design.
2. Establishment of a community-owned organisation for
implementing the project, which will
gradually take up project
implementation over the three years duration of the project.
3. Establishment of a Development Nucleus within the project
implementing agency (and later
within TAMBAC) to provide the necessary
technical, product design and marketing
backstopping.
4. Organization of the target villages into VDCs and the
community into SHGs (where possible the
latter will also be registered
and organized into enterprises depending on local need), promote
corporatization and modernization of the rural economy, and
introduction in a phased, sensitive
manner, formal systems of contract
that will enable easier flow of commercial finance for working
capital
and other needs.
5. Transfer of technologies, training, and setting up of
information and market information
systems.
6. Mapping of the raw material supply chain and setting of
consolidators to further deliver these to
larger industries.
7.
Introduction of certification for sustainable harvested raw material.
8. Improvement of the bamboo management system to improve
productivity and quality, and
expansion of cultivation of productive
commercial species of bamboo and cane, and
establishment of
community-owned plantations (individual or group basis).
9. Work with the State Government to utilized bamboo and cane
products in
Government-supported buildings, furniture, and procurement
tenders.
10. Work with the State Government for enabling policy support
as discussed at the Manipur State
Policy Workshop.
11. Setting up of individually or community owned enterprises
for the production of bamboo
matchsticks, pencils, rulers, skewer and
agarbatti sticks, toothpicks and similar mainstream
micro/small
enterprise products that are in demand based on a market survey.
12. Setting up of industries to produce bamboo panel products,
with strong backward community
linkages.
13. Setting up of ancillary facilities, including micro power
were needed to enable the establishment
of processing enterprises.
14. Processing of raw cane and further processing into
value-added raw materials, and modular
products.
15. Setting up of finishing centres in urban areas to cater to
the upmarket while reducing costs.
16. Building of earthquake resistant houses and community
buildings using modern bamboo
building techniques from Latin America
and South Asia.
17. Give
direction to existing handicraft sector to graduate to industrial
approach
18. Set up new
industrial units.
19. Examination of the possibility
of declaration of a clearly demarcated project area as a special
economic zone with appropriate incentives.
Institutional
Arrangements.
The project will be
implemented by INBAR as detailed in the MOU.
At the local level,
the Tamenglong bamboo and cane Development centre (TAMBAC) will be set
up incorporated under Section 25 of the Companies Act as a non-profit
professionally managed organization, with widely held ownership
through direct shareholding by the participating community of
Tamenglong District, Manipur State, India. The co-financing sponsors
(including the Government of Manipur, INBAR and other agencies) will
subscribe the initial equity and the shares held in trust for the
community.
Over the course of the
3-years project, the share will be divested in favour of the
community, through payment in cash or in-kind contribution, in a
manner to be decided by the implementing agency and/or the board of
TAMBAC. The funds so realized will be deposited in a corpus in a trust
fund to be set up as a separate body owned by TAMBAC and managed by a
board of trustees. Only the proceeds from this can be used by TAMBAC.
If TAMBAC is dissolved, the corpus of the trust fund will given to a
non-profit organization to be used for development activities. This
will be done with the full understanding and agreement of the
sponsors. Twenty-six percent of share will continue to be held by the
sponsors for a period of five years following which the sponsors might
decide to either divest their shareholding or continue for a further
final five years period. The objective of continuing in this manner is
to protect the community shareholders from decisions of the majority
that might affect the objectives or viability of TAMBAC. The goal is
to make the organization a fully independent and professional agency.
TAMBAC will be
professionally managed, and independent. However, the organizational
structure will provide for the participation of the sponsors
(including the Government of Manipur, INBAR and other agencies,
initially organized as the Project Management Team) in the Council of
TAMBAC. The Council will be able to review the work and functioning of
TAMBAC but not exercise any direct control of the activities, which
will be a function of the Board consisting of professionals appointed
in an individual capacity. Since the decisions of the Board and the
executive of TAMBAC will be transparent to the Council, the Council
will have the freedom to inform the community shareholders if the
objectives and viability of TAMBAC, or the interests of the
shareholders are being compromised. The initial Board will be
appointed by INBAR in consultations with the Sponsors. INBAR will take
the necessary steps for the incorporation of TAMBAC.
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