Our Approach and Strategies

Model-couple-spouse campaigner approach refined from the experiences and lessons of working in southern Achham, Siraha, Saptari, Mugu districts has been applied.  The job of the spouse campaigner, is to bring changes within their household as an example in intra-household dynamics and management of agricultural resources and extend the same to other households in the village. They improve land use practice, cropping pattern, kitchen gardens, fruits and nuts plantation, farmyard manure and soil improvement, power relation within the household with due attention to reduced workload of women, physical appearance of the house and surrounding in their households. Being model couples and households, they extend their best agricultural practices and paradigm shift in household dynamics to other households by demonstration and discussions taking family as working units.  Since it is not possible for both spouses go out to work and one of them need to remain busy with the household chores, one of the spouses will not be mobilized in the community but will be provided with training and workshops and supported for 1 or 2 days to bring about changes in their intra-household gender dynamics and agricultural practices and become model couple in the community.

Traditional Parma/Padima groups (agricultural labour exchange solidarity group, ALESG) will be the entry point and the key players of the intervention strategy. They will be identified, shaped, empowered and made functional through training and workshop. The training and workshops will be on different subjects such as biological and social evolution, local political economy- state market and civil society, development concepts, strategies and approaches, societal analysis, envisioning and designing local development, co-op identity, values and principles, election of leaders/boards, leadership qualities, managing co-op institutional software, co-op operation (planning, organizing, leading, controlling and adjusting), record keeping, conflict management, networking, lobby and advocacy on local pertinent issues and claiming stakes in local development discourse and processes. 

CAED does not provide a blueprint to be directly replicated in all situations.  Instead, it will suggest a range of understandings, values, and principles that must be respected in the design and implementation of programs designed to bring about empowerment of the marginalised and wider transformation in society. During each meeting a different concern (generative theme) is addressed using a problem-posing tool known as a 'code'. A code may be a play, a mime, a role-play, a picture, a photo, a story, a song, a game, somebody's personal history, a field visit or anything which brings the problem into sharp focus. The code does not provide any answers but just help the group members to dig deeper to get to the root cause and unlock innovation. In the course of group discussion, the facilitator steers the group through the 6 steps of problem analysis described by Freire: description of the code --> first analysis --> real life --> related problems --> root causes --> action. The process encourages the group members to think through the problem, identify its root causes (the 'root problems') and come up with their own answers.

The functional ALESGs will be categorized and those belonging to same socio-economic class and like-minded groups will be supported to be federated into RM/M level multi-purpose cooperative institution and registered with the local government and mobilized for agro-ecological transformation and economic, social, cultural and political empowerment of target groups i.e. the co-op members. Adequate attention will be given to develop and execute policies, by-laws, guidelines and procedures to ensure participation of marginalized section of the coop members in decision making and benefits sharing processes and prevent the groups to become engines of increased discrimination and exploitation.

There will be 2 departments in the RM/M level cooperative organizations- social empowerment department and economic empowerment department.  Economic empowerment department will act for economic empowerment of the co-op members through promotion of different enterprises such as: (a) collection, processing, packaging and supply of cattle manure from highland pastures, (b) seed production of local indigenous fruit and nuts, vegetables and cereal crops, (c) establishment and operation fodder, fruits and nuts nurseries, (d) establishment and management of individual/collective fruits and nuts orchards in private/community lands. It is felt that sometimes cooperative groups focusing on economic development can even become engines of increased discrimination and exploitation if a lot of care and consideration is not taken. Therefore, CAED will give adequate attention to develop and execute policies, by-laws, guidelines and procedures for ensuring participation of marginalized section of the coop members in decision making and benefits sharing processes. Similarly, the 'social empowerment department' will work for social, cultural and political empowerment of the co-op members organizing different training, workshops, exposures and lobby and advocacy campaigns/events. Training will be in different areas including development of leadership qualities, ending caste and gender-based discriminations, ensuring social justice, etc. The Cooperative Act has made clear provisions that the institution can carry out education activities for the co-op members. Such provisions of providing education to co-op members will be utilized to organize training and workshops in different areas such as societal analysis, envisioning and designing of local development, managing institutional software, operation of co-operative (planning, organizing, leading, controlling and adjusting), leadership qualities, leadership development, etc for members and contribute in social, cultural and political empowerment of priority groups. Therefore, CAED will support co-op institutions and their village-level federated units to function as vehicles for agro-ecological transformation and economic, social, cultural and political empowerment of disadvantaged people.

Most of the CBOs registered as NGOs in Nepal have increased dependency on supporting institutions (donors) and have remained inactive are not found functional because of lack of financial resources. Based on such observations and experiences of working in the past, CAED has planned to promote co-op institutions with a hope that they would generate some financial resources by themselves and will have increased financial viability and also can carry out agro-ecological transformation and economic, social, cultural and political empowerment of disadvantaged people more effectively. Mainstreaming gender will be a cross-cutting area of the intervention. ALESGs are the groups defined, shaped and operated mainly by women and they will be supported to form advisory committees of men and get engaged in the local development process.

Historically, schools and classrooms have been the platform/stage for social change, providing a venue to promote and accelerate new ideas and help students develop the critical thinking, collaboration, and self-reflection skills necessary to foster a better society. CAED considers schools as one of the best medium to take up social justice issues, teach the children and youths about the social justice such as gender and caste-based discriminations etc. Some of the CAED's programs work with schools across the covered districts, to implement the Girls Empowerment Program (GEP), and among covered schools, some schools are engaged for the Child Rising Program (CRP). Implementation of the GEP and CRP includes providing training to school management and staff on child-friendly teaching techniques, ASRHR and strategies to create gender-friendly learning environments. The GEP and CRP are designed to increase school attendance of children, with a particular focus on retaining adolescent girls in secondary school. Issues of caste-based discrimination are also taken up through school-based programs.

WoGCRP aims to empower girls by building girls' agency thus enabling them to make decisions in life. It views adolescence in the context of physical, social and emotional, cognitive, and moral domains of growth and change and considers (a) conflict with parents, (b) mood disruptions, and (c) risk behavior as the three domains of potential upheaval during adolescence. Girls who remain in school longer are less likely to marry early and become pregnant. Education prepares girls for jobs and livelihoods, raises their self-esteem and their status in their households and communities, and gives them more say in decisions that affect their lives. Education also reduces the likelihood of child marriage and delays childbearing, leading eventually to healthier birth outcomes.

Child Focused Community Development (CFCD) Approach is based on organisational vision to foster supportive, protective, child safe, child-friendly communities, where supported children and young people are engaged, respected, empowered and equipped with the necessary skills to make decisions that shape their own lives. Its goal is to improve holistic outcomes for children and young people through rights based programming, designed to support them towards fulfilling their God-given potential. The goal relates to the aspirations in Survival, Protection, Development and Participation. The Aspiration statements describe the higher-level impact that the program aims to contribute to through projects we support.

CAED considers patriarchal and misogynist mind-set and subsequent subordination of women in structures and process of local development and general life as the root cause of structural discrimination against women and girls. CAED believes that structural discrimination against women at local level is due to patriarchal and misogynist mind-set and subsequent subordination of women, exclusion of women from structures and process of local development and general life, son preference society; Discrimination between sons and daughters in matters of care and love, food, healthcare, education and domestic workload, early marriage and exclusion of girls from school education, pelvic organ prolapse (POP)- adolescent pregnancy, feticide, closely spaced pregnancies for at least 2 sons and 1 daughter, no rest, poor nutrition, heavy workload during pregnancy and after childbirth, discriminatory menstrual and childbirth customs (stay at cowshed, untouchability, poor care and nutrition, etc.), poor access of adolescent girls and women

CAED has been making pelvic organ prolapse (POP) as the entry point to address gender based violence, unequal relations, changing patriarchal mindset. It focuses on sensitizing the issues of Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) as one of the consequences of unequal gender relations and denial of women's reproductive rights. It considers POP not a mere medical problem; it is a result of gender-based structural discrimination and violence from family level to state.  The issue of POP was taken forward as an entry point to address unequal gender relations in the community.  CAEDhas learnt that unless there is gender equality from family to state level, mere treatment of POP and other RH problem, would not bring quality life for women.

CAED emphasizes on 'software mode' of development while promoting rights based approach to development in contrast to the mainstream ‘give away’ culture of development where development is receiving things from outside and the task of development workers is to distribute them. It intends to achieve blend of livelihood and human rights works in the community. Blending of critical awareness and food production related activities is done by having interventions on corresponding thematic areas of agroecology, caste-based discrimination and women's/girls' empowerment focused in the same area. CNGOs working on promoting self-awareness and supporting claiming of rights and CNGOs working on improving food security situation work with the same community in the same villages overlapping food security work and rights work.

Human rights based approach practiced to take up the issues of women, dalits, janajatis and marginal/ smallholder farmers gave emphasis only to ‘power to’ dimension- get together, lodge demand, do advocacy and get it. Such processes were instrumental to bring changes in the policy but could not do much for the empowerment of an individual– enhancing the ‘power within’ dimension. It did not respond to the pains and priorities of an individual. In order to address such situation, CAED will incorporate do-no-harm (DNH) and psychosocial approach into the human rights based approach and apply the resultant approach containing all relevant features.

Klep does not believe on the theory of economic development that if resources are invested to achieve economic growth within an area, economic growth will flow from the top to the bottom and its impact ultimately will reach to the poor- called trickle down process as the experience showed that such principles did not work in various places in the world. Klep will continue doing positive discrimination in favor of women, dalits and janajatis. In the program, the dalits, janajatis and women (have-nots) will learn/get first and then they will teach/share with the non-dalits (haves).

CAED considers agroecology as a key element in the construction of food sovereignty because it can contribute to transforming food systems by applying ecological principles to agriculture by ensuring a regenerative use of natural resources and ecosystem services and developing equitable food systems within which all people can exercise choice over what they eat, and how and where it is produced. Agroecological approach involves designing/developing mutually interconnected, complex and resilient agroecosystems by 'assembling crops, animals, trees, soils and other factors in spatially and temporally diversified schemes, favor natural processes and biological interactions that optimize synergies so that diversified farms are able to sponsor their own soil fertility, crop protection and productivity.' CAED aims to use agroecological approach as a set of agricultural practices that seek ways to improve agricultural systems by harnessing natural ecological processes and ecosystem functions; creating beneficial biological interactions and synergies amongst the components of agroecosystems; minimizing synthetic and toxic external inputs as well as waste production; maximizing functional biodiversity; and strengthening biological regulation in agroecosystems. Practices are designed to sustainably reconcile social, economic and environmental challenges to community agricultural development. As a social process, agroecological approach, seeks to transform agriculture to build locally relevant, resilient and sustainable food systems that strengthen the economic viability of rural areas based on short marketing chains, equity, and both fair and safe food production. This involves supporting diverse forms of smallholder farmers with an aim of enhancing food sovereignty, appreciation of local crops and food products, respect for and preservation of local knowledge, social justice, maintenance of local identity and culture, and rights to local and Indigenous seeds and breeds.

CAED get engaged in collaborative advocacy and intervention with provincial and local governments to scale-up, replicate and institutionalize improved/successful food and agricultural technologies, practices and initiatives and enhancing access of farmers to benefits and services from RM/Ms and agriculture and livestock service offices. It carries out collaborative advocacy and intervention with LGs for long-term agricultural policies and programs suited to local agro-ecological conditions and farmers' realities in the field. Collaborative advocacy and intervention with local governments is carried also to formulate and execute girls'/women's empowerment long-term policies and plans and increase girls'/women's access to quality SRHR services from local health facilities and improve linkages between women/girls and local government (LG) in RM/Ms and sector/division offices. CAED is also engaged in collaborative advocacy and intervention with local governments to formulate and execute long-term policies and plans to empower dalits, promote dalit rights and end caste-based discriminatory socio-cultural norms, values, traditions and practices and improve linkages between dalits and local government (LG) in RM/Ms and sector/division offices.

Monitoring and production of district status of dalits will bring the issues of dalits out. Organized dalits empowered with conceptual clarity about caste system, caste ideology and origin of dalits will hold dialogue with community, local government executives and representatives, political parties and other stakeholders and carry out issue-based networking and advocacy on dalit rights issues at local, RM/M and district level effectively for empowerment of dalits and ending caste-based discriminatory socio-cultural norms, values, traditions and practices, , inclusion in structures and process of local development and general life and empowerment of dalits for dignified life and livelihoods.

CAED helps LGs to remove stagnation in empowerment of girls, women and dalits in local development discourses and processes by working together with local governments, women and dalits. Support, coordination, consultation and collaboration with local governments (LGs) and its sector/division offices in covered RM/Ms will be one of the major areas of engagement of Klep. It will support disadvantaged local communities establish and strengthen functional linkages with local governments and its sector/division offices. Disadvantaged communities such as girls, women, dalits and janajatis will be supported to get organized, claim their stake in local government's budget and resources, development discourses, structures and processes and influence LGs to get budgets allocated for them.

Caed believes that the root cause of structural discrimination against dalit is caste system and ideology ranking caste hierarchically with each caste being pure/superior to some castes and impure/ inferior to others where dalits ranked on the lowest rung and excluded from structures and process of local development and general life. 

Organization, dialogue and empowerment will be major strategies for taking up social justice issues of women, dalits and janajati and ending structural discriminations against them. The target community (right holders) will be supported to get organized or networked and hold dialogue with state organs and agents and other stakeholders (duty bearers) and engage in policy dialogue at local, district and national level. Dialogue at local level will aim to conscientize shamans, priests, elites and stakeholders on the issues and end discriminatory social norms, values, attitudes, behaviors, customs, traditions and practices towards women, dalits and janajatis. They will be supported to hold dialogue with LG executives and representatives, political parties and get included in their structures and processes. Groups of dalits at local level such as Dalit Struggle Committee formed in villages will be supported to establish functional linkages with provincial and national level dalit organizations such as Samata Foundation and National Dalit Commission. CAED believes that young people can take risk easily and are the agents and advocates of development and social transformation. Therefore, CAED's intervention in all thematic areas will always focus on youth. They will be involved in training/workshops on the thematic issues to enhance their understanding on the issues and encourage them to contribute in taking up local pertinent issues of food and agriculture, women, girls, dalits and janajatis. The program adopts multi-layer approach from grassroots to local and provincial government generating evidences at grassroots and advocating the issues to stakeholders at all level. Besides, evidence from grassroots work is the basis for advocating issues to a wider level in additional municipalities and districts. Policy dialogue and advocacy will be continued with multi-sectoral stakeholders such as law makers, policy makers (from concerned provincial ministries), media, donors, service providing agencies with an objective to pressurize them to formulate policies in all necessary and relevant thematic areas.

CAED takes a zero-tolerance position with respect to fraud and corruption and prohibits corruption in any form, directly or indirectly. It has Fraud and Corruption Control Policy which contains provisions, approach and process for the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud and corruption. CAED will make ongoing efforts to protect the institution from acts of fraud and corruption. CAED will conduct a fraud and corruption risk assessment and develop a fraud and corruption control strategy and adopt most relevant and advanced methods for preventing, detecting, investigating, reporting, correcting and taking administrative, legal and/or disciplinary action against person or entities involved in fraud and corruption. There are following five basic steps of fraud and corruption control that CAED will implement: Step 1: Conduct a Fraud and Corruption Risk Assessment; Step 2: Develop a Fraud and Corruption Control Strategy; Step 3: Implement, Test and Review Controls; Step 4: Report Fraud and Corruption; Step 5: Correct and Investigate Fraud and Corruption.