Enhancing rural resilience through appropriate development actions (ERADA)

Context

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the globe. This resulted in about ten million Indians returning from urban areas to their home villages as they had lost their livelihoods and income in the cities. The returning population put additional pressure on already depleted natural resources and livelihood opportunities in rural areas.

The project supports the Corona Immediate Programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It works to develop and promote alternative and diversified livelihood opportunities in selected rural areas. The aim is to improve both incomes and rural resilience.

Objective

Livelihoods of vulnerable households in rural areas have been stabilised based on locally available natural resources and developmental support programmes.

Approach

The project carries out the following activities:

• Adapting, contextualising, and calculating the global framework for benchmarking and determining living income (required net annual income of a household in a given location to finance an adequate standard of living for all household members) for the module sites.
• Identifying the central value chains in farm and off-farm sectors in eight local authorities and consolidating these through eco-tourism models, horticulture plantations, aquaculture, and livestock-based livelihoods.
• Deploying a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based planning approach specific to improving livelihoods through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) and other rural development programmes in all eight blocks.

Last update: July 2023