Insure Lives and Livelihoods ILAL
Cashew Value Chain
Livelihood Improvement for Economic Security
Banking on Change
Urban Microfinance
Balasahyoga
Corporate Social Responsibility (Dalmiya Project)
Kutch Livelihood Education Advancement Project K-LEAP
Promoting Animal Health in Orissa
Enhancing Tribal Development Outcomes - SAMRATH

Insure Lives and Livelihoods ILAL

CARE’s Insure Lives and Livelihoods (ILAL) project aims to facilitate insurance services to the disadvantageous communities and coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and the district of Pondicherry. The project is a coalition of private for-profit and non-profit partnerships to help communities to access formal insurance services in the form of micro insurance. The project helps the market deliver services appropriate to the needs of low income households specifically pertaining to the risks threatening their lives and livelihoods. ILAL works with women, men and broader community groups and institutional structures. This is to ensure that micro-insurance services address both household and community vulnerabilities and coping mechanisms to offer protection against the effects of shocks and disasters. The project aims to reach 75,000 clients (both men and women) with micro-insurance coverage through 5000 self-help groups, 50 community structures, civil society organisations and banking institutions. It is estimated that another 50,000 clients will be reached indirectly through capacity building initiatives and awareness-raising services and campaigns.

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Cashew Value Chain

Location: Tamil Nadu

CARE is implementing the Women in Value Chain initiative in Tamil Nadu. The goal is to provide improved livelihood options and skills to marginalised women in the two cashew-growing districts of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam. The project aims to achieve this goal by providing income earning opportunities to these women; improving functional literacy and numeracy skills of women in cashew growing sector; improving women’s awareness on their rights, entitlements, and reproductive health; and creating member-owned and managed federations for facilitating women farmers’ access to credit and saving opportunities, business development, and for institution building and advocacy. Specific interventions include training on technical, management and marketing skills; buy-back arrangements for procurement and sale of cashews; and developing customized insurance products for cashew processors.

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Livelihood Improvement for Economic Security

Location: Tamil Nadu

The goal of this three year project is to improve the productivity and incomes of 1,000 tribal households (some 5,000 people in total) involved in tea cultivation in the Kothagiri and Gudalur talukas of the Nilgiris district in TN, India.  The project will specifically work with tea-producing families who own less than five hectares.  While the entire family will benefit from the project, CARE will focus on working with women – not only because they are disproportionately affected by poverty, but also because they can serve as powerful agents of change in their families and communities when equipped with the right tools and resources.

In line with this goal, LIFE’s specific objectives are to:

(1) Organize 1,000 tribal tea producers, including 50% women into groups through which individuals can gain access to inputs such as bank loans, access to extension services and material inputs like fertilizers, saplings sprayers and obtain better prices.

(2) Increase the productivity per hectare of 1000 tribal tea farmers.

(3) Diversify the livelihoods of 450 tea-growing tribal households to reduce dependence on a single crop and promote more balanced nutrition.

(4) Pilot organic tea cultivation with 100 tribal tea growers to explore possibilities for expansion and links to niche markets. 

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Banking on Change

Location:  Tamil Nadu

CARE believes that the long-term viability and sustainability of Self-Help Group (SHG) methodology depends on developing SHG Federations which can function as effective financial and non-financial intermediaries. An overarching principle for this project will be to ensure sustainability (institutional, operational and financial) and effective delivery of financial services to poor households by working at all levels in the savings-led SHG methodology – SHGs, SHG Federations and the Promoting NGO Micro finance institutions (MFIs). CARE is partnering with multiple NGO MFIs and providing grant and technical support to strengthen governance, management and service delivery thereby enabling them to take up active financial intermediation accessing external funds to offer customized financial services in a sustained manner to poor. The NGO MFIs will be developed as Business Correspondents of mainstream banks. Each NGO MFI will work with two SHG Federations, each having about 300 affiliated SHGs, and through intensive capacity building develop them as Business Facilitators with appropriate internal systems and policies. Financial literacy of SHG members will be enhanced enabling them to better manage their household and enterprise finance, and actively participate in their own development.

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Urban Microfinance

Location: Andhra Pradesh (AP)

The aim of the programme is to enable urban poor and their households to increase their incomes and ensure economic security. This is achieved through promoting and strengthening Self Help Groups (SHGs) and linking them to banks. Capacity building of staff and Social Resource Persons (SRP) and monitoring of the staff for a specified period will be undertaken. These SRP will be then handed over to the Federations. The target project participants of the programme are urban poor women of Hyderabad.

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Balasahyoga

Location: Andra Pradesh (AP)

Balasahyoga takes a comprehensive perspective to HIV/AIDS, seeking to reduce vulnerability of children to HIV/AIDS by improving food and livelihood security in HIV/AIDS affected households. The programme supports a food-security programme in 11 districts of Andhra Pradesh (AP) with better food and nutrition, as well as more sustainable livelihoods. Strategies include facilitating production in home based kitchen-garden and farm-yard for nutrition supplementation and income generation, and promoting non-farm based micro enterprises for augmentation of the livelihood of HIV-AIDS affected families. Programme interventions include demonstration plots, kitchen gardens, grain banks, and micro enterprises. The interventions will enable the HIV-AIDS affected households to decrease their household consumption expenditure and thus increase savings.  The programme will also make food grains available to the vulnerable families during extreme shortages, increase food security and enhance their income generating skills.

Specific objectives of this project are:

1) To establish sustainable community-managed integrated water systems that can be replicated to other rural areas in India

2) Improve community members’ understanding of water, sanitation and hygiene issues and how they affect health

3) Build the capacity of community members, especially women, to manage the water sources.

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Corporate Social Responsibility (Dalmiya Project)

Location: Tamil Nadu (TN)

The project goal is to improve the quality of life of the residents of the six villages surrounding the DCBL Cement Factory at Dalmiapuram.  The project will create and strengthen self-help groups and community based organisations, to enable access to financial and other services for improved social and economic opportunities.  Another objective is to improve water supply and sanitation in the project area.  The project is also creating opportunities for residents of the six affected villages to practice diversified livelihoods and provide options for risk reduction around life and non life shocks.

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Kutch Livelihood Education Advancement Project K-LEAP

Location: Gujarat

The project is an expansion of the partnership between CARE & Cargill, launched in 2006 in Gujarat to improve the quality and accessibility of primary education in areas near Cargill operations. The current initiative builds on this collaboration to include economic development of rural families in Gujarat. The overarching goal is to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable rural families in the Kutch district in Gujarat. The initiative aims at reaching 9000 households in 205 villages to enable them to gain from income generating opportunities. In addition the project seeks to improve quality and accessibility of education for 43, 518 children at 168 primary schools across the Kutch district. Interventions include: establishing Agriculture Service Centers to provide market facilities, agriculture support, credit facilities etc.; organising milk collection and cattle feed centers, and fodder banks; forming SHGs and providing business training, especially to women. In education, interventions include formal school improvement, technical support to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) residential schools, and alternate schooling options.

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Promoting Animal Health in Orissa

Location: Orissa

Small ruminants, especially goats, are critical assets for poor farmers and landless communities in the remote parts of Orissa. Income from goats could be small but it is very crucial asset to support the fragile and unsteady financial portfolio of small farmers. Goat rearing is an important activity for traditionally marginalized Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) communities, especially women in these families. Despite the significance of goats, as probably the only “high value” and risky asset they possess, these small farmer families hardly receive any technical inputs and support services on goat rearing. There is considerable gap and mismatch between the demand and supply of animal health and technical services if terms of reach, quality, timing and appropriateness. This stifles the ability of these communities, especially women, to enhance their income from this activity and manage the risks and associated losses. This project works at both demand and supply sides to bridge the prevalent gap. Working with the women smallholders, it organizes them into collectives, promotes awareness on goat management and health care, generates demand for animal health services and creates appropriate support service linkages.

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Enhancing Tribal Development outcomes - SAMRATH

Location: Gujarat

The overarching goal of this project is to improve the quality of life and well being of tribal communities in 200 villages of Dahod and Vadodra districts. The specific objectives to achieve the project goal include: building capacities of tribal communities to manage development activities in collaboration with development agencies and realisation of entitlements; strengthen capacities of government institutions to improve outreach and quality of social services; and establish multi-stakeholder convergence mechanisms for overall development outcomes. The project strategies are designed to enhance community capacities while facilitating them access to opportunities for overcoming poverty. These strategies include: Action Oriented Learning, strengthening service delivery mechanisms, and institutionalizing stakeholder co-ordination mechanisms.

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